[1] From: Willard McCarty <mccarty@phoenix.princeton.edu> (17)
Subject: incentives
In Humanist 9.586 Costis Dallas notes,
>In my mind, electronic mail to colleagues abroad will not be an
>adequate incentive for an online connection. The real issue lies
>with what information will be available on line for scholars to use.
Exactly. The question is, how do we encourage the development of such
information? On the one hand, it seems clear that the user needs to know
whether what he or she has on screen is worth spending time puzzling over.
Peer-review seems to me essential for some kinds of online publication
(journals, usw.), but not for everything. Given a disciplined self,
self-publication can be (a) a powerful inducement for our colleagues to get
involved, and (b) a way of getting into the public light interesting,
valuable material that otherwise would stay in darkness. The more
conversational (like Humanist), the more experimental the less peer-review
seems appropriate.
Comments?
WM