Because of the confusion and traffic usually associated with such new lists, we are initially planning for this to be a moderated list. We will 'digest' all postings and send out to subscribers 2-3 digests each week.

The purpose of this list? Basically, we feel that a listserver will provide the best mechanism for communicating with each other about the development of a new community network designed to: (1) help educate citizens about participating countries and cultures - with special emphasis on the country of Romania; (2) provide a common base of information about issues affecting relations between our countries; and (3) provide a common 'meeting place' where folks can find and communicate with each other.

"Friends and Partners Romania" (FPRomania) is a new venture designed to introduce friends from around the world who are interested in learning about and meeting new friends in the country of Romania. Please visit our new server on the Internet at:

http://www.friends-partners.org/fpromania/

The primary motivation of this service is to help introduce the rich and ancient cultures of Romania to the world; and, more importantly, to help introduce opportunities for cooperation and exchange between new friends in our countries. It hopes to cooperate with and build upon the accomplishments of the many wonderful initiatives on the Internet today in introducing the culture and people of Romania to the world - as well as the many organizations who have been working towards this same goal of cooperation and friendship for the past several years.

"Friends and Partners Romania" is itself an act of friendship - developed over the past year by friends in Romania, Russia, and the U.S. - individuals separated by thousands of miles but united by common concern of promoting better understanding and exchange across cultures - and by common interest in exploring how new technologies might be used for that purpose.

It is the latest member of a family of projects created by the original "Friends and Partners" effort - active since 1994 bringing together friends from around the world with an interest in countries of the former soviet union. This grassroots effort has attracted a community of several thousand participants, handling many million information inquiries and email exchanges. It has received a number of awards and honors (including designation as one of the top 30 "must see" sites on the Internet) and the helpful support of such organizations as Sun Microsystems, NATO, the US State Department, the Soros Foundation (ISF), and, most recently, the Ford Foundation. Friends and Partners has proven that the Internet can be an amazingly simple and effective tool at promoting better understanding across the previously difficult barriers of geography, language, and culture. Its creators are pleased to work with new friends in focusing attention on Romania.

At the moment, FPRomania is more a 'framework' of an information system -- more 'heart' than substance. Our goal is to help others build upon the framework -- to create and link together information on our nation's histories; our art, music, literature, and religion; our educational and scientific resources; our geography and natural resources, our languages; and our opportunities for communicating, travelling, and working together. The 'end product' -- an evolving and continually changing information resource -- will hopefully help bridge the gap of understanding that exists between our nations. It will hopefully also demonstrate the potential for good that exists with this wonderfully chaotic, rapidly growing global network we call the Internet.

We hope you will join us! FPRomania will successfully accomplish its goals as it develops a community of individuals who share in and help develop its vision. There are many ways to contribute -- these include:

1. join the email listserver "fpromania" (more information below)
2. even easier, sign the FP Romania guestbook
3. contribute information about yourself in the new "friends" database (http://www.friends-partners.org/fpromania/friends.html)
4. visit the WWW site and suggest new links, new areas of content, and help us better organize the existing information. Every page has a special link at the bottom with which you can make suggestions.
5. volunteer to manage and further develop an existing section of F&P (we'll help you get started)
6. contribute your own information - we'll give you an account (no charge) and help you get started with your own Internet publishing - you can publish material about your travel experiences, your ideas, your organization's activities, etc.
7. start up your own communications service - bulletin board, chat room, email listserver, etc.

We hope FPRomania will contribute towards better understanding between nations by providing instruction on our countries and cultures, by providing a common base of information about issues affecting relations between our countries, and by providing a common 'meeting place' where friends can find and communicate with each other. Please join us!

If you do not have a WWW browser, you can use our 'fpr' account. Telnet to solar.ncsa.uiuc.edu. At the login: prompt, enter fpr and press return (make sure to enter friends in all lower case). This will place you in a non-graphic WWW browser called 'Lynx' (on-line help is available). (Note: you must be emulating a vt100 terminal to use this method of access.)

We will soon be providing a 'mirror' of all services on servers in Alba Iulia and Baia Mare, Romania.

Please send us your comments, criticisms, suggestions and offers of help! :-).

Manuella Kadar                  Jerry Fryxell                     Alex Borza
University of Dec. 1            University of Tennessee           University of the North
Alba Iulia, Romania           Knoxville, TN                   Baia Mare, Romania
manu@iulia.uab.ro              jfryxell@solar.ncsa.uiuc.edu       alex@univer.ubm.ro
manuella@friends-partners.org   jfryxell@friends-partners.org     alex@friends-partners.org

      Natasha Bulashova                  Greg Cole
      natasha@friends-partners.org       gcole@friends-partners.org