The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine
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April 1992 - Volume 8:7 [Printout | Contents | Search ]
By Randall Couch Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. - Francis Bacon, Of Studies Computer netwoks give us unprecedented scope for reading, for conference, and for writing. Each of us makes his or her own use of that scope. In this article, some of Penn's women and men describe the mailing lists, news groups, and other online discussions they value most and discuss the changes these media have brought to their disciplines and working lives.
Functional, fun, and fastJim Stephenson, of Wharton's Reginald Jones Center, moderates a mailing list known as the BPS (for "Business Policy and Strategy") network. "Where else," he asks, "could one get an 80 percent response rate in four days from a dispersed group of experts? Without [direct] cost? BPS connects experts in organizational strategy worldwide. It allows timely issues to be discussed and researched in days, rather than in the months involved in journal publication. We also discuss teaching issues, announce conferences, post jobs, and the like." Membership is primarily through invitation; interested readers should send e-mail to stephenson@wharton.upenn.edu.Stephenson also follows the BITNET lists LIAISON, "for BITNET site systems pros," and CCNEWS, for editors of campus computing publications. These deal, says Stephenson, with "two of the languages needed for negotiating modern academics: computerese and standard English." Now, he says, "I know what grep is, and the real differences between `that' and `which.'" Stephenson uses the public FTP servers at simtel20.army.mil and splicer.cba.hawaii.edu "for more free software than anyone could possibly need." He also recommends zamfield@dune.ee.msstate.edu for a partial listing of and commentary on bulletin boards. "E-mail," says Stephenson, "is functional, fun, and fast. Other than the very real possibility of information overload," he says, "e- mail is the best thing since night baseball."
More important than the telephoneJane Bryan, head of Van Pelt Library's Reference Department, has been using mailing lists for just over a year. She has gone through what she thinks is a typical progression for new users. "I started out subscribing to several lists," she says, "but I've recently had to curtail my reading. It's frustrating-there are many I love to read, but I only have time to follow those directly relevant to reference librarianship. I just dropped several, and I now only read four regularly."Bryan is not entirely cut off from her favorite groups, however. "I've asked appropriate staff members to follow some lists," she says, "and they forward things of particular interest on to me and others." On an informal basis, Bryan notes, an analogous web of friendly "filters" is growing among the Library's staff generally. A degree of specialization allows each person to follow a few lists in depth and trade forwarded highlights of other lists with several colleagues. It's a convivial way to cope with the information overload mentioned by Jim Stephenson. First among the four lists Bryan follows is LIBREF-L, which allows reference librarians to consult the collective wisdom of their peers on the network. "It's often extremely valuable," Bryan remarks. "From coping with funding cuts to the redesign of reference areas to accommodate more electronic tools. You see careful reviews of new reference sources-CD-ROMs for instance-that are often very expensive. It helps us make the best use of our money. Of course, occasionally things get a little absurd. There was recently a discussion that went on for days of whether or not reference librarians should wear name tags." NOTIS-L is a list dealing with the search software used in Franklin and the online catalogs of many other libraries, and the company that makes it. "You hear about problems with new releases and the solutions people have developed," Bryan says. "We've benefited greatly from the experience of other libraries in implementing this latest release. We can avoid many of the difficulties they encountered as we bring up our own integrated software system." The new list RLGPSCD for the Research Libraries Group's public service and collection development interests is intended to replace some smaller quarterly meetings of those groups. Federal government documents have for decades been placed in libraries around the country on a depository system for the use of citizens in each congressional district. There are many rules and regulations for the handling of these documents. GOVDOC-L helps documents librarians share information; in the last two years it has become essential. Since the eighties, Bryan notes, between the Paperwork Reduction Act and Administration policy, federal agencies have supplied fewer documents and distribution has been less regular. The list has become "the single most important means of communication," for documents librarians, says Bryan. "More important than the telephone, their newsletter, the fax-without the list it would sometimes be difficult to secure the documents their patrons need."
GaynetProfessor Larry Gross, of the Annenberg School for Communication, makes use of mailing lists in his research. "The list I am most connected with at the moment," he says, "is called GAYNET and it's run out of MIT. GAYNET is a largely U.S., but also international network (several active participants are in Australia; Germany, the U.K., and Israel have been heard from recently) based on college campuses and in some computer-related industries."GAYNET serves as a vehicle for discussion and information sharing among lesbian and gay people. I've found it both informative about issues-how they are being framed and responded to-and about current events, especially political developments around the country and the world. It's turning out to be a valuable resource in my research on contemporary lesbian/gay politics, as well as a good networking tool. There is a directory of lesbian and gay students and scholars which is now distributed through GAYNET, and I have already located two potentially interesting book prospects for a series I edit for Columbia University Press."
No going backNew patterns of interaction that will not easily be abandoned have been formed by the existence of online discussion groups. By distributing announcements of conferences and meetings, these groups can encourage face-to-face contact-but they also create dependency. Jane Bryan tells of a professional conference session devoted to coping with the time demands of electronic mail and mailing lists. "The first question the speaker asked," she laughs, "was `How many people here found out about this meeting on e-mail?' Of course, nearly everyone raised his hand."
Sidebar: ABC's For information on subscribing to public mailing lists, consult "Bitnet's Global List" and "BITNET User Help" in the "Off-Campus Computing Resources" section of PennInfo. Many of the lists mentioned here have gateways to the NNTP news system and can be accessed with your news reading software by connecting to netnews.upenn.edu. For background information, see "Internet Resources, Part II: List servers and news groups," by Judy Smith, Penn Printout 7:8, May l991. For background information about anonymous FTP, see "Internet Resources, Part III: Anonymous FTP," by Valerie Glauser, Penn Printout 8:6, March 1992.
RANDALL COUCH is a Senior Technical Writer for DCCS/UMIS Publications.
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