Why isn't there a museum.* newsgroup hierarchy for museum related
discussion? I think there should be since at the moment discussion
related to museums is very fragmented. What do other people think? And
what can we do about it?

For the moment, see http://forums.museophile.net/ for a web-based
interface to museum-related forums. If you register, you can customise
the homepage to receive a number of external newsgroup, mailing lists
and other news feeds related to museums.

--
Prof. Jonathan Bowen
Personal homepage: http://www.jpbowen.com/
South Bank University, London: http://www.sbu.ac.uk/
Museophile Limited: http://www.museophile.com/

[Please find attached below some follow-up on newsgroups.]

From: [log in to unmask] (Prof Jonathan Bowen)
Newsgroups: museum.misc,bit.listserv.museum-l,uk.culture.museums
Subject: Re: Proposed museum.* newsgroup hierarchy
References: <[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.41.44.3
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>

"Derek.Moody" <[log in to unmask]> wrote in message
news:<[log in to unmask]>...
> In article <[log in to unmask]>, Jonathan Bowen
> <URL:mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Why isn't there a museum.* newsgroup hierarchy for museum related
> > discussion? I think there should be since at the moment discussion
related
>
> Judging by the traffic on here I doubt it would be justified.

The point is most museum discussion groups use email lists rather than
newsgroups at the moment, partly because of lack of knowledge of
newsgroups in the museum world. Indeed, the main museum-l mailing list
(with 5000+ subscribers) is no longer gatewayed to the associated
bit.listserv.museum-l newsgroup which certainly is very low traffic as
a result - all the real action is on the main mailing list. For a
preliminary paper on existing museum mailing lists and discussion
forums presented at MCN2002, see:

On-line Museum Forums: Whence and Whither?, Roxane Bernier and
Jonathan P. Bowen. MCN Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, 4-7
September 2002.
URL: http://www.museophile.sbu.ac.uk/pub/jpb/mcn2002.pdf

An extensively updated version should be appearing in the MCN Spectra
journal in due course.

> > For the moment, see http://forums.museophile.net/ for a web-based
interface
>
> Hmmm. Low grade spamming.

Hmmm too! I suggest you try the site before passing judgement - at
least if you are a museum professional (or at least a museophile ;-)
at whom it is aimed. I assume you haven't! I am certainly interested
in constructive comments to improve the site from anyone who finds it
useful, although we do have limited and largely volunteer resources
for this. Initial feedback from genuine users has been good apart from
some technical teething problems. I would certainly encourage museums
with dynamic information on their website to produce an RDF news feed
and I would be very happy to link these in as they become available -
I am sure they will from major museums in due course as they realise
the potential of the technology.

> ...and not using your .ac account - I wonder why?

This is difficult for me since I work at home quite a lot, but feel
free to use my work email address for those who wish to talk to me
with my academic hat!

--
Jonathan Bowen
http://www.jpbowen.com/

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).