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Re: Summary of IT Online WG discussions thus far

Thanks John for your comments. I agree that the community views
on what is needed is very important in any "crystal-balling"
exercise such as this and that would be a logical next step for
the "implementation working party" that could follow the congress.
My experience with surveys is that they are of limited use unless
the targets of the survey are few and conspicuous... then people
are prepared to take potshots and give firm views. So once some
preliminary decisions are made on what IT Online might look like
(hopefully based on our recommendations!), then I think the views
on what community-at-large thinks it wants will start to flow!

You have again put your finger on the a crucial issue that this
group is aware of but has larger sidestepped (as per our brief) i.e.
the economic viability issues of paper vs electrons. Without great
care in striking this balance the IUCr's ability to do either in the
future is at risk. While these are largely business decisions that
publishers have to deal with all the time, I think that as scientists
we have to give some advice on how and what information we believe
will be accessed in the future. My own information gathering habits
and inclinations are almost exclusively "electronic" these days,
both at home (where I have a fast broadband link) and at work. I use
broadband for almost every conceivable home/work task - it is fast,
accurate (usually!) and uptodate. Most of the students here operate
in a similar, if not more advanced way... often with handheld web-
access phones. It seems very unlikely to me that in 5-year's time
many scientists will regularly use books for research or teaching,
and quite inconceivable in a decade! But such preferences may not be
either typical or globally achievable - thats something the IUCr
has to gauge as quickly as possible.

And then, of course, it has to work out how to make it pay! :(

Cheers
Syd
------
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


On 30/05/2005, at 4:55 PM, John R. Helliwell wrote:

>
>
>
> Dear Syd,
> I apologise for the delay to respond, which was due to a holiday, then
> a  conference, undergraduate exams (I am Chief Examiner), and not
> least a busy time as EinC as we prepare for Florence.
>
>
> I found the summary of all inputs very interesting, naturally.
> I would like to say that I was especially impressed with the 
> thoroughness of the notes
> assembled by Syd, and not least the very great effort Syd has made, and
> Nicola at Chester. There is one 'but', and this is not a criticism, but
> just the nature of these things;-
> I also log that the number of questionnaire responses is
> obviously very small to form any assessment of likely community views. 
> More
> should be done here to get community reaction; this will take time and
> probably need to have the first products available to really see the
> shape of what is wanted/needed.
>
> I was pleased to see someone else champion Java applets, although
> I was adding an emphasis of there being a big opportunity for 
> teaching, as
> well as research, education of the future generation being a growing 
> major
> challenge/concern for us all.
>
>
> I was disappointed to see Howard's news that f' and f" perhaps cannot 
> be
> made available.
>
>
> I was startled by one sentence from Appendix F:-
> "IT online should offer all the information of the printed volume."
> This sent me scurrying back to Attachment D to revisit details of the 
> EC's
> wishes on the business plan. My assumption had been that there will
> continue to
> be much in print, ie sales would continue of print volumes, but the IT
> online would complement and extend IT print. Of course new editions of
> ITprint are likely to get slimmer. Am I being old fashioned? So far 
> with
> Journals we have a mixed economy of print + e as well as e-only. Will 
> this
> continue for the foreseeable future or become e only? It seems to me 
> that
> there is another round of IT Working Group Discussion needed (at 
> least!)
> where we could prioritise likely content of IT print in future and 
> likely
> immediate content of IT online. This would of course be input
> to the IUCr Commission on IT. Specifically I suppose I am interested to
> see the business plan(s) details on these aspects. [At the IUCr FC I 
> have
> seen some details but not in depth I think on these key points of
> the strategy.]
>
>
> Best wishes to all,
> John
>
> John R. Helliwell
> Professor of Structural Chemistry, University of Manchester;
> Editor-in-Chief Acta Crystallographica;
>
> Address:-
> Department of Chemistry
> University of Manchester
> M13 9PL
> UK.
>
> email:-     [email protected]
> tel:-       44 (0)161 275 4970
> fax:-       44 (0)161 275 4598
> http://www.ch.man.ac.uk/people/academic/jrh.html
> http://journals.iucr.org/
>
> On Wed, 20 Apr 2005, Sydney Hall wrote:
>
>> I am conscious of the rapidly approaching congress and
>> likelihood that there will be diminishing time to spend on
>> working group recommendations as we get into the northern
>> hemisphere summer. To gather my own thoughts on this task
>> I have reviewed what has been said thus far and drafted a
>> summary of the main points made. This is not a complete
>> record of our communications but I think that it captures
>> the major issues and suggestions. If you think any
>> important points are missing please let me know.
>>
>> I hope the attached summary document will stimulate some
>> additional ideas and suggestions on ways to present IT data
>> online. If it does not I will have to assume that we done
>> our collective best on this issue, and I will work with
>> Nicola to formulate some recommendations for circulation
>> and your approval.
>>
>> I would appreciate a response to the attached summary,
>> with your preferred recommendations, by May 1st.
>>
>> Many thanks
>> Syd
>> ------
>> 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
>>
>>
>
>