ANNOUNCEMENT OF A ZEBRAFISH BIONET NEWSGROUP AND CALL FOR VOTE
A newsgroup has been proposed to serve the zebrafish research community
and any other interested parties. A call for vote was made on June
13th. If you are interested in supporting the establishment of this
newsgroup, please participate in voting. To vote in favor of the
establishment of this newsgroup, send the following short (3 word)
message to one of the following e-mail addresses:
YES on ZEBRAFISH
biovote at net.bio.netbiovote at net.bio.net
ALSO, TWO ZEBRAFISH WWW SERVERS HAVE ARE UNDERCONSTRUCTION, AND CONTAIN
USEFUL INFORMATION FOR INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN RESEARCH ON ZEBRAFISH
AND THEIR FINNY RELATIVES.
These www servers can be accessed using a WWW reader (e.g. Mosaic),
and opening a URL: http://zebra.scarolina.eduhttp://zfish.uoregon.edu
The full text of the CFV follows, as it appeared in bionet.announce 6/13;
this text contains the complete proposal and full instructions on voting.
Richard Vogt
vogt at biol.scarolina.edu
..................................................................
Voting is now open on the following proposal to create the mailing
list & newsgroup ZBRAFISH/bionet.organisms.zebrafish. There were no
changes made to the original charter.
*** NOTE *** We are currently running several votes for other
newsgroups, so please be certain to follow the voting directions
*carefully*! If you just send in a message saying "YES" or "NO" it
will not be counted if it is not clear which proposal you are
responding to.
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Proposal to create ZBRAFISH/bionet.organisms.zebrafish
Usenet newsgroup name: bionet.organisms.zebrafish
Status: not moderated
Mailing list name: ZBRAFISH
Mailing list addresses: zbrafish at net.bio.netzbrafish at daresbury.ac.uk
Discussion Leaders: Richard Vogt
University of South Carolina
Department of Biological Sciences
Columbia, SC 29208
vogt at biol.scarolina.edu
Una Smith
Department of Biology
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8104
smith-una at yale.edu
Charter:
A newsgroup and linked mailing list for discussion of the Zebrafish
(Danio rerio), a popular species for the study of the molecular
genetics of early development, to exchange pertinent information,
both technical and biologicial, among people who study this organism.
Justification:
The use of the Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a molecular genetic model
for early development has increased dramatically over the last
decade. This increase is highlighted by recent reviews in Nature
(May 5, p. 59) and Science (May 13, p. 904) discussing significant
genetic mapping and mutational/developmental studies, and by a recent
meeting at Cold Spring Harbor (CSH) Laboratories, "Zebrafish
Development and Genetics", which drew around 325 participants. The
number of laboratories involved in Zebrafish research is increaseing
at an astounding rate, as is the distribution of these laboratories
throughout the world. A specific request was made by participants at
the CSH meeting to establish increased computer networking so that
information regarding Zebrafish research could be more rapidly
distributed and exchanged, and so that community ties could be
maintained. Partly in response to this request, Dick Vogt and others
have established a Zebrafish WWW server ("zebra.scarolina.edu");
however, such servers are still not highly interactive.
We would like to propose the formation of a new group devoted to
research on Zebrafish and related species. This newsgroup will
help maintain close ties between all Zebrafish researchers and will
complement existing avenues of information dissemination, including
a regular Zebrafish Development and Genetics Meeting (2 year cycle),
the Zebrafish Monitor (a semi-annual newsletter) and developing
database servers.
Formation of this newsgroup would provide:
A source of quick help on research methods particular to
Zebrafish, including colony maintenance questions and the
exchange of breeding stocks.
A timely, rapid vehicle for announcements about workshops
and meetings, and other news.
A public forum for open-ended discussion and debate about
difficult community-wide issues, such as conventions for
naming new genes.
A forum for new Zebrafish researchers to become acquainted
and develop personal networks within the community.
An archive of searchable information for future use by
Zebrafish researchers and others.
Adminstrative details:
Although Dick Vogt is enthusiastic about serving as the discussion
leader of the proposed bionet.organisms.zebrafish newsgroup, he will
be on an island for much of the summer. He has access to Usenet
from the island, but will check in less frequently than usual, by
modem, thus Una Smith will lead discussion of the proposal for this
newsgroup.
This proposal will be publicized in the Zebrafish bulletin edited
by Monte Westerfield at U. of Oregon, on the Zebrafish Web archive,
by word of mouth within the Zebrafish research community, and on
several mailing lists having to do with fish: FISHFOLK, KILLIES,
FISH-ECOLOGY and FISHERIES. Suggestions for other relevant places
to mention the proposal are welcome.
Una Smith smith-una at yale.edu
Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8104 USA
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Voting is now open on the proposal for
ZBRAFISH/bionet.organisms.zebrafish and will run through 24:00 hrs
Pacific Time on 13 July 1994. Please send your vote to either of the
following addresses:
Address Location Network
------- -------- -------
biovote at daresbury.ac.uk U.K. JANET
biovote at net.bio.net U.S.A. Internet/BITNET
PLEASE BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FORMAT BELOW - WE OFTEN RUN MORE THAN ONE
VOTE AT A TIME SO A SIMPLE "YES" OR "NO" MESSAGE WITHOUT THE NEWSGROUP
NAME MAY BE AMBIGUOUS. Your vote should contain a single line:
YES on ZEBRAFISH
if you favor allowing the creation of this newsgroup or
NO on ZEBRAFISH
if you think that this proposal will adversely affect the
BIOSCI/bionet system. While not intended to be an exhaustive list of
possible concerns (more specific concerns may have been raised during
the discussion period on BIOFORUM/bionet.general and interested
readers are referred to these), some general reasons for voting NO
might be if you are concerned about newsgroup proliferation and/or
believe that the proposed group will not be utilized, or if you think
that the proposed newsgroup would substantially duplicate or overlap
with the function of existing newsgroups. If you are simply not
interested in participating in the newsgroup above, please don't cast
a NO vote, but instead just don't vote at all.
The newsgroup proposal must receive at least 80 YES votes to pass and
the number of YES votes must be greater than the number of NO votes by
at least 40. Discussion of the newsgroup proposal is now closed and
we strongly discourage posting any messages in other forums about the
fact that a CALL FOR VOTES has been issued. Permission has been
granted to the discussion leader to redistribute this announcement to
other members of the Zebrafish research community.
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
BIOSCI/bionet Manager
biosci-help at net.bio.net
.........................................................................
--
Richard Vogt (Internet: vogt at biol.scarolina.edu) (803) 777-8998
Department of Biology, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC 29208
