Bali/Japan - one wish

[Ove Hoegh-Guldberg]

Dear John,

Thanks for the comments but I think you may have misunderstood the essence of my
comments.  The key to this new approach would be to post papers on the web -
which is straight forward nowadays.  Much though I appreciate your calculations,
the idea is to think beyond the square.  We have an opportunity with the
Internet which we should use.  I would also not expect people to print papers on
their home computer.  PDF or DOC files can be viewed and read on home computers
as advanced press ... that is, the volumes are still printed and sent to all
registrants.

The only problem is that not all people will have access to good web resources.
A CD with manuscripts could be burnt that might be offered to those scientists
who do not have the benefit of fast Internet resources.

Regards,

Ove



-----Original Message-----
From: John Ware [mailto:jware at erols.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2000 6:58 AM
To: Les Kaufman
Cc: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: Bali/Japan - one wish


Dear List,

Ove's idea is interesting but the logistics seem daunting.  Every
presenter, let's say 400, would have to submit a near-ready-for-review
paper well ahead of time.  This means the papers would have to be ready
a month or two ahead of the normal deadline.

Then someone would have to make a copy for every person registered at
the symposium and mail the copies out.  Additional copies would be
required for late registrants.  The proceedings now typically occupy 2
large volumes and this is *after* peer review has considerably reduced
the weight.  The cost and problems seem daunting.

Granted that many of the papers could be put on the web, there are
problems with that approach also.  Even downloading and printing just
the ones you are interested in would be a time-consuming task (my 6
pages/minute printer).  Then there are those people who do not have
internet access - should they be discriminated against?

I too was not at the symposium, but, having been at the previous two I
appreciate the difficulty one faces with simultaneous presentations in
areas of interest.  It is a problem that symposium organizers and
attendees have faced since the era of large symposia and I know of no
one in the engineering field who has solved it.   Perhaps coral reef
scientists can do better?

John

Les Kaufman wrote:
>
> Though I regrettably had to miss the meetings, I for one find Ove's
> suggested changes to he format intriguing.  I wonder how others have
> reacted....
>
> Les Kaufman
> Boston University Marine Program
> Department of Biology
> 5 Cummington Street
> Boston, MA 02215
> lesk at bio.bu.edu
> 617-353-5560 office
> 617-353-6965 lab
> 617-353-6340 fax

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