Graz, Austria, May 29, 1995

The Web Society, an international non-profit organisation, has been founded
according to Austrian law and initially has offices in Graz, Austria and
Charlottesville, USA.

For more information see  http://info.websoc.at

The current Society executive council consists of four persons representing
major non-profit organisations involved in activieties relating to the
"Web" (which we define in the broad sense of information systems on the
Internet): CERN and INRIA for WWW, Univ.of Minnesota for Gopher, and Graz
University of Technology for Hyper-G:

President:  H. Maurer, Austria (Graz U. of Technology)
Vice President  (Standards): J.-F.Abramatic, France (INRIA)
Vice President  (Public Matters): R. Cailliau, Switzerland (CERN)
Vice President  (Finances): M. McCahill, USA (U. of Minnesota)

  Secretary:     F. Kappe , Graz Univ. of Technology, Austria
  Arbitration:   I. Tomek, Acadia Univ., Canada
                 A. de Kemp, Springer Pub.Co., Germany
  Controllers:   W. Schinagl, University of Graz, Austria
                 G. Pail, Graz University of Technology, Austria
Administration:  G. Marks, AACE, USA
                 G. Leitner, Graz University of Technology, Austria

The Web Society has been founded out of a concern that the world wide
computer network Internet (often just called "the Net") is growing at a
rate that requires accompanying measures to be addressed by the Web
Society. Some of the important issues include:

---Despite the emergence of powerful Web Tools such as Gopher, WWW
   and Hyper-G, and despite the plethora of directory services,
   information is hard to find;

---The level of quality, consistency and suitability of information
   is often hard to determine and difficult to control;

---Information should be generally available yet a disciplined use
   providing e.g., youth protection where desired, or protection
   against personal attacks has to be supported;

---The need for standardised and open systems has to be impressed
   on all organisations providing information, applications and
   tools for the Web.

Part of the credo of Web Society members can be quoted as follows:

  "Unless ordinary Net users have a strong representation they will
   not be heard, and tariff and legal decisions will be taken without
   heeding their interests. Therefore: "Don't think what the Web
   Society can do for you, think what you can do for the Web
   Society".

This is what the Web Society intends to be: a strong representation of Web
users and non-profit Web developers, much like an AAA* of the Net. When
you get stuck on the road you call the AAA, when you get stuck on the Net
you call the Web Society."

*(for non-US citizens: the AAA is the society representing many of the
motorists of the US, like the ADAC in Germany: roads and laws would not be
the same if those organisations did not exist).

A more details list of aims, actions and membership information is
included.

See also  http://info.websoc.at or gopher://info.websoc.at.

----------------- cut here for short version ---------------------

(a) Aims of the Web Society:

(1) The Web Society will support general, widely accessible and disciplined
use of the Net and other wide area or metropolitan networks.

(2) The Web Society will support all activities to make the use of the Net
easier and more efficient by advocating the development of standards and
open systems.

(3) The Web Society will support the activities of W3C with respect to the
standardisation of WWW protocols, and activities aimed at integrating
various Net Services such as Gopher, WWW, Hyper-G, FTP, Newsgroups, and
full-text Servers.

(4) The Web Society will support the provision of index services, Net
guides and other tools for the navigation and use of the Internet.

(5) The Web Society will represent all Net users who are interested in
keeping the Net open to the extent permissible by local laws.

(6) The Web Society will debate necessary sets of mechanisms and rules for
the use of the Net (see Note  below.)

(7) The Web Society is not concerned with the hardware and protocol
infrastructure for the Net, but with information, services, tools and
applications of the Net.

(8) The Web Society will support all moves to protect persons against
invasion of privacy, yet is opposed to material that is openly accessible
where authors cannot be identified, even if they violate local laws.

(9) The Web Society will have an ongoing discussion of its aims and will
decide on changes or expansions of its aims at the annual general
assembly.

Note: (As exemplification of Point 6 above): The fact that the Net at this
point allows unlimited access to all kinds of information has both
negative and societal implications. It is this aspect that is specifically
addressed here. To be specific, here are two examples:

- some organisations may want to permit access only to certain
  designated sites to avoid prohibitive network costs
- in places were laws do not permit access to certain types of
  information (e.g. Youth protection laws) control of access to
  such information should be possible.

This is not done because the Web society believes in censorship (and indeed
will does not intend to take a strong position in such a debate) but is
done for purely pragmatic reasons: unless local laws are observed by the
Net, the Net has no chance to become as ubiquitous as seems desirable.

(b) Concrete Actions of the Web Society

(1) The Web Society will operate a substantial Web Server with a growing
archive of news, relevant literature, structured discussion corners and
many other items on:

                   http://info.websoc.at

and on other sites to be set up us the Web Society grows. Much of this will
only be available for Web Society members.

(2) The Web Society will organise an annual WebNet conference; the first
such event is planned for San Francisco in October or November 1996.

(3) The Web Society will prepare, with the help of members, reports and
statements for local, regional or national governments to provide the
basis for legislative actions where this is necessary.

(4) The Web Society will cooperate with other societies, and become a
member of other umbrella organisations to foster its aims.

(5) The Web Society will contribute to appropriate publications, newsgroups
and mailing lists.

(6) The Web Society will operate structured Web based discussions on
various  topics of interest.

(7) The Web Society will offer all members space on the Web Society's
servers  for self presentation at the disgression of the Society.

(8) The Web Society will provide listings of open/desired positions and
other professional information for members free of charge.

(c) Membership in the Web Society

(1) The Web Society has individual and corporate members with an annual
membership fee of $20 (three years $50) and $200, respectively. Issues
raised by corporate members have to be dealt with in the next meeting of
the executive council and within 6 weeks the latest. Issues brought
forward by individual members are dealt with at the discretion of the
executive council but have to be dealt with before the next general
assembly.

(2) Members of the Web Society have access to all information on the
Society's servers; they have reduced registration fee at a variety of
conferences, including the annual WebNet, ED-MEDIA and others.

(3) Members of the Web Society have free access to the AACE member
periodical, Educational Technology Review. They have a discount on all
journals of the Association of Advancement of Computers in Education
(AACE) and on all conferences of that society. Similar agreements are
being negotiated with other societies.

(4) Members of the Web Society receive technical help to an extent as large
as possible.

(5) Members of the Web Society can subscribe to a "News Profile." They
automatically are informed of news items on the Society's server that are
of particular interest to them.

(6) Members of the Web Society can make information available about
themselves.

(7) Members of the Web Society will have their own private " home
collections"  (only accessible to them) on the Web Society's server of
their chapter. All chapter servers will be linked.

For further information, see:

    http://info.websoc.at
 or
    gopher://info.websoc.at

In case of further questions please  contact one of the officies of the
Society:

Web Society, USA office:       E-mail: aace@virginia.edu
Web Society, European office:  E-Mail: websoc@websoc.at

Thank you for your interest in the Web Society. Please fill out the
following registration form and return it to:

        websoc@websoc.at

with subject [registration] per email. Alternatively, print it out and fax
it or mail it to AACE in Virgina:

(1) Name (Family Name):

(2) First Name(s) (or initials):

(3) Titles:

(4) Institution:

(5) Address:

(6) City/State/Code:

(7) Country:

(8) Email:

(9) Homepage ( URL ):

(10) Fax:

(11) Phone:

NOTE: It is intended to include items (1) - (4) and (6)- (9) in the Web
Society's directory. If you do  not agree with this please list here the
numbers of items you do not permit us to be included:

Thank you!

Please remit your payment of  US $20.- ( individual membership for one
calendar year), US $50.- (individual membership for 3 years) or US
$200.-(institutional membership for one calendar year) to one of the two
places listed below:

First and Preferred Alternative:

Web Society/ AACE
P.O.Box 2966
Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
804-973-3987; Fax:804-978-7449
Email: AACE@virginia.edu

Check (U.S. Bank) payable to Web Society/AACE  (y/n)
Purchase order (y/n)

Credit Card:
    Master Card: (y/n)        Visa (y/n)
    Card #:
    Exp.Date:
                                Signature (if mailed by snail mail)

Total remitted ( indicate $ 20.-, $ 50.- or $ 200.-):

Second "fall-back" alternative:

Web Society/IICM
Schiesstattgasse 4a
A- 8010 Graz/Austria
hmaurer@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at   fax: (0043) 316 - 82 43 94

Eurocheck  (y/n):

Direct Bank Transfer to Account: .Web Society, Account No.
3200-509911, Steiermaerkische Bank und Sparkasse Graz/Austria,
BLZ 20815    (y/n).

Total remitted  (indicate AS 200.- , AS 500.- or AS 2000.- ,
calculating 1 US $ = 10 AS)

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product News'  Electronic News Service on....
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO COMPUTING PRODUCT)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
