[1] From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk> (28)
Subject: ACLS paper
[2] From: Ian Butterworth <i.butterworth@ic.ac.uk> (5)
Subject: Electronic Journal in Earth Sciences
[3] From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk> (30)
Subject: climbing online
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Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 20:42:44 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: ACLS paper
Humanists will likely be interested in the latest Occasional Paper of the
American Council of Learned Societies, Douglas C. Bennett, <cite>New
Connections for Scholars: The Changing Missions of a Learned Society in an
Era of Digital Networks</cite>. ACLS publications are handsomely designed,
but if you are impatient you can get this one via the Web, at
<http://www.acls.org/op36.htm>. (Yes, I know, that's not the only reason one
might have for using the Web....) Some of you will know that Doug Bennett is
Vice President of the ACLS but is shortly to assume the duties of President
at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana), <http://www.earlham.edu/>.
In his paper Bennett briefly sketches the history and roles of learned
societies in the U.S. and the culture of "disconnection" that has been in
part responsible for the benefits of academe. Isolation from a society that
respected academic work was, as I recall, not a problem -- this was the case
as recently as my own childhood. Now, however, this isolation poses a very
large problem. Bennett's argument primarily has to do with how the increased
connectedness of the digital age can be used, particularly by scholarly
societies, to help solve this problem.
Read it tonight, as a friend of mine used to say (even, once, about
Clarissa, or was it merely Pamela?).
I note in passing Bennett's statement that, "none of the learned societies
that belong to ACLS has yet begun publishing an electronic journal". (This
requires a stage direction, such as "long pause"!) Right. Time to roll up
the sleeves and get to work, I'd say.
WM
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer, King's College London
voice: +44 (0)171 873 2784 fax: +44 (0)171 873 5801
e-mail: Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/ruhc/wlm/
--[2]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 12:43:21 +0100 (BST)
From: Ian Butterworth <i.butterworth@ic.ac.uk>
Subject: Electronic Journal in Earth Sciences
[The following passed on, with thanks, from the group about to meet in
Stockholm to discuss electronic publication. -- WM]
Colleagues
An interesting new electronic journal in Earth Sciences "Earth Interactions"
has been set up and is described at http://EarthInteractions.org/
To include videos, animation of data and interactive mathematics.
[material omitted]
Ian
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Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 23:25:48 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: climbing online
Some of you may know that Sir Christian Bonington, CBE, a climber of
mountains, is about to attempt the remote Sepu Kangri region of Tibet.
Ordinarily -- i.e. in times past -- this, however remarkable and interesting
to us, would not be a topic for Humanist, but such are the changes in how
these things are done that we need to consider Chris Bonington's plans. In
brief he will be sending pictures and reports from the climb in Tibet, as it
happens, using an Olympus digital camera and Mac Powerbook, via satellite
above the Indian Ocean to Eik in Norway, thence by landline to Britain, and
onto the Web.
So stay tuned. (Who here remembers what that meant?) Meanwhile you may read
more about the Sepu Kangri expedition, and about his other climbs, see
pictures, etc., via the URL <http://www.bonington.com/>. A beautifully
designed site, by the way.
I find this event, for what it says about electronic publishing, to be quite
remarkable. Most of us are scholars, concerned about publishing rather
different sorts of things, but as computing humanists interested in the
sociology of knowledge and the effects of computer-mediated communications,
Bonington's venture is grist to our mill. There's been much agonising of
late about the extent to which the action in our field seems to be passing
us by. We have some problems, given the paucity of jobs in humanities
computing and related approaches to it, but at the same time our field of
activity is so immensely rich and complex, and growing ever more so by the
minute, that I'd think a celebratory mood would be more in order. To reverse
the artist's observation, we're ornithologists, not birds.
Comments?
WM
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dr. Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer, King's College London
voice: +44 (0)171 873 2784 fax: +44 (0)171 873 5801
e-mail: Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/ruhc/wlm/