wwp@yahoogroups.com:
personal news from Don Bain
G. Donald Bain 2008-May-22 21:38:00
My friends in the World Wide Panorama,
I have been going through some personal and professional traumas and
changes over the last year. They have contributed to my rather
inadequate level of participation in the WWP, both as organizer and
participant. For this I apologize.
The important news in the context of the WWP is that I have resigned
my position at the University of California and will retire at the end
of next month. This was never a part of my career plan, but changes
in the department and the nature of my job made it a necessary decision.
This will, at least theoretically, give me more time to devote to the
WWP. But of course I will be using much of my newly freed time to
travel and pursue other projects, of which I have many.
The WWP has, from the beginning, been sponsored by the Geography
Department and hosted on equipment belonging to the University of
California. I am assured by the chairman of the department that this
support will continue after my departure. I will not be breaking all
ties, in fact I will be teaching a class each semester next year, so I
can keep a protective eye on the WWP server.
The Geo-Images Project has its own dedicated server, and bandwidth at
the university is unmetered, so it really doesn't cost the department
anything. My personal presence is seldom needed - most administration
has always been done by Markus from Germany. The only change that I
see in the near future is that we will combine the prep server and the
GeoImages server on the same computer.
The success of the WWP, far beyond what we originally expected, has
been a great joy to me. I would like to thank everyone who has
participated - together we have done something really significant and
unique. It has value as art, as education, and as an example of
international community.
Pax vobiscum,
Don