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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!clyde!burl!hou3c!Gisle_Hannemyr_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
From: Gisle_Hannemyr_@QZCOM.MAILNET
Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup
Subject: redistribution lists --> conferences&magazines&links etc.
Message-ID: <57934@QZCOM>
Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 15:43:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou3c.612
Posted: Tue Jun  5 15:43:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jun-84 07:59:50 EDT
References: <57793@QZCOM>
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Reply-To: Gisle_Hannemyr_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA,  Message_Group_at_BRL_mailing_list%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
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To: Message_Group_at_BRL_mailing_list%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, "Robert Elton Maas" 
Cc: msggroup@BRL-AOS.ARPA
In-Reply-To: <57793@QZCOM>


If I interprete your note correctly, it main theme is a
suggestion for a more "structured" way of using
computer conferencing.

While I am symphatic to mechanisms that can augment
the quality and reduce the "noise level" in C.C.,
I think I should report my experience with a
magazine model very close to the one you are
proposing.

For more than a year, two friends and myself has
attempted to operate an "Electronic Magazine" along
those lines as part of the Oslo COM system.  This
system is used daily by researchers at three of
Norways largest academic institutions, and we
hoped that this very special group of users
should form a good user base (academics usually
write a lot of reports of papers).

However, so far we have not received one
unsolicited contribution, and even friends
and collegues we have approached has not
been very forthcoming.

Other experimenters with this form have
reported equally spectacular failures.  The
explanations offered for lack of success
concentrates on:

1) Electronic media lack the prestige of
   established scientific journals.

2) A C.C. system shared by friends and
   neighbours is a to intimate medium to
   be used to publish ambitious and aspiring
   research papers.

We shall continue our experiment another year
(also failure provides some insight), but it
seems that the casual, fairly unstructured
way traditional C.C. operates, is so far the
best format for this form communication.


I have no comment on the other topics raised in
your entry -- but more powerful link and search
mechanisms seems like a good idea.