Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bionet!kristoff From: kristoff@genbank.BIO.NET (David Kristofferson) Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.genome-program Subject: Re: JITF information on Bionet Message-ID: Date: 19 Mar 90 21:40:20 GMT References: <9003141547.AA06600@apldbio.com> <658@cica.cica.indiana.edu> Organization: GenBank Online Service Lines: 84 > While established scientists may be slow at picking up on network > news, undergrad and grad students are quick (and eager) to use it -- mainly > for social/sports/talk/alternate news and of course, rec.humor.funny. If you > wait an academic generation (5-10 years), you'll have no lack of news > users. > Don, I have already been contacted by one influential person who complained that the "established scientists" don't use electronic communications because there is nothing there for them to get excited about (I'll address this *serious* concern below). Now their attitude will be reinforced by a further argument that their workers will be wasting their time reading rec.humor.funny instead of keeping their noses to the grindstone. Because of the above, it needs to be pointed out that any USENET site can RESTRICT THEIR RECEIPT OF NEWSGROUPS to only those that are desired. For example, only the bionet.* groups, or even just a subset of those, could be received. Frankly, at the risk of angering the laboring masses who might enjoy a joke to lighten their loads now and then, my personal opinion is that most of the other groups, e.g., alt.* rec.*, except for the comp (computer) groups, are mostly a waste of time and disk space (although I am sure that some cynics will say the same thing about the bionet groups 8-)! The bottom line is that the workers need not be distracted from their labors by trivia. Assuming that this issue has been defrayed, I'd like to address the content issue which was raised by the anonymous source above. We have been working on raising the content level gradually over the last several years (witness the journal Table of Contents postings on bionet.journals.contents, NIH Guide on bionet.sci-resources, discussion of database issues on bionet.molbio.genbank, distribution of database updates onbionet.molbio.genbank.updates). Requests for methods or reagents may seem "contentless" to most scientists excpet when THEY need something 8-) but I have received numerous complimentary notes about the utility of the METHODS group (bionet.molbio.meths-reagnts). Also, although this is not directly related to newsgroups as such, another reason to learn something about electronic communications is to make use of the free database searching services available by e-mail from GenBank as outlined in my earlier message. The final catch is that this is a "chicken and egg" problem to some extent. There *will* be content in the scientific discussions if the people who can provide the content participate. We have worked hard over the last four years to set up some very useful tools. You, the established scientists, now have before you the choice to either utilize them or leave them to the next generation as Don indicates above. Let's look in greater depth at what I believe is the real issue among established scientists. These people are extremely busy. They don't want to spend their time learning a new way to communicate unless they can see obvious benefits. Unfortunately most of them do not seem to me to realize how much they *could* benefit from this system. An example in point: During one trip to Washington quite some time back, I met with a senior editor of a prominent journal to discuss use of BIONET and a couple of hours working with him. This person was relatively new to computing and was struggling with some of the usual pitfalls with getting modems hooked up, etc. However, he **had decided to invest the time** and had become very enthusiastic about all the possibilities in a very short time. In fact his secretary told me that he went out, bought a typing tutor program (PROBABLY ONE OF THE BIGGEST UNSPOKEN HURDLES - BLUSH!!), and now was faster than she was!!!! The person that I am speaking about is not in his twenties either. I am sure that similar stories could be told about other "established scientists" and will be in time. Failing that we will once again witness the fulfillment of Max Planck's dictum that new ideas take hold only as their older opponents die off, not through rational debate. I sincerely hope that informatics progress for the Genome Project is not encumbered by such hesitations. -- Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank On-line Service Manager kristoff@genbank.bio.net