Hi friends,

Glad to see this list is being revived -- I remain deeply committed to
the idea that information should be archived on the web and am glad to
see that others are too! (FYI, our web site, www.calvoter.org, contains
free public archives of every online voter guide we've created since
1994, which today amounts to several thousands of web pages.)

I'm writing to share with you all a concern I have about the presumed
purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle by the Examiner and subsequent
sale of the Examiner. As many of you probably already know, both the
Examiner and Chronicle make an archive of their news stories available
for FREE to the public on the Gate (www.sfgate.com). There are very few
news organizations that offer a free public archive of stories on their
web sites -- most charge about $1.95 per story and require you to
register and pay with a credit card, which adds up to several barriers
preventing the free flow of information.

The Gate has been a remarkable and refreshing alternative, offering
archives going back several years. I have been touch with friends at the
Examiner and it is unclear what the fate will be of paper's online
archive of stories once this deal goes through. I have been wondering if
there is some way to arrange for donation of that archive to a nonprofit
501(c)3 that would provide a good financial incentive to keep the archive
available and free to the public. If so, does anyone have any
suggestions about where on the Internet such an archive could be housed
and made available to the public?

Thanks for your ideas and input,

Kim Alexander

__________________________________
:::: Kim Alexander, President ::::
:: California Voter Foundation :::
::::::: kimalex@... :::::
:::: http://www.calvoter.org :::::
:::::::: (916) 325-2120 ::::::::::
__________________________________

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