Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!MCGREGOR%hp-labs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa From: MCGREGOR@hp-labs.csnet (Scott L. McGregor) Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup Subject: Re: redistribution lists --> conferences&magazines&links etc. Message-ID: <8406041609.AA15587@HP-VENUS> Date: Mon, 4-Jun-84 12:08:26 EDT Article-I.D.: hou3c.608 Posted: Mon Jun 4 12:08:26 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jun-84 08:06:25 EDT Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) Lines: 19 To: REM%mit-mc.arpa@csnet-relay.arpa, Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET%mit-multics.arpa@csnet-relay.arpa Cc: MSGGROUP%brl-aos.arpa@csnet-relay.arpa, MCGREGOR@csnet-relay.arpa In-Reply-To: Message from "Robert Elton Maas" of Sat 2 Jun 84 05:52:00-PDT Source-Info: From (or Sender) name not authenticated. The difference between a conference and a magazine is that in a conference, control is presumed to be democratic. Anyone (everyone) is welcome to speak. A magazine has a different power structure: There is the magazine staff of writers and editors who minister to the subscribers. This is a less equitable arrangement, but is good for delivering information from those who know to those who don't. A Conference is better for tasks like brain- storming which benefit from a more equal participation. As a veteran Conferencing Systems user and a new conferencing system developer, I am acutely aware of the problem of information and decision overload. The management of the number of branching and pruning decisions will require improved systems for handling these systems automatically. The drudgery of this task given the tools currently available in most conferencing systems today is one of the things that is keeping conferencing from taking the commercial data processing world by storm. It is hoped that some breakthroughs will be achieved in this area in the not too distant future, but it we probably won't see major changes in this community for a while. -------