From: WGERLT@ATL.dnet.ge.com
Subject: APP: virtual journals
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 17:26:32 EST



There's been a thread here about the difficulty of publishing
technical reports in a timely fashion and getting them to the 
proper audience.

Here's my two cents worth...

It's time to dump the notion of papers being PRINTED ON PAPER.
Don't we produce them on-line?  Aren't most of the images,
pictures, screendumps, etc on-line to start with?  Isn't it
faster to email something or ftp it in its original 
electronic form than it is to get it printed, mailed, and
distributed?  Isn't it cheaper to keep a a few interesting
papers on disk than to subscribe to half a dozen expensive
journals?  Think of all the papers you've seen that would
have been better if there were a few more pictures which
couldn't be included because of journal restrictions.

I say let's set up newsgroups/archives/ftp sites/etc for
publishing papers completely electronically.  You could
dump your MacWhatever document directly there.  Or whatever
format document you produce.  You could also dump .gif
(or whatever) files there and refer to them in your paper.
Think how much easier, quicker, and cheaper it would be.
Imagine what a literature search could be - almost
completely automated.  You email the right location with
an appropriate SUBJ: line and get back a list of references.
Then send another email or do an ftp and you've got the
paper you choose from the list of references.

There could be moderated groups where papers are selected
by a group of "editors" based on some criteria.  There could 
be unmoderated groups where basically anything goes.  I'm
not a net expert of any kind, but I imagine that there is
some way to keep a verifiable record of who posted what and
when to keep scum from taking undue credit and to keep
worse scum from making unwanted modifications.

I know I haven't really done the idea justice here.  It
seems that such a net-oriented, intelligent group of
people such as this group attracts should be able to
get something going.  It seems like an appropriate
action for VR believers...

Bill     wgerlt@atl.ge.com