Contributing material to CCL Web/FTP archives

Acceptable Types of Materials

Please contribute either your own materials or materials from other sources if they can be freely redistributed (e.g., open source or shareware software). We will gladly accept any pertinent:

• software
• information
• documents
• data
• examples
• educational material
• demos
• etc., etc.

related in any way to the use of computers in chemistry, life sciences or materials, provided that we are assured by the submitter that the material can be legally posted on CCL Web site.

Contributing Files to CCL Web/FTP Site

The preferred mode of submission is the Upload Files Page that ensures that files are properly documented and will be easy to find on the CCL Web site. It was also created to ensure that the Internet search engines will properly index the uploaded materials. I also have a write-up on How and Why to Upload Files that explains the upload procedure and should convince you that sharing is a good thing for all of us.

If for some reason you cannot use the the Web page upload at http://www.ccl.net/cgi-bin/ccl/upload_files I still support the FTP file upload. This is a pain, since incoming directory is overwhelmed by people (or maybe those are robots {:-)}, who knows...) who want to see if it is possible to use our ftp site for anonymous distribution of whatever. Of course they cannot do it, but they do not know until they try... I may be forced to discontinue it at some point. Even if you use FTP to contribute files, please provide documentation and PLEASE send me e-mail when you are finished and provide instructions. I have to find your good stuff among tons of dung, and also I am forced to clean the incoming directory quite often. How the FTP upload works:

   ftp ftp.ccl.net
   Name: anonymous
   Password: your-e-mail-address (you may prepend it with - if
                                 it does not work)
   cd incoming
   binary               (to set binary mode for compressed files)
   mkdir mystuff        (just an example -- use your own name)
   cd mystuff
   put readme.txt
   put myfile1
   put myfile2
   ...so on
   quit

Note, for security reasons, you will not be able to list or retrieve files that you uploaded.
It is inconvenient, since things seem to go to the black hole, but if we allowed retrieval from our ftp incoming directory, it would soon become a primary site for anonymous distribution of offensive material or bootleg software. Besides this inconvenience, the files are being uploaded.

Please attach information about items that you contribute e.g., as a "readme.txt" file, and your contact information.
Once you are done please send a short note to Jan K. Labanowski and your contribution will be reviewed and placed in CCL archives in some logical location. We will let you know where it resides so you can announce it to the Computational Chemistry List and other lists/newsgroups as available for public download/viewing.

If You Should Experience Problems...

If you cannot upload your files please let us know, and tell us what happened in some detail. We want to know about problems and fix them. Finding a compromise between security and convenience becomes more and more difficult.

Please save/archive the material that may disappear soon

Please help us salvage materials for posterity

If you, or someone that you know will soon change a job, retire, or is just too busy to maintain a site, please help. There is a lot of good software, utilities, documents and data that disappear from the Internet forever for one reason or another. We would like to salvage as much as possible of this stuff for a common good. If something is in public domain (or can be legally placed in it) please let us know and help. Changes happen so quickly in Cyber space. CCL aims to preserve valuable materials at our stable CCL site to give permanency to these many useful tools, documents and data.
There are numerous examples in the peer-reviewed research publications where the materials and discussions of the CCL resource are being quoted and referenced. Consider uploading your results, input examples, documents, presentation slides, etc...

Thank you for your cooperation.

Jan Labanowski
CCL Administrator