RE: Dinos on the WEB? Please respond

[jpoling@infinet.com (Jeff Poling)]

>THere are some real pluses in publishing on the web.
>1.  It is fast.  It is much cheaper (no page charges, no charges
>for reprints, you still own your own copyright, etc.)
>2.  Web accessible stuff is cheaper fro libraries to get than standard
>journals!!  
>
>There are however one or two disadvantages that need to be worked out:
>1.  how do make sure that this information will be accessible 20 or 200 years
>from now as technology changes?  This is one that will bother us for some
>time to come i fear. 
>2.  how do we convince university admin types that this is a valid medium
>for publishing worth just as much as publishing in some paper journal.  
>until we do this, young academics dependent on the tenure process will 
>shun these journals.

   ...and let's not forget the difficulties of reading anything on a
computer screen for an extended period of time.  Some classmates in a
Communications class did a feasibility study on textbooks on CD ROM.  Two
problems immediately presented themselves:  1) computer time in the public
labs.  Universities seldom have enough computers, and reading a chapter or
paper or book on computer eats up valuable computer time; and 2) nobody
wants to spend an extended period of time staring at a computer screen.  I
have extreme difficulty reading from a computer screen for an extended
period of time, and I've been doing it since I was 13 (that's 14 years).
You could always print it out, but then we get back to "publishing" expense.

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