Hello and Good-bye

by Christian Hennecke, © July 2008

Christian Hennecke is the Editor in Chief of the VOICE Newsletter. While being a geographer originally, he runs an IT consulting and service company.

Over half a year has passed since the last issue. In its editorial, I had addressed ongoing problems with the VOICE Newsletter and proposed a possible solution. That solution would have required decisions and changes, some of them maybe unpopular. Afterwards, time came and went. I waited for the decisions to be made, but nothing happened. The reasons are probably the usual ones in our small community: Too few people having to do too much, being overextended, and burning out while others who are capable of contributing just consume. (In this regard also take a look at the letter from OS/2 developer Stefan Mielke we received.) I finally made the decision to resign. Well, it looks like sometimes “percussive maintenance” can get an old machine running again.

To make a long story short a solution has been found that will allow me to continue for the time being while arrangements are made to tackle the essential underlying structural problems. At this point, I cannot provide more details on the latter because things are not home and dry yet. However, the intermediate solution includes some immediate measures:

This issue is the last one to have a German version.
With this issue we switch to a bi-monthly publishing schedule, i.e., the next issue is due September. The deadline for submissions is the tenth of the preceeding month, this time August 10, 2008.

Two volunteers have stepped forward to fill the two vacancies. Mark D. Overholser has agreed to take the position as Tips Editor, while David Azarewicz is the new Associate Editor. What we need now are articles!

A few words regarding the German version. It is not funny when you have to realize that your brainchild is not survivable. I had to do this a while ago but until now I refused to react accordingly. Finally, the time has come. Look at the names of the contributors to see why: One translator and two proof-readers besides myself for the German version. Requiescat in pace. Circumstance would have to improve dramatically for me to reconsider it.
I would like to thank all people who helped to create the German version. This especially includes Philhard Ackermann, Manfred Agne, Cornelis Bockemühl, Jürgen Gaida, Bärbel Hennecke, Carsten Kettner, Thomas Klein, Karl-Heinz Markus, and Peter Weilbacher for translating and proof-reading articles, and Cornelis Bockemühl also for PPWizard scripting.

Well, hopefully the mid-term measures will work out. We will just have to see where the current takes us.

Editing: Mark Dodel