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Re: Fwd: IT Online

If I understand correctly, the prospect of accessing
executables or applets from an IT Online resource adds
another level of utility that we should try to
support, an active rather than passive use.

There are a large number of passive applications that
would be valued by users.  In the IUCr Journals arena,
readers, authors, referees, editors, all would
appreciate access and, in the case of the electronic
journals, that access couldn't be easier.  Notes for
Authors, notes for editors, the variety of web
postings that journals use in communications with
authors and others, all would be able to provide
quality-assured access to mathematics, symmetry, best
practices, etc.  Imagine:  no more goofy garblings of
the formula for R (sym), for gosh sakes!  It would
also be a simple way to communicate standards for
certain kinds of data by providing access to accepted
statistics for coordinate error estimates for protein
structures, for example, or the correct definition of
the accepted resolution statistic.  Once this intimate
use of IT Online had been road-tested for IUCr
Journals, it might be marketable to other journals as
well, ceding a competitive advantage to gain an
overall improvement for crystallographic publishing. 
Beyond journals, of course, there are many other
collections of potential customers:  educational
interests, database managers, software and hardware
purveyors, service providers such as synchrotron
sources and others.

If active usage of IT Online were available, and
programs accessed via IT Online could operate on data
accessed online and return other data online with
minimum user intervention, then another whole level of
benefits become available.  Authors might be able to
submit an incomplete tabulation, have derived
quantities calculated, and return a completed
tabulation. I know, the journals perspective again.
However, if I'm not mistaken, RCSB already does
exactly that right now for depositors in certain
circumstances and would certainly be a potential
beneficiary.  The obvious medium for traffic of the
data to be operated on is of course CIF.

Howard
========================================
--- Sydney Hall <[email protected]> wrote:

> Attached is input from Mike Glazer. Your comments
> on these suggestions are encouraged.
> ------
> Professor Sydney R. Hall
> School Biomedical & Chemical Sciences
> University of Western Australia
> Crawley, 6009  AUSTRALIA.
> Ph: +61 (8) 6488 2725
> Fx: +61 (8) 6488 1118
> "Data data everywhere but not a thought to think!" -
> Theodore Roszak
> 
> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> >
> > 1. Our subject has the  benefits of a good deal of
> mathematics,
> > reference material as well as images, and so we
> should try to make use
> > of this.
> >
> > 2. There is little point in making electronic
> versions of the existing
> > books per se with all the descriptive bits but it
> is better to extract
> > those items that are useful reference material. If
> one simply copied 
> > the
> > books onto the web it would get in the way of
> finding the material one
> > is seeking.  Too much verbage on web pages is
> something that I find
> > annoying. If you want to have all the text put on
> the web then I 
> > suggest
> > that it is separated from the actual reference
> material.
> >
> > 3. So I would favour making the information as
> succinct as possible but
> > at the same time readily accessible.
> >
> > 4. For example, pages could be constructed giving
> all the mathematical
> > formulae relevant to crystallography, without the
> need necessary to
> > explain the derivations etc (this could be added
> as a link but should
> > not get in the way of the presentation).
> >
> > 5. Similarly with respect to say Vol D tensor
> tables would be given.
> >
> 
> 
>