Just wanted to give you a state-of-the-distribution update. Currently Jon, Nathaniel, and I are working on a distributive program or rather, the modification as well as an OS-X port of a distribution program we think will suit our needs well. Working on this port seems to be the best route to a successful initial distribution project (dwz) instead of the more standard logged interfaces of existing programs such as IM, etc.. We felt that opening up the dwz at this point would result in mostly unproductive cacophony, which while being interesting to the noise-art contingent, doesnt seem to be the most productive environment to test drive many of our ideas (of course, later, noise will be essential to the interface; but at present there needs to be a concentrated effort to decide how and in what ways we want to try and affect noise generation).

The interface/program were currently working on is called the Network Text Editor (nte). There has been some question as to how we want the interface to be handled, but were all in agreement that no matter what, the nte needs to be as hassle free as possible. It seems likely, especially at this early juncture, that we may require dwz participants to download a small easily installable program in order to access the dwz interface. This seems like the simplest route to an early implementation. However, later versions will likely try to capitalize on any number of more open-platform technologies, such as a Java runtime environment, in order to overcome OS and other related interface issues. There is still some question, as I mentioned above, to what degree we will pursue both client-side and server-based (not necessarily exclusive) options.

In any case, the nte will allow us to achieve some of our early and most important goals such as a realtime shared editing environment. While we had discussed other directions of data (music, image, etc.), we also acknowledged the simplicity and power of text, and so its to this were giving our greatest focus. From this standpoint the nte will be a barebones, no frills environment to initiate the achievement of these early goals. For some simplified background into the nte see: http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/nte/

Weve also moved forward in developing a web space and interface. One option for an idealized interface environment that was developed can be seen in the image that I have attached for you. We can discuss what you think of the general structure and direction. At this stage the image/ maquette is mostly for hypothesizing and troubleshooting our ideal interface goals for an user environment.

Hope this helps in detailing our current position. If things continue as planned we hope to open up an initial test run of the dwz early next week. In the meantime, we look forward to any comments or suggestions you might pass our way. Thanks for all. Yours,
–Patrick [writing in conjunction with Nathaniel and Jon.]