Thank you, Yvonne, for letting us know about Palladium. I did
not realize the sponsorship had been dropped. What a blow!
I just sent a message to the Philly list responding to a list participant
that thought RootsWeb was just another "business". For those
not familiar with RootsWeb - they are the people that make this list
possible :) - here is the message I sent:
It is a compliment to RootsWeb that people would assume that it is a well
operated "business". However, the RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
is a far cry from any corporation, it is rather a grass roots effort founded
about 10 years ago by Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich.
Karen's budding interest in genealogy and their familiarity with computers
and later that new fangled world called the Internet, helped them and a
group of
volunteers launch RootsWeb. Karen, Brian and other volunteers have donated
not only their time (a lots of it, from maintaining the computer systems
that operate RootsWeb to providing online help and assistance in maintaining
the ROOTS-L mailing list and the RootsWeb Surname List) but their own money
as well. The cost for maintaining and upgrading the servers has mushroomed
as the size and scope of RootsWeb has grown.
It boggles the mind to realize how far RootsWeb has come. According to
RootsWeb's home site: "RootsWeb hosts more than 2,700 Websites and 3,600
mailing lists. RootsWeb now has a dozen servers and five T1s worth of
bandwidth, and handles more than 1,300,000 Web hits and 3,000,000 pieces of
e-mail on a typical day. RootsWeb expects to be adding several more main
servers and a sixth (and possibly seventh) T1 within the next few weeks. "
Compare that average of over 1 million hits a day in 1998, to the 50,000
hits
that was considered a BIG day in 1996!
To learn more about RootsWeb, the ROOTS-L mailing lists, the RootsWeb
Surname List, visit:
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/history.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html
From what I have read, the people behind RootsWeb have no desire to
take
RootsWeb "corporate". They believe strongly that information should
be
available with free access and they continue to make that possible.
Realistically, however, how feasible is it for a few individuals to continue
to fund something the size of RootsWeb?
For anyone who uses RootsWeb on a regular basis, give it some thought and
see how you might help the effort as well.
Karen Keehne Zimmerman
La Crescenta, CA
********************************************
"Family Ties" :
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~zimzip
Including "Kaylor in Maryland", "Zimmerman/Zimmermann in Wisconsin"
and "A Field Trip to St. Louis, 1998"
Marcelle & Chuck Keehne's Golden Anniversary Site:
http://members.tripod.com/~stillwater
********************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Yvonne James-Henderson <hen1(a)idt.net>
Date: Sunday, December 20, 1998 8:59 PM
Subject: [ZIMMERMAN-L] Become a member of Rootsweb! They need our help!
Become a member of Rootsweb! They need our help!
Palladium Software, a major sponsor of Rootsweb was recently bought by
another company. As a result they have dropped their sponsorship of
Rootsweb. Karen and Brian (owners of Rootsweb) have had to take out a
large personal loan to make ends meet at Rootsweb as a result. If you
have it in your heart and pocketbook, please consider becoming a member
of Rootsweb and support them monetarily. They have done an awful lot
for us in providing our lists and space for our website.
I know I personally would hate to lose these lists and website that
they have freely provided us. Thank you for listening.
Check out their home page for more info:
http://www.rootsweb.com/
Happy Holidays,
Yvonne in Burke, VA
Listowner
Vive la USGenWeb Project!
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