Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!sri-unix!sri-spam!mordor!lll-tis!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor From: chuq@sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: Computer-Based Journals Message-ID: <783@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> Date: Sun, 13-Sep-87 20:17:59 EDT Article-I.D.: hplabsz.783 Posted: Sun Sep 13 20:17:59 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Sep-87 03:23:55 EDT References: Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM Organization: Sun MicroSystems, Inc. Lines: 64 Approved: taylor@hplabs Andrew Jennings writes: > It seems to me that with the prevalence of electronic mail and document > description languages like PostScript, it shouldn't be that difficult to > set up a net_journal. Speaking as someone who HAS done this, Andy is significantly understating the problems. It is a lot more work than you might think. > In printed form it would probably be indistinguishable from the > printing-press version. It depends. if it something like SIGPLAN from ACM, maybe. Once you get into photos, graphics, illustrations, or any non-text material, you've got major problems -- in size of the distribution, in compatibility, and in reproduction quality, just to name three. Lots of people have Postscript printers, but be aware that lots != most by a large margin. and the hassles of trying to scan in all the photos and art at a decent resolution and the size of storing a 2Meg bitmap for each page of graphics would be truly amazing. And at the same time you significantly limit the target audience because only those folks who have postscript printers (and the very base level of compatibility -- there are other, less obvious compatibilities, too: for instance, what if you use fonts only on a LW+, or want to use Bodoni?). > The idea would be that by using e-mail for all of the stages of reviewing, > assembling and distribution of the journal the whole process could be > speeded up by several orders of magnitude. This is definitely true. OtherRealms couldn't exist without help from E-mail, since I don't have to spend lots of time re-entering articles by hand (although that's starting to change now that I'm getting more and more material from 'outside') > Authors would submit to an editor their texts. He/she would then arrange > for review. Once the journal is assembled it could then be sent (by e-mail > or by ordinary post) to people who have paid a nominal charge for subscription Two problems: o just try to get someone to pay you for something they got off the net. trust me. You either give it away, or you don't mail it. Or get used to the term "piracy" o editing via computer is much different than traditional editing. It's too far off the subject to go into detail but "arrange for review" is amazingly simplistic > (First objection : anyone can get hold of a copy for free. Answer : this > can be done now with photocopiers). If they have an original. Which means that you get one subscription per organization, at least. And copying of paper documents isn't nearly as guilt free as copying from the network. There is a perceived value here, which is a moral issue about copying and piracy. > I've had this thought for quite a while. It seems strange to me that no-one > has tried it. Maybe there is a pitfall in this that I have not anticipated. Um, subscribe to rec.mag.otherrealms and wait for the next issue. or send me mail for the latest issue. chuq