Radio_Museum_Foundation_Part_2

The survival of Radiomuseum.org is secured

(Original Article in German by Ernst Erb)

Safety and Continuity before everything!

 

A foundation of this kind can only be dissolved, if its activities are moved into another foundation which serves the same or a similar purpose; or if the foundation is transformed into a public organization. A foundation can not be dissolved like a club with statutes and votes. Despite those facts there still is the question about the security of the data. We do perform a backup on a daily basis, of course. In addition, we have one set (server) in Zurich and other sets (backups) in Luzern and Meggen. This however does not protect against all risks, possible.

 

The effort which is brought into this project – not only the financial one – but mostly the invested time measured in “man- months” or “man- years” is enormous.

In the”Statistik für 2008“ (statistics for 2008) you will find some numbers about the collaborate work. According that we invested somewhere between 200 and 300 ‘man- years’ by mid of 2008 (there are different estimates); this amounts to about 3000 ‘man- months’ of full- time work. In hours worked that would be between 400 thousand and 600 thousand hours.

 

This is why a couple years ago I “put out feelers” in order to find a public museum in Switzerland, which would be willing to store a server so that it would be ‘ready to go’. I had to accept a refusal by the Museum of Communication in Bern (ex PTT). Another large museum would have done it for payments… Both would not be reasonable solutions for an emergency, I thought. Therefore I asked myself: “What is the best condition?”

 

It dawned to me that only a person, who already invested a lot of her or his own work into the data collection (there is heartfelt pain in it) would the one to take care of this. In addition to that, such a person should be located as far away as possible, so that local disasters would not have any effect. This person should also have a good knowledge regarding the Internet and computers and also have the financial means to cover the initial costs until community effort for this would be organized.

 

Further such a person would need to be known to all members and also be a member of the council (officer) but not necessarily a member of the founding council. Anyone, who is interested in the continuity of the system, should copy the list of the officers (council- members); just for the case that RMorg would be “off the grid” for a couple of days. See link “Organisation” (German).

 

By now we have taken the step to produce a hard- drive which contains the complete data including July 30, 2009 including all the programs and VMware and send it to (Dr.) Thomas Albrecht, USA. By the way: he was working for IBM in the fields research and development (also at the IBM Research Lab in Rueschlikon); since IBM sold this portion to Hitachi, who he is working for, now. He also worked up the data of the manufacturer Philco (pre- WWII), completely and in a standard- setting way; this all nearby despite a demanding job and having a family!

Within the council we value him as a good advisor and personality.

 

An independent Server is basically on ‘Standby’

 

Thomas Albrecht confirmed to me, that he can go online with this hard- disk with no problem. Major computer centers do use VMware, so in case of a catastrophe one just needs to bring the HD (HDD) to there and within hours RMorg would be back online- independent from the Foundation or myself. The decision for such a step is done by the council (officers), only. Thomas Albrecht resumes the duty to act independent from myself or the Foundation- Council, if the council or I would not be able to keep RMorg online. Neither the Foundation- Council nor I can overturn that.

 

By doing this, I also wanted to prevent “a crazy Erb or programmer” from destroying everything or pressing money out of it. All that already has happened around the word! Included in this are local disasters, which could hit Zurich or Lucerne. As you can see from the attached documents, we will mail every year such an operable HD and have it tested, as well.

 

“Sewed double will hold better”. I will hand a second HD and a contract to our lawyer; this could be done in 6 month alternating intervals.

Comment by translater: as of now Thomas Albrecht receives a HDD mid- year, our lawyer receives a HDD at the end of the year.

 

What I am certain about, is: Thanks to advertisements and new memberships the financial situation of RMorg is secured, especially if one does not implement improvements (software). We still would be safe if we would introduce a small yearly membership fee – even if only a third of the 6200 members would participate. As of now, I employ a full- time (software) developer; but that will not be necessary, later on – since then only adjustments would need to be made.

 

What I am concerned about is that we are lacking people, who are willing to take on a certain section in their own responsibility; this without putting on the airs of a star, but with high efficiency and also being a “bad weather pilot”.

 

*** will be translated, later (after the other texts are completed) ***

*Stichworte, die nicht im Text erscheinen:
*Stiftungsurkunde, Stiftungsurkunden, Stiftungsreglement, *Stiftungsreglemente, Handelsregister, Steuerbefreiung, *Agreement-for-Backup, link zu "Safeguarding the Continuity of RMorg - Disaster Planning".

Attachments:

(Translated in English by Rainer Rothen)