3.440 biographies, etc. (49)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Wed, 6 Sep 89 23:00:35 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 440. Wednesday, 6 Sep 1989.
Date: 6 September 1989
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: biographical supplements
The following two numbers of Humanist will contain the 22nd and 23rd
biographical files. I apologize for having kept some of these since
June. Those of you who were in Toronto then will have some idea why I
have had little time to edit the raw biographies that new members send
me. Since so many have accumulated -- 44, to be exact -- the editing I
have done has necessarily been very cursory. For that I apologize as
well.
You will notice that some of these biographies have the marks of a new
format. This format is requested in the initial message that inquirers
get. It is intended to make the transformation of the biographies into
SGML and HyperCard forms much easier. As many of you will know, Steve
DeRose and others have been working on the biographies for some time
with the aim of making them much more easily accessible by software.
DeRose now has, he informs me, a much improved HyperCard stack for
viewing these, and until this moment has had all of the biographies
properly encoded. The stack and the encoded biographies will be ready
for distribution shortly.
Our plans to issue all of Humanist together with the biographies on
CD-ROM has been suspended because of legal action by certain US
universities against one or more companies for distributing their
professors' work. The story I have heard is fragmentary but distressing
nonetheless. It suggests that the universities want to make money from
this work, over which they claim ownership. Perhaps someone else here
knows the details better than I. In any case, what seemed to be just
around the corner now appears to be much further off.
Suggestions for going ahead with a CD-ROM of Humanist are welcome.
Perhaps now is the time to think of including digitized pictures as well
as text. From my perspective we form an interesting community. The
CD-ROM might help us strengthen that community.
Willard McCarty