Like Tony Travis, I have resisted adding to the discussion. I also agree with
him that this is really not too much of a worry. This is a situation that has,
in general, been addressed by a lot of the truly high-volume news groups, in
that there might not be a FAQ list [lots of energy], but the
"old-timers" answer the questions quickly and off line, and the questioner
posts a summary for the list. Even when every biology person has their own
news account, I somehow don't think we are going to match the number of groups
or interests that are followed in comp.*.*.*; things evolve, and what was a
small community becomes many new communities with vitalities similar to the
original--intellectual suburbs, if you will.
Which brings me to Tony's point that bionet is a discussion forum. It is our
connection to each other at a level beyond what we do in journals, and
different from what we do in our laboratories. It will certainly evolve, but
probably not in a manner which makes it less complex--"They" aren't building
gigabaud networks to do e-mail faster...
Ernie Retzel
University of Minnesota
ernest at lenti.med.umn.edu
Information is the infrastructure...
