1. Introduction CONTENTS: 1.1. The basics. 1.2. Getting on the list. 1.3. How reliable is the list? 1.1. THE BASICS. This list is a directory of electronic addresses of operator algebraists and others who have asked to have their addresses included. It is distributed to all people whose names are on the list. Please do not give copies to people who are not listed, since the list is only useful to the extent that operator algebraists are actually listed in it. The entries of this list are arranged alphabetically by last (family) name. The entries are separated by blank lines. The first line of an entry consists of the person's name (family name first, then other names) and preferred email address. All remaining lines start with the character sequence "# " (number sign, followed by a space); they contain whatever additional information (physical address, telephone number, alternate email addresses, etc.) the person has chosen to supply. Alphabetization is by the first word of the entry; since entries are written by the people they refer to, treatment of such words as "von" or "de" depends on how the person concerned wrote the entry. (Thus, "von Neumann, John" would be under V, while "Neumann, John von" would be under N. I prefer the first, but do not enforce it.) Important notes: (1) Please do not distribute your own mass mailings to this list. Announcements for distribution to the list should be submitted to me (N. Christopher Phillips, email: ncp_9117@darkwing.uoregon.OMITthis.edu; delete "_9117" and also make the obvious omission) for inclusion in the next update to the list. (Updates are usually distributed about every three months. For more information, see below, especially Section 5.) (2) Do not post any part of this list on the web. (Spammers will harvest the email addresses.) (3) Please do not include this list in a Microsoft Outlook address book on a machine using any version of the Windows operating system. If you get a virus, you will distribute it to everyone on the list. (4) To help people program spam filters, directory updates will have subject lines starting "OpAlgEmailList: " (capitalization as shown). Updates to the list are distributed regularly, usually in such a way that any changes, additions, or included announcements go out within three months of being received. They have the same general format as the list itself. From time to time a new list will be distributed, incorporating all the updates through its distribution time. I always have available a version of the list which incorporates the most recent updates. (Note: My latest version normally does not include information that has not yet been included in an update.) 1.2. GETTING ON THE LIST. To reduce the amount of time it takes to manage the list, people are required to submit new or changed entries in the format used in the list. (Note: Please send me only your own entry, not a complete copy of the list with your entry inserted.) Accordingly, here is a more detailed description of what entries should look like, together with an example. Please if convenient also look at the current version of the list. Entries consist of the family name (starting in column 1), comma, space, first name(s) or initial(s) (separated by spaces), followed by the email address (starting in column 27, or, if the name is too long, in column 37). Only normal printing 7 bit ASCII characters, and only UNIX line breaks, are allowed. (More information is on the page "http://www.uoregon.edu/~ncp/email.html". Note that all Microsoft character sets contain at least some inadmissible binary characters.) Tabs and non-ASCII characters are prohibited since many users of this list have displays or printers which do not treat such characters properly. Characters in names (or elsewhere in entries) such as u umlaut, o slash, or accented e's should be represented as ue, oe, or e' as appropriate (or, if preferred, simply as u, o, or e, or as TeX codes). A minimal entry consists of just the one line described above. However, additional information may be contained in subsequent lines of an entry, and you are encouraged to provide at least a condensed form of your address and comments about any characters in your email address that might be misread. (Printers and displays often do not adequately distinguish between zero and capital "oh", or between one, lowercase "ell", and capital "I". If your email address contains any of these characters in contexts in which misinterpretation is possible, please provide a clarification. For example, if your email address were TVIS107@UCBVAX11.BITNET, the extra lines # The third character in the account name is a capital "I", and the fifth # and sixth characters are one, zero. The machine name ends one, one. would be appropriate.) Another frequent comment is "Graduate student with _______". Extra lines _must_ start with "# " (number sign, followed by a blank). (The purpose of this requirement is to enable automated processing.) The exact form is otherwise not restricted except for the formatting conditions that apply to announcements (essentially, no lines over 79 characters and no special characters) and the requirement that there be no embedded blank lines. However, some regularity is encouraged, and entries that use an excessive number of lines will be rejected. For example, here is my entry as of March 1995, slightly modified (_not_ my current entry): Phillips, N. Christopher phillips@bright.uoregon.edu # Attachments not accepted. Use uuencoding for binaries. # Postal address: Math Dept., Univ. of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1222, USA. # Tel.: (USA) 503-346-4714. (Note: You get "voicemail" if I am not there.) Note the use of abbreviations (Dept., Univ.) to keep it short, and the inclusion of the country. 1.3. HOW RELIABLE IS THE LIST? Email addresses in this directory have not necessarily been checked for validity. Some control is provided because the distribution mechanism for updates to the directory takes the addresses from the directory, and therefore sends them to the addresses exactly as they appear in the directory. However, not all addressing mistakes return error messages to the sender. For more on this subject, please see Section 2, on problems with email. Because of the size of the list, I cannot try to track down changed or incorrect addresses, or changes in the other information listed. Therefore it is the responsibility of each person listed to let me know about any changes. Please submit an entire new entry each time a change is appropriate, regardless of how little is actually changed. To avoid the possibility of violating anyone's privacy (and other potential problems), I do not add or change an entry for one person at the request of someone else. (I may delete an entry if I am told by an authority at the institution that the person involved is no longer there.) In particular, if the machine name in a department changes, I ask that each affected person send me a separate message notifying me of the change. Similarly, if you notice that an address for someone else is incorrect, please do not ask me to change the entry in the directory; instead, ask the person whose address is incorrect to get in touch with me (N. Christopher Phillips, email: ncp_9117@darkwing.uoregon.OMITthis.edu; delete "_9117" and also make the obvious omission). If a system manager for a machine says an address no longer exists, then I will delete that entry. I also keep track of which addresses bounce updates sent to them. Usually this information will be announced in the updates; here is the form I am using as of July 2003: # DELETIONS AND WARNINGS # These should be interpreted as follows: # 3 bounces: Entry has been deleted; presumed no longer valid. # 2 bounces: Entry is probably no longer valid, and will be deleted # if this mailing bounces. # 1 bounce: Most likely a temporary problem. # Please remember that corrections are accepted only from the person # to whom the entry belongs. # Three successive bounces: ___________; _________; _____ # Two successive bounces: ___________; _________; _____ # One bounce: ___________; _________; _____ Often only the family name will appear. (I will normally ignore messages saying that the machine, or some intermediate machine, is temporarily down, but too many such messages for an entry may also lead to deletion.) Note that this procedure does _not_ guarantee that all addresses on the list actually exist, since errors in the address do not always yield error messages. Furthermore, accounts are not always closed when their owners leave an institution. There are some addresses on this list whose owners have in fact left the institutions at which they are listed, or even left mathematics entirely. See the next section. Comments, corrections, criticisms, suggestions, etc. should be sent to me (N. Christopher Phillips) at ncp_9117@darkwing.uoregon.OMITthisedu (delete "_9117" and also make the obvious omission).