Any questions go here. Or, go to www.yahoogroups.com and look for SHWI-ISOT (soc.history.what-if-Island in the Sea Of Time). Or, e-mail one of the moderators, like Vegard Valberg (vvalberg@online.no)
A (very brief) summary:
We started in 1800, and currently are beginning 1817. Any starting post would be saying you 'landed," let’s say, on today’s date in 1816, or at the start of 1817. We work to better the world, working in our own countries as ourselves, bringing with us only what’s on our computers, which become laptops,a nd 1 CD.
We work to better the world. The Napoleonic Wars ended 5 years early, in 1810, & France is under a Prince regent for Napoleon’s son. The U.S.A. is gradually abolishing slavery int he Upper South state by state, less success in the Lower. William Crawford is the incoming US President. We just had the first Olympad (modern) in Athens in 1816, though the weather was a lot chillier than we expected due tot he Tambora eruption.
Lots of cool stuff has been invented, including baseball (by me :-), the stuff invented is lower end stuff that can now be impoved on; for instance, we have 1900 level phonographs w/recordings of greats like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and so on for posterity. Radio transmitters exist in small numbers by the British and a couple others. But, some things haven’t been invented yet by uptimers (what we call ourselves) or downtimers. The zipper, for instance.
If you like a fun role playing game, feel free to contact a moderator and start posting. Basically, you appear w/a laptop and enough clothes on your back and that’s it, wherever you are when you read this. (So if you’re in California, you’d wind up in what we’ve created as the independent nation of California - don’t ask unless you come, it’s a bit complex. If you’re in Omaha, you pretty much wind up out on the frontier, miles from civilzation.)
Just remember, we’re here to have fun and work together - no trying to conquer the world or anything 
You have to do some research so you know what you’re talking about, but we’re here to help.
The mods are Vegard, John Trungove (raven_j@optusnet.com.au), or (when he’s available, he’s pretty busy soemtimes) Richard Williams (SVHO-C1@dpa.mod.uk)
Or, use this forum to ask me questions about it if you want, I’lltry to come on here at times over the next few days. I don’t post regularly there right now as I’m too busy and we’ve slowed dratically, but that’s why we need new people who are interested in such RPGs where you can play yourself. (I just posted myself from 4/16-4/18 to set the pace, thinking maybe that helped some people before, as I was always a bit ahead)And, if this is on the wrong forum, I’m sorry, but it was hard to tell which to go on, and it is something I’d consider in the arts of sorts.