At 09:17 AM 21/03/96 +0100, you wrote: >Without wishing in the slightest way to do anything that might hamper the >development of the fledgling ICOM-L, I would like to remind everyone that >this list has a very specific mandate. It is intended to serve as a forum >for the discussion of matters specifically relating to the International >Council of Museums, most particularly as announced on the companion list, >ICOM-ANNOUNCE. Anything concerning the organization and its activities is >appropriate for posting here. To be sure, ICOM deals with general >museological issues, but the MUSEUM-L list serves admirably for the >discussion of such topics and neither list will benefit from ICOM-L being >seen as a duplicate effort. > >A more specific intent behind ICOM-L is to provide a feedback channel for >commentary about ICOM's efforts at establishing a useful network resource. >In an attempt to elicit such discussion I would very much appreciate >knowing how the list members feel about the following matter: > >A fundamental tenet of ICOM's network services is that material provided >via the network should be available to the largest possible segment of the >community. As a result, much emphasis has been placed on the maintenance >of e-mail distribution mechanisms. In practice, however, little use has >been made of the e-mail-based document retrieval facilities. The >subscriber base for ICOM's various e-mail distribution lists is impressive >enough but the number of active contributions to the lists is very low. > >Both the contributors of material to the ICOM resource and its users have >indicated a very clear preference for utilizing the World Wide Web. Given >that the essence of Web material is its multimediality, the maintenance of >an alternative e-mail-based service of Web documents is not a trivial >technical matter. > >My question is simply this -- How many of you who use ICOM's e-mail >services could as easily access the ICOM Web site? My impression at this >point is that people whose network access is limited to e-mail tend to >be generally restrictive about their use of such facilities (for financial >reasons?). Those who are more active tend to use the service of their >choice, but often have access to the full complement (e-mail, FTP, Gopher, >WWW). > >??? > > -- >Cary Karp <[log in to unmask]> Department of Information Technology >Phone: +46 8 666 4055 Swedish Museum of Natural History >Fax: +46 8 666 4235 Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden > I can just as easily access ICOM's WWW site - and do so first, if that will facilitate matters. > Sincerely, Nancy Hushion [log in to unmask]