Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!bionet!ig!cunyvm.cuny.edu!GHJ%MRC-LMB.CAM.AC.UK From: GHJ%MRC-LMB.CAM.AC.UK@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Newsgroups: bionet.general Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8811022110.AA17812@presto.ig.com> Date: 3 Nov 88 02:05:28 GMT Sender: daemon@presto.ig.com Lines: 138 Dear All, I haven't have much response yet, so I don't really know how people feel about my sugguestion (last week), so I'm not sure if this message will be appropriate or not, but here goes anyway. It would be nice to hear a few people respond as to how they feel about the idea, so I can gauge whether it is worth doing at all - it will involve some time on my part. Before you start on this, one word - don't feel overwhelmed by the formality of all this - I just needed to get the message across clearly... From the few lists sent to me so far, I've been able to make a few decisions: 1) The few lists sent so far varied considerably in format. To make things more manageable to me, I've decided on a simple format for you to send them in. If for some reason you can't (or can't be bothered!) to make things in this format, send them along anyway. The general layout of the format is: | |Header : | | Notes: (a) The header field ALWAYS starts in column 1. (b) If the text takes more than one line; indent the second, etc, lines (so they won't be confused with headers). (c) The header should be followed by a colon (preceded by optional blanks). (d) The headers can be in any case (upper or lower case) or mixed, but I have to admit I find it tidier to read them with the first letter in upper case, and the rest in lower - a personal opinon that! In pratice the headers can be any sensible (or fun) header you care to dream up, but where possible the following should be used to make things simple : Name : Address : City : Region : Country : Phone : Telex : Telefax : Network address : Biosci bboards : Profession/position : Project : Other interests : General : Hardware : Software : References : ... etc, etc, ... Obviously this is only a guideline - the main thing is to break your list down into this general format to make things workable at my end. Below is a few comments on each of the fields, which might help keep things in order, and give people a few ideas : Name : ESSENTIAL. Your name (!); as you would write it; surname *LAST*. Address : Your POSTAL address. City : Obvious. Region : The State/County/Provence your city is in. Country : Obvious. Phone : Optional. Try make this international if you can. Telex : Optional. Telefax : Optional. Again try make this international. Network address : Obvious. This is your private network address. If you don't know this I probably will work it out from the blurb at the head of your E MAIL message added by the electronic mailer. Biosci bboards : Optional. What BIOSCI bboards you're on. Profession/position : Optional. What post you hold. Also, if you feel like it, what type of scientist you consider yourself (say no more!). Project : Obvious. ESSENTIAL. If you can, try say a little more than just jotting down your lot in a few short words; it helps to get across the flavour of things. Other interests : Any other research (etc) interests. General : Anything else you want to say. Anything at all... Hardware : Optional. What machine(s) you're using. Some experimentalists may wish to put down the E.M., or whatever they are using if they think it will be of interest to others. Software : Optional. What S/W you mainly use, or any you've written. References : Optional. Any articles that might be interesting. One other possible header would be 'details', or something like that for people who want a more detailed idea of what you're up to; but I'll leave that sort of thing to your imagination. I guess there must be heaps of other silly possibilites I've missed - just fill the gaps yourselves. [Personally I'd rather see people giving a detailed description by way of Peter Karp's example on the BIOMATRIX bboard, rather than via this list - or it will get far too long] Phew, this IS getting long. To *really* make sure you've got the picture a short example follows, with apologies to Andrew Wallace -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name : Andrew Wallace Profession/position : Post-doc. Network address : wallace%uk.ac.fmi.ch (I think! GHJ) Address : Friehrich Miescher Institute City : Basel Country : Switzerland General : I am one of a group interested in protein-protein interactions. Project : Investigation of the huridin-thrombin interaction by site-directed mutagensis of the residues involved in the binding regions of both molecules and kinetic analysis of the resulting changes in the inhibit- ion of thrombin by huridin. References : Biochemistry (1988), 27, 6517-6522 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have more than one person, just send them in one file, separating each entry by a (few) blank line(s) so I can see them. 2) As I may get swamped (ever feel you're taking on too much?!! - you know you get this sinking kind of feeling...), maybe some kind soul could volunteer to cover the USA lot for me (or say East Coast, West Coast, etc). They could then issue their list in the same week (say) as mine, etc. It might be an idea to wait a bit though as at the moment I'm not over burdened (put your name forward in any case). 3) Come on, let's hear from you all... Just in case you don't know, or can't figure it out, my E MAIL address is: GHJ%uk.ac.cam.mrc-lmb (JANET address) For you people outside the UK, sorry I'm not too knowledgeable, but I gather you should *try* (my guess) send things via 'rl.ean-relay', or 'rl.earn', in the UK; who are an international gateway to various networks. Sorry I'm can't be more specific - good luck! (try your local E MAIL wizard). Grant ------