This page provides information about LYSATOR for those who have already found Project Runeberg. (What is Project Runeberg?)
LYSATOR is an academic computer society (a students' computer club) at Linköping University in Linköping, a medium size city in south central Sweden. For more information about Linköping, turn to the city administration. For more information about the surrounding region, turn to the county administration.
Project Runeberg is one of LYSATOR's projects. The club has some 600 members, many of which are active in various projects. Some of the other projects are RydNet, a dorm network built entirely by students, and LysKOM, an online conferencing system.
LYSATOR was founded in 1973, only four years after the university itself was founded, and is very old for a computer club. One of the ongoing projects is to document the History of LYSATOR. In 1974, members of LYSATOR pioneered in home computers. In 1993, members of LYSATOR pioneered in the World Wide Web.
LYSATOR is a non-profit organization that is funded by a membership fee, receives grants from Linköping University for housing and electricity, and accepts donations of used computer equipment from a large number of sponsors. The club's most valuable resource, however, is the voluntary work that is input my its members, all unpaid.
LYSATOR is a self-goverened, democratic, membership-based organization. The members rule the society independent of the university, the students' union, and other such bodies. Membership is open only to students and staff of Linköping University. The charter of the society governs how the board is elected by an annual general assembly of all members. The general assembly also elects project leaders for the various major projects (such as Project Runeberg), who will be responsible before the board. The board is audited by accountants appointed by the assembly. All activities of the society are also reviewed by an inspector, who has been reelected since the society was founded in 1973.
LYSATOR provides a truely academic environment, as opposed to the
teaching factory that today's universities are slowly turning into.
Members can sit down and think about technical matters, find friends
with whom to discuss these matters, cooperate towards solutions, and
boldly go where no man has gone before. Nobody feels any stress from
artificial requirements, but many experience an enormously rewarding
satisfaction from seeing a novel solution actually work. Some just
come here to play computer games. Some are talking about "LYSATOR
University".