I have just got back from holiday and have come to the debate about the
relative merits of the Newsletter v the List rather late, whilst clearing up
the accumulated Inbox. 

However, it is an interesting one, which should be encouraged.  The www and
the list are there to stimulate debate: having started out as a controlled
system for military use, the www has been developed by academia as a means of
informal, unstructured and unfettered communication.  In such an environment,
the dross very often engulfs the gems, but the system supports and encourages
original thought and expression, in a way that more formal publication
sometimes inhibits. 

I was recently in the position of arguing just the points raised in this
debate. In the five years or more since I last (briefly) edited the
Newsletter, the thing has not changed in the slightest.  The debate when I
chaired Publications Panel was over the relative directions of the Newsletter
v. the Journal.  It always has been my view that the Newsletter should be the
mouthpiece of the ordinary members, and that criticism of the "Company" can be
useful and constructive.  Isn't ours a democratic society after all?  I have
used the term irreverent when describing this, much, I think, to the annoyance
of others.  But it does imply editorial freedom, which can sometimes be
sacrificed to holding the line. I am sure that there is something in Handy
about the size of companies that is relevant here.  There is also a painting
in the Museum of Modern Art in Ceret called Hierarchies that illustrates the
point.  Sorry about the pun. 

The creation of special interest editions can be simply a means of handing
over editorial control to that interest, to the exclusion of the rest.  SRG
has now given way to PCG, with FSG waiting in the wings (or doing their own
thing entirely from the start).  However, whilst there is now no longer a
conflict between Newsletter and Journal, there is  a conflict between the
Newsletter and the Lists (and I do mean plural).   I stand by the point that I
have raised before, that not everyone has access to the Internet.  This being
so, then there is still a place for a printed publication that gets physically
into the hands of the membership, and those of us who have bothered to learn
how to reply to emails when we are away from the office will have to put up
with a little duplication.  
Personally, I would rather not have sixteen messages from people I don't know
telling me why they can't reply to my posting. 

The SoA Newsletter needs to be redefined, in the environment within which it
now competes for attention.  An overhaul is urgently needed, but I do not see
that happening, unless the technical lurker from Resource offers simultaneous
transmission via post and a hosting service, and a course in XML.  Or someone
might start up their own Underground Archive e-publication which could be
slipped past the moderators or hyperlinked from an innocuous posting on
security.  

On the subject of which, the alarm sensors might be incorporated into the
walls (and possibly the ceilings and the floors) because they are generally
weaker than the doors (in terms of difficulty of penetration), and a  system
that monitors only door movement might not react to any opening that might be
cut into the adjacent wall.   Ever had your car broken into (via the rear side
window) and wondered why your alarm never went off?  There are three elements
to security: the environment, the perimeter and the interior.  CK has the
definitive answer on how to deal with the interior through building design:
mechanical/electromechanical monitoring is a minor component in security,
people are much more difficult to deal with.  

My suggestions for further debate on the Newsletter: on the differences and
consequences between the means of transmission (paper v. Internet) where the
latter is likely to be subject to a greater degree of control in future once
it becomes common practice that all documents entering an organisation are
subject to some form of document management system or record keeping system,
and on content and format (if I remember correctly, the reason why I started
the new Newsletter with two columns was entirely because that was all that
Word gave me at that stage, and it was easiest, though a little trying at
times, to reformat just two columns).  Is this still the way to work?

One final question, for which I will no doubt be chastised by Dick and Brenda
(we do not appear to know what Simon thinks): 

Who gave Len a BT CD, or does he have cable in his street?  
(this is probably incomprehensible to anyone who is of Sarah's generation or
younger, but it is to do with the fact that LD can always be relied upon to
add to any debate he is present at, but that...) unfortunately, it spoils the
humour if you have to explain it all the time.  
   
Robert Chell 


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