Jump to end for links to related documents.
IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
THROUGH BETTER UTILIZATION OF THE INTERNET
Suggestions by Fred W. Riggs and others, prepared
for the International Sociological Association.
Some of these suggestons have been implemented already.
PRELIMINARY DRAFT
All professional societies have communication problems that can more
easily be solved if the new technology offered by the INTERNET and the
World Wide Web could be used more efficiently. It would both reduce costs
for the headquarters secretariat and serve members more effectively. The
suggested measures are only summarized here, but discussed below in the
main text to which readers may jump promptly by clicking on the headwords.
In the text itself, bracketed numbers offer links to Web Sites that provide
illustrative texts.
1. Web Sites: Every organized group in a well
managed association should have its own Web Site or use a subsite belonging
to the Association's master site.
2. Site Links: The Association's
Master Site should support links to relevant external Web Sites and to
relateded files within the home page.
3.Program Links: Every segment of a conference program should provide links to the other segments and Web Sites, perhaps through the intermediary of a bookmark page listing all of them in a tabular format.
4.Internal Links. Every group's Web Site should
contain information about its conferences, workshops, roundtables, etc.
with appropriate links to anchors on its Association's master schedule
where reciprocal tags would enable readers to jump to the relevant data
on a groups's site.
5. Inter-Congress and External Activities: Between major conferences or congresses, group members should be encouraged to maintain continuous interactive discussions on an E-mail List that is linked to their Web Site, newsletter, and the Association's headquarters.
6. Conclusion.
Most professional associations have Home Pages providing data about their organization and activities, especially conferences and information sources. Unfortunately, it is not easy to determine how many of them have Sites or what their URLs may be. For the Social Sciences, the logical source of information would be the International Social Science Council [13] but a look at this page suggests that only 6 out of 40 members have their own sites. By contrast, most members of the International Council of Scientific Unions appear to have Home Sites as indicated on the following list:
[ICSU] http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/icsu/Membership/SUM.html
The bracketed number or abbreviaton provides a link to the URL which is also written out for the information of our readers. Unfortunately, these lists are not totally reliable. The International Geographical Union, which happens to belong to both ICSU and the ISSC, has the following Web Page listed on the former but not the latter:
[IGU] http://www.helsinki.fi/science/igu/
However, although the Anthropologists also belong to both ICSU and the ISSC, their link on the IPSU list only retrieves a subsite with basic information about the Union, and no home page -- see:
[IUAES] http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/icsu/Membership/SUM/iuaes.html
There are, of course, substantial differences between the home pages of these associations -- one of the most interesting I found was for pure and applied chemistry, at:
[IUPAC] http://www.iupac.org/organ/index.html
If a professional society has it own Home Page, it may or may not have organized groups (committees, commissions, sections, etc.) with their own Web Sites (or subsites of the Association's master site). For an example of such a Web Site managed for ISA/RC33 (the Logic and Methodology of Sociology) by Nancy Andes at the University of Alaska, see:
[1] http://local.uaa.alaska.edu/~aaso353/isa/index.htm
To facilitate jumps to such pages, it would be helpful if their URLs were posted near the heading for their entries on the Association's Home Page file that lists its organized groups. A good example can be found at the Web Site of the International Studies Association [ISA(IR)]:
[1a] http://csf.colorado.edu/isa/sections.html
By contrast, it is difficulty to determine how many ISA[Soc] groups also have autonomous or sub-sites. For example, the ISA list of research committees offers a link [4] to the entry for RC33, where one can find the Home Page link rather far down in the document instead of at the top where it would more easily be seen. Actually, it would be even better to add the URL to the list of research committees, [3], perhaps by means of a small symbol that could serve as the link.
Admittedly many organized groups within this and, indeed, most
associations, still lack Web Sites, yet they are rapidly proliferating
and, within a short time, we may expect most groups to have such
facilities of their own. They will soon recognize many important functions
that a group's Web Site can perform. For example, they enable members
living anywhere in the world to gain prompt access to all the kinds of
information normally sent to them infrequently and at great expense on
newsletters -- neither the secretariat nor the group needs to pay for the
INTERNET services now available gratis to virtually all scholars around
the world. Since many universities offer free WWW sites to their faculty,
it should not be difficult for every committee to maintain at least one
site. As soon as members start finding that other groups have Home Pages
that offer great advantages for their members, we may expect that they
will demand that their own committees also establish Web Pages.
Since most groups have members with enthusiastic interest in the effective
utilization of new INTERNET technologies, it should not be difficult to
find someone in each group who is willing and able to provide this service
for h/er colleagues on a complimentary basis. Members employed at universities
and research institutes are normally able to create and manage such sites
without cost. They should be honored for their service by recognition as
important officers of the group, to be included, with e-mail address and
the URL, wherever the group's elected officers are listed.
To illustrate the extent to which committee members already have their
own Home Pages, take a look at:
[IPE] http://csf.Colorado.EDU/ipe/ipenet.html
Admittedly this list belongs to a committee of a different ISA -- the
International Studies Association -- but it illustrates how many individual
scholars now manage a Web Site for themselves. It also shows a procedure
for individuals to register this information about themselves, thereby
saving the time of a secretary or Web manager.
Not only will group members be better served if they have a Web Site,
but the tasks confronting the Association's Secretariat can be simplified
in other ways: for example, by posting information normally provided in a
newsletter. Such information can also be downloaded at any time for
mailing to members who lack access on the INTERNET. Other members will be
able to access the same information on the Web, sooner and without cost.
Provision could also be made to provide mailed copies of the newsletter to
members who certify that for some good reason they are not able to gain
access to the Web Site. If members are charged for this service, they will
increasingly realize the importance of acquiring access to e-mail and Web
Sites. Complimentary copies mailed to some members for particular reasons
would still cost less than the general mailing to all members. Useful
comments by Leon James on the psychology of hypertext and Web Sites can be
found at: Cyberspace
Architecture
Since Web Sites can support and strengthen Association programs in many
ways, every Association should encourage its groups, committees, councils,
etc. to establish their own Sites well linked to the master site operated
by the Association. It is advantageous for any Association to establish
guidelines and practices that will not only facilitate the establishment
of Web Sites, but assist newcomers seeking to create and manage new Sites
and make sure that they are well integrated by logically placed links in
the master Site. The remaining sections of this memo will discuss some
of these linking problems and provide examples, drawing mainly on the experience
of the International Sociological Association whose master site can be
found at:
[2] http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/
To facilitate identification of links in this memo and to avoid repetitious
citations, bracketed numbers will be used to identify them. Thus [2]
will be used to represent the ISA Master Site or Home Page.
Members of any organized group within an Association like the ISA will
no doubt be the first to learn how to access their own Web Site, but most
members of the Association will not know this particular URL and will expect
their Association's master site to offer quick links to the available Sites
in an easy-to-use format. Using the ISA master site [2]
, let us see how anyone not already a member of an organized group
would proceed to find information about it.
Access to such sites should surely be facilitated, but consider how
it is linked to the ISA Web Site. First one might go to [2]
where one will find a link to Research Committees at:
[3] http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/rc.htm
Clicking on this site will bring up a numerical list of these committees.
Since many members will not remember the code number of the committee they
are looking for, they may have to hunt through the whole list before they
find the entry for RC33, the committee mentioned above. Since that Committee
has a name, Logic and Methodology of Sociology, it would have been
easier to provide a three-column index or table-of-contents at the start
of the file in which key words, in alphabetical order, would provide both
a link to its RC# entry in the master site, plus a link to its Web Site.
Such a second link need take almost no space -- it could be an asterisk
or pound sign, for example, which users would be told, at the top of the
file, provide links to sites. This technique will also remind groups without
a Web Site that they are missing an important resource.
Continuing our search, imagine that we have clicked on [2] for ISA, and
it takes us to the entry for its list of research committees at [3]. On this list we find
RC33 and jump to its entry at:
[4]
http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/rc33.htm
This file contains a text explaining the goals of RC33, plus several
links through which one may scroll until finding the link to its Web Page,
as cited in [1] Since
updated information and many more links can be found on the Web Page than
in the entry provided in the ISA Site, would it not be more convenient for
users to find the RC33 Site link at the top of this entry? Those who
already know the basic information about RC33 provided in [2] would be enabled to jump
promptly to the Site where its current activities and updated plans could
be found.
Since the ISA has organized groups that lack the status of a "Research
Committee," the group one might be looking for could be listed in
some other file, e.g., as a Working Group, a Thematic Group, or even, at
conferences, under an Ad Hoc label. Anyone hunting for information about
a specific group might have no idea what category it falls under, but would
remember its name, such as "Local-Global," "Cybernetic"
or "Famine." If the alphabetical table of contents on the
Home Page [2] were to include
all organized groups, regardless of their formal status, members could
more easily find information about the group whose activities interest
them. Since this listing would include not only the data reported on the
master file, but also links to the group's Web Site (if it has one), several
unnecessary steps and much wasted time could be avoided. For organizational
purposes, it might be important to retain files that identify groups by
their status and serial numbers, but this information will surely not interest
most members.
Users of the present ISA master site [2]
would, certainly, also appreciate a simplified lay-out for other kinds
of information which may also contain links to other Web Sites. A single
line across the top of the master site could provide immediate access to
major categories of information, including, for example:
Organizational (about the ISA, for example, including its structure,
charter, officers, staff),
Groups (including various categories in addition to recognized
Research Committees),
Conferences (especially, of course, the quadrennial Congress),
Related Resources (including sociological and social science
organizations, journals, bibliographic and data sources). For an example
see Sources
collected for the ISA Globalization Roundtable at Montreal, sponsored by
COCTA (RC35).
Texts (including important documents, presidential messages,
committee reports, etc.)
Under each of these headings, one would find links to relevant materials,
followed by introductory or explanatory notes. Frequent users familiar
with the notes could avoid having to read them before finding the links
to the specific information, like research committees, that they are looking
for. These need not be separate files, but could all be entered in a single
master file, giving readers the opportunity to scroll through them at leisure,
or jump immediately to the desired category desired. An example of such
a layout can be found on my own web page at:
[5] www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr
Within each category links to relevant information on sites outside the ISA Site, as well as on supplementary files within that Site, could be succinctly presented in a short table of contents containing links to the various entries on that file. The goal should always be to reduce unnecessary steps while providing enhanced access to all relevant sources of information. Moreover, information cues should be substantive (like the names of committees) rather than formal rubrics like serial numbers and opaque categories that do not inform users about their contents. Particularly important links and sites for any association arise during the rush to create a complex congress program. In the section that follows some of these problems will be examined.
One of the most complex and sensitive processes conducted by every association
involves making coordinated plans for a host of individuals in widely scattered
locations with may different yet overlapping interests. For a central secretariat
to micromanage this process from headquarters on a single Web Site is,
indeed, a difficult, time consuming, and risky operation almost certain
to generate conflicts when small errors are made. Shrewd use of group Web
Sites linked to the master site managed by the Secretariat should reduce
the costs and prevent many conflicts of interest that are inherent in
this process.
When a complex preliminary schedule is posted on an association's Web
Site, it cannot easily be up-dated by the secretariat, and if the printed
programme is not distributed until the Congress opens six months later,
there is a long interval when those making late plans and revisions are
seriously handicapped and members may not know how to manage their personal
schedules, especially if no provisional dates for each event have been
announced. Making a schedule that will prevent anyone from being slotted
in two simultaneous events and permit members to attend all sessions germane
to their special interests is an almost superhuman task that needs to be
widely decentralized. The INTERNET offers a technology that makes this
possible.
The first step is to encourage every group to develop its preliminary
plans on its own Web Site. That site can be continuously revised and, whenever
information is needed by the Program Committee and Secretariat, they do
not need to rely on slow mail to get the necessary data -- instead, they
can just download it from the group's Web Site. The program committee can
establish a general plan that ear-marks time slots for symposia, group
sessions, and plenary meetings -- the ISA does that regularly and makes
this schedule known to all members. It enables every group to select the
times it prefers for each of its panels and post them promptly on its own
Web Site. When members discover possible conflicts with sessions they may
want to attend that are sponsored by other groups, they can promptly report
the problem and adjustments can be made. For example, suppose that Jane
has been invited to give a paper in group X, and another paper in group
Y, she will be able to compare the draft schedules on the Web Sites for
both groups and, if she discovered that her two panels will occur at the
same time, she can let each group know and their planners will have enough
time to revise their schedules to overcome the conflict. Instead of relying
on a central apparatus to find such conflicts, every individual will be
able to overcome problems that involve their personal schedules.
A more complex scheduling problem arises when we want to enable members
to attend different sessions on related themes that may occur at the same
time. Again, the Web Site can provide at least a partial solution. As members
view the preliminary plans, they may see that a session planned by group
X deals with a theme that is also covered by another session in group Y.
They could register this fact on both Web Sites by providing a link --
thus the Site for X would include a link to Y attached to the relevant
panel, and Y could do the same thing. This would promptly call the attention
of viewers to the related sessions. If they were scheduled for the same
time, perhaps changes could be made. If they were at different time, members
would be able to plan ahead to attend both sessions. To see what this might
look like on a Web Page, view
[6] http://www2.hawai2.edu/~fredr/#cocta
Here one will find a chronology of sessions planned by RC35 (COCTA),
followed by notes on individual panels. Some of them contain links to panels
organized outside of RC35. Viewing these links in advance will enable members
to decide if they want to attend not only their own group's sessions but
also those planned by other groups. It may sometimes also happen that joint
sponsorship, coordinated sessions, or some other planned cooperation can
results. No doubt changes will occur during the planning processand anyone
offering a schedule with links like this should monitor it frequently to
make revisions based on the changed circumstances.
Of course, there may well be different categories of sessions depending
on the status of the sponsoring group. The ISA recognizes: Working Groups,
Thematic Groups, AD HOC Sessions, Special Sessions, and Programme
Committee sessions. Its preliminary program announces them in separate
segments without links between them. One has to go back to the Congress
Page to find the links to each category. It would be quite easy to post a
list of all such categories with a link to each one so that someone
reading a notice about a session in category A could jump with a click to
category C or E to find related sessions without having to go back to the
Congress Page first. Such a set of links can be copied and pasted into
each segment with a single click so it does not involve much extra effort.
Having such links would help members look for related sessions and take
steps, if needed, to facilitate their coordination and cross-listing, as
shown in [6].
Incidentally, another kind of link that needs to be added in each file for a group's Congress programme would enable readers to jump to the file that contains information about the group. To illustrate what I mean, first jump to [4] , the sub-text for RC33 posted under the list of research committees. Now jump to
[4a] http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/rc33c.htm
This text has to [4] which is admirable, and it also has a link to the group's home page [1]. This is exemplary and should be replicated on all of the group program pages. However, should the link not be posted at the top of the page rather than the end so that users would be able to find it right away.
Reciprocally, the text in [4] should, I think, have a link to [4a], the sub-site where that group's conference plans would be posted. No doubt after the Congress the link from [4]-[4a] would be useless, but a standard phrase could be inserted indicating that this link is only functional during the planning period before a Congress. Of course, the link to the group's Web Page should also be included on both of these pages next to the link to its other sub-site, as it is for RC33.
A more advanced technical procedure would simplify the task of program
making even more, but it could perhaps be adopted after developing the
basic tools described here. This technique involves the self-posting of
program items on the ISA Master Site. The technique involved is the same
as the one readers may find now on the ISA Home Page for members to register
electronically. See:
[7]
http://www.bcoc.umontreal.ca/socio98/formulaire/form_eng.html
Such a form could also be used for program development. Whenever an
authorized group belonging to the ISA is ready to register its program
proposals, its program coordinator could call up this Program Preferences
form -- it would include the general schedule for sessions, symposia, etc.
as approved by the Program Committee -- and then type in information about
panels and preferred time slots. The results would automatically be posted
without any need for action by the Secretariat, and it would enable members
to set their tentative personal schedules well in advance, not only for
the sessions of their own group, but for all sessions at the Congress.
The information could be revised, of course, and would clearly be marked
as tentative. Only after a given deadline had been reached, would all the
program plans become "frozen" and at that stage they could be
downloaded by the Congress Committee for use in a printed programme.
Such a tool is already in use by some research committees to enable
members to register their interest in giving a paper or preparing a panel.
See, for example, the IPE/ISA(IR) panel/paper registration form
(http://csf.colorado.edu/ipe/ipe97_panel.html) Although this committee
belongs to a different "ISA," the same HTML coding could be used
to create a similar form to enable ISA research committees to register
and revise the program announcements they would like to create. The form
would ask respondents to mention their own URL so that it could be posted
with their request for follow-up purposes.
Meanwhile, this tool would greatly facilitate self-planning by all members
and groups, permitting individuals to avoid conflicts in their personal
schedules, and identifying related sessions they would want to attend by
the procedures mentioned above.
Another more advanced tool might be added in the future, but only after
the more basic steps described above have been implemented. This would
involve constructing an index of descriptors for all the panels with links
to the anchors where each panel is listed. The organizers of a panel (even
paper givers?) could be asked to supply key terms to characterize their
project, linked to tags supporting jumps to the "name" of their
panel on their Group's Page. The terms could be sorted automatically and
posted on a separate file where members would quickly find, during the
planning process, information about colleagues working on related themes,
regardless of which group they were involved in. No doubt the lack of systematic
terminology is a huge obstacle to be overcome, but the starting point is
key words in context, as used by authors. The methodology of finding more
consistent terms is just the sort of project the COCTA group (RC35) is
interested in, as one may see by jumping to >[9].
Just as every Web Site for an organized group should be well linked
to the master site of the Association,, it should also support a variety
of links to individual members and their own Home Pages. Increasingly,
individual scholars will create Sites for their personal use, on which
they can post papers and plans involving their activities in professional
societies. A good example of such a site is that of Tom Hall, an active
ISA member. One may find it at:
[8] www.depauw.edu/~thall/hp1.htm
While plans for a set of group-sponsored panels at the next Congress
are being posted on the groups's Web Site, each participant can start by
posting an abstract, summary, outline, draft and eventually the final text
of a paper being prepared for presentation in one of these panels. Of course,
there should be two-way links so that readers of the group's Site can jump
to texts by each panelist, and readers of any individual paper can also
jump to panel plans to see how the paper fits into a larger plan.
By this means the author maintains complete control over h/er product,
but partners in the panel are able to have a look at the preparatory work
of colleagues, perhaps offer comments, and certainly integrate their own
efforts with the rest of the panel. Discussants will also be able, early
in a panel's developmental stage, to start interacting with the other participants,
to become familiar with their ideas and offer comments that may be helpful
to the authors. When the panel is finally presented at the Congress, it
will be well integrated and have maximal impact. Finally, after a panel
has been presented, participants can revise their work on the basis of
their discourse and prepare their texts for final publication.
Meanwhile, the organizer of a panel can pull all the abstracts and drafts
together, posting as much of the data and links to relevant information
as seems useful on the group Site. To see what is easily possible, one
may view the page for two panels at:
[9] http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/projects.htm
[10] http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/glotab.htm
At [9] one will find plans for a panel in which several Web-based conceptual
information services will be discussed and their relationships examined.
Here one will find links to each of these services and a commentary offering
a preliminary discussion of how they can reinforce and supplement each
other. Links are also provided for some ISA Congress sessions that will
offer complementary information -- because these activities are scattered
in different categories for Special Sessions, Program Committee sessions,
and Ad Hoc sessions, and no indexing clues are provided on the ISA master
Site, it is difficult for members to find them and having links to them
on the Group Sites should greatly facilitate planning in advance by individual
members.
As for [10],
it will be a roundtable on globalization based on a questionnaire
sent to all ISA members asking them what they have in mind when they use
this word. The results are being compiled in an interactive process involving
quite a few respondents, making use of both the Web Page and an e-mail
list. Participants in the roundtable will discuss a concept paper based
on the analysis of questionnaire returns, and a useful glossary for Globalization
studies will result and be made freely available on the Web to anyone interested
in using it. This page has, therefore, been an indispensable tool for the
development of a collective project based on the work of many ISA members.
Again, the Web page also provides a variety of links to related documents
and projects, an extensive bibliography, and other useful tools. Because
it is interactive, it will evolve continuously both before and after the
roundtable in Montreal.
Each group's home page, therefore, is not only useful as a building
block for constructing the Association's Congress program, but each constituent
group can use it as a tool for its own work, linking members in a continuously
creative process of interaction.
Between major conferences or congresses, group members are expected
to maintain continuous interactive relationships by ordinary mail and occasional
roundtables or seminars where they can engage in face-to-face interaction.
These activities can be strengthened by a group Web Site and an e-mail
list. All the techniques mentioned above are also relevant at this level.
Moreover, the group can supplement its publications and ordinary correspondence
by engaging much more easily and with less cost in continuous electronic
communications in which plane fare, hotel and restaurant charges, and even
registration fees can be eliminated.
One of the benefits of inter-congress seminars is that members of other
associations can participate in order to enhance cross-disciplinary communication.
This is especially valuable for hybrid fields in which participants from
various disciplines work together. A review of the list of ISA Research
Committees shows that at least 15 are hybrids involving such external disciplines
as Economics,2; Education,4; History,8; Law,12; Health,15; Political Science,18;
Religion,22; Science,23; Ecology,24; Linguistics,25; Agriculture,40; Psychology,42;
and Mental Health,49. Each of these fields has professional societies,
Web Sites, and lists of their own. It is prohibitively expensive in both
time and money for professionals to attend Congresses sponsored by severeal
different disciplines. They are more easily attracted to group seminars
or roundtables because financial support is often available and their time
is used more economically than it can be at a huge congress.
Many of these advantages can also be achieved at even less expense by means of the INTERNET. If electronic communications among members of a cross-disciplinary group are augmented by face-to-face meetings outside the Congresses, the benefits of such discourse are heightened.
Web Sites sponsored by cross-disciplinary groups should also be encouraged,
and again links with them should be posted on each cooperating discipline's
Home Page. A good example is the CROP (Committee for Research on Poverty)
which is sponsored by the International Social Science Council, of which
the ISA is a member. Information about CROP is continuously available on
its Web Site at:
[11] http://www.crop.org/cropweb.htm
Because CROP's terminology project is included among those to be discussed
at the COCTA panel identified in [9].
Similarly, links should be included for the organizations that sponsor
multi-disciplinary discourse in the social sciences, including UNESCO and
the International Social Science Council. UNESCO sponsor a project on the
Management of Social Transformations (MOST) which can be viewed at:
[12] http://www.unesco.org/most
Through the ISSC, one may contact directly the Web Sites for other social
science associations. Strangely enough, many of them seem not yet to have
created them, but about a dozen probably have their own Sites now. A list
can be found at
[13] http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/hallinto/issc.htm/
Strangely, although the ISSC serves as the global center for all social
science associations, it lacks its own home page and depends on an individual,
Matti Malkia, to provide some information about their work as a personal
favor. No doubt they selected him because he chairs the Council's Committee
on Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (COCTA), which also works very
closely with the ISA's COCTA group (RC35). Information about how the work
and perspectives of this group have been transformed by the INTERNET, and
especially the WWW, can be found at:
[14] http://www2.hawaii.edui/~fredr/#cocta
Among the items discussed in this report is a suggestion that could
utilize the WWW and INTERNET to strengthen the work of all research committees
and other groups in associations like the ISA. The benefits of the new
technology, and its uses in research methodology, the development of new
concepts and terms, and many other facets of social science research, could
all be enhanced if, in addition to its research groups that focus on substantive
problems, there were to be a different kind of resource or service group
capable of helping all the research committees. At least two such groups
exist in the ISA: RC33 on Logic and Methodology and RC35, on Concepts
and Terms. In both cases, the expert knowledge possessed by leaders
of these groups should be made available to all members. This means that
it is important to supplement the normal structure of research committees
and working groups by establishing something like a "staff" function
that can be represented on all groups and provide services to them. A more
extended discussion of this subject can be found in the report linked at
[14] and
I will not take more space here to discuss it -- but I consider it a very
important question for high level consideration by the ISA.
Although extensive use of the INTERNET can simplify procedures and enhance
contacts among members of any Association, it cannot replace its Congresses.
They will remain a focal point for personal interactions and negotiations
that will empower the utilization of the INTERNET between congresses in
new and exciting ways. The real key is utilizing the hypertext (linking)
capabilities of the WWW to enable members not only to pursue their special
interests but also to take advantage of all the new methods that will support
their work.
It would really be simple, I think, for the ISA Web Manager to make sure that URLs for each committee are included at two sites on the ISA Web Page: first, as a permanent record, on the file where committees and other organized groups are identified; and second, at the conference site where plans for the next Congress are posted. If that information were available, then members could get up-dated plans for their panels after the ISA has posted its preliminary conference plans, and before they pick up the printed program at the congress site. That's at least 6 months and a lot of anxiety could be overcome.
The Secretariat might also find that it could save a lot of time by
shortening the information about each panel -- for example by omitting
coordinates for each author. This would enable readers to see very quickly
what members and topics are being presented -- they could jump to the group's
Web Page if they wanted more information, such as abstracts for papers,
coordinates and "mailto" forms for each author, enabling them
to quickly get more details, etc. Ultimately, much of the effort involved
can be transferred to the members simply by using response forms that permit
every group to register its own preferences, subject to later revision
as problems arise. Some of that saved time could be better used to monitor
the information on the Association's Master Site from the point of view
of members, not that of organizers and managers. This would entail adding
many links between pages on the Site as well as links to Sites managed
by organized groups. It would also involve entering tables of contents
and indexes with links by subject matter rather than code numbers. Finally,
all this effort also requires much more attention to terminology because
inconsistencies in vocabulary and the lack of suitable terms seriously
hampers effective coordination, but how to do that is another subject.
Rather than comment on it here, please take a look at:
[10] http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/glotab.htm
[9] http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/projects.htm
The first site provides an example of how to manage a terminology project, and the second discusses relationships between different projects and resources available on the Web. The author remains available to discuss details and provide additional information -- he may be reached prompty by writing to: Fred Riggs
ISA Sites: Home Page: [2] || RCs [3] || RC33 [4] || RC33-panels [4a] || RC35 [14] || Regis. [7]
External ISA sites: RC33: [1] || RC35 [6] || RC35 "Projects": [9] || RC35 "Globalization": [10] []
External non-ISA Sites: ISSC Page [13] ||
ICSU Page
[ICSU]
||
[IGU]
||
[IUAES]
||
[IUPAC]
[]
CROP
page [11] || UNESCO/MOST
page: [12] ||
ISA Sections [1a]
International Political Economy subscribers: [IPE] || The IPE
panel/papers registration form ||
Leon James'Cyberspace Architecture
|| Tom Hall's Home Page [8]
||
Fred Riggs' Home Page [5] ||
Sources for Globalization Roundtdable []
For links to the Riggs Home Page, go to:
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