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�åò íè÷åãî äðàãîöåííåå äðóçåé; íå òåðßéòå ïîýòîìó ñëó÷àß ïðèîáðåòàòü èõ, êîãäà òîëüêî ìîæåòå. - ƒâè÷÷àðäèíè

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Welcome to "Friends and Partners", a new mailing list designed to help coordinate and communicate information concerning the new U.S.-Russian jointly developed information service by the same name.

Because of the confusion and traffic usually associated with such new lists, we are initially planning for this to be a moderated list. We will 'digest' all postings and send out to subscribers each evening. Once things settle down a bit, we will probably change to the more traditional non-moderated mode of operating.

To subscribe, just send the following one-line email message to "[email protected]":

subscribe friends firstname lastname

The purpose of this list? Basically, we feel that a listserver will provide the best mechanism for communicating with each other about the development of a new information service designed to: (1) help educate citizens of the United States and Russia (and the other states of the former Soviet Union) about our countries and cultures; (2) provide a common base of information about issues affecting relations between our countries; and (3) provide a common 'meeting place' where folks can find and communicate with each other.

The primary motivation of this service is to help introduce new friendships and partnerships between our peoples. It hopes to build upon the excellent work already being accomplished by our governments and by the various groups, centers, and institutes who have been working for so many years towards this same goal of cooperation and friendship. It also hopes to build upon and contribute to the already excellent listservers in existence on the Internet dealing with U.S.-Russian-East European issues.

Perhaps the only difference from other efforts is the intention to use the World Wide Web on the Internet as the method of communicating information. The World Wide Web was chosen because of its ability to handle mixed media (text, graphics, audio, etc.), the excellent graphic and non-graphic browsers available for free on the Internet, and its ability to 'integrate' information from all of the best Internet-based tools and utilities -- Listservers, Gophers, WAIS databases, FTP archives, etc.

If you wish to visit, the following uniform resource locator (URL) will allow you to connect to the World Wide Web server:

"http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/"

At the moment, it is more a 'framework' of an information system -- more 'heart' than substance. The goal is to help others build upon the framework -- to create and link together information on our nation's histories; our art, music, literature, and religion; our educational and scientific resources; our geography and natural resources, our languages; and our opportunities for communicating, travelling, and working together. The 'end product' -- an evolving and continually changing information resource -- should be useful to many and will hopefully help bridge the gap of understanding that exists between our nations. It will hopefully also demonstrate the potential for good that exists with this wonderfully chaotic, global resource we call the Internet.

We will soon be providing a 'mirror' of this server in Pushchino, Russia (near Moscow) on the computer of co-developer Natasha Bulashova. This will be perhaps the first information system of its kind in Russia. One of the most exciting developments underway in Pushchino is the development of a 'virtual network' of biological sciences information. This is being designed to be a global information resource on biological sciences research and will be offered soon as a part of this overall service. Efforts will soon begin to establish both servers in Russian and English languages.

Please send us your comments, criticisms, suggestions (and offers of help! :-) ). Also, please, remember to send your UNSUBSCRIBE messages to "[email protected]" ! )