Actually, I really just wanted to check out my REPLY fuction from
the newsgroup to see if it goes to the right place. While I'm here:
 
 
It was my understanding that ASTEC has been using Compuserve for their
members for quite some time, at least a year. The member I talked
with seemed to prefer it even though he has a free guest account
at a university and the cost was more than made up for by time
saved and service provided. I talked with his assistant who started
sending files to him when he was traveling with no problems at all. I
doubt she would have been able to figure out how to do it on my
NYU system as easily.
 
I also talked with someone from, I think, the National Education
Association, and they have their own section on AOL with
a private forum section for members and it seemed to be working
well for them.
 
And, of course, the Whitney Museum is on ECHO, a private BBS that
has recently put up a public gopher site on the internet and
has plans for a web site in the spring.
 
The point is, organizations need to do just that, organize in
the easiest way possible for the members. I haven't heard whether
ASTEC wants people from outside the organization posting on their
forums and that's understandable. They should be encourged to
find a hospitable listserv to expand their access and to make
their archives and libraries availble through a gopher, ftp or
web site for interested non-members.
 
Robbin Murphy
Managing Editor, ArtNet (one of those organizing sites)
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