Dear Francois and other new subscribers,

Thank you for your thoughtful ideas and proposals. This is an open
list, and all ideas are open to consideration. Before anyone debates
this particular series of ideas, I want to take a moment to offer a
few corrections about the PhD-Design list, and the current online
conference.

This is not a comment to the substance of Francois¹s note. Even so,
the note contains several mistakes, and it is important to understand
the situation as it is now.

PhD-Design is a JISCMAIL list, a service to the worldwide academic
community provided by the UK JISCMAIL facility. The list is sponsored
by the Design research Society (DRS), but it is not restricted to the
DRS community. It is open to anyone involved in design research.

The list was established in 1998 to focus on issues in research
training and doctoral education. The list began following the Ohio
conference on doctoral education in design. It too its current shape
in 2000 following the La Clusaz conference on doctoral education in
design.

PhD-Design welcomes debate and dialogue on many themes including
philosophies and theories of design, foundations and methods of
design research, form, and structure for the doctorate in design, and
the relationship between practice and research in design. One result
of the recent thread on concrete research seems to be that we have
become a forum for posting case studies and specific research
results. Many of us hope this trend will continue.

With over 900 subscribers, PhD-design has now grown to become the
largest active forum of conversation on issues and themes in design
research.

If you joined this list since September 10, you find us ­ and
yourself ­ in an on-line conference on the theme of ³Building the
Field of Design Research.² The sub-theme is scholarly communication,
but we have not yet considered this topic in detail. While this
on-line conference follows the DRS conference ³Common Ground² in
time, it is NOT a continuation of Common Ground.

Some participants in the on-line conference ³Building the Field of
Design Research.² have considered themes and issues focused on the
idea of common ground. That is one approach to building the field of
design research. It is not the only approach to building the field.

While many participants at Common Ground and nearly all the committee
members and officers of DRS participate here, we are not bound by the
call or purposes of the Common Ground conference. This forum is open
to any subscriber, and we are by our nature relatively free in our
approach.

This list is not moderated, and there is little prospect of this
becoming a moderated list. For that to happen, we would need to see a
serious debate on the specific question of whether the list should be
moderated, and we would need to see a clear indication that the
majority of list members wish the list to be moderated. I cannot
speak for anyone else, but I doubt that this is likely.

David Durling, Lorraine Justice, and I convened the current dialogue.
We are moderating the dialogue only in the sense that we have
convened it. We play an occasional role by bringing issues into
focus. We post invited thought pieces from time to time, and we ask
some of you specifically to address certain themes where you have
deep understanding and expertise. We will leave this role when the
on-line conference ends in December, though David will remain as list
owner, together with Keith Russell of Newcastle University.

A debate on the ideas Francois has put forward might be interesting.
What are the virtues of a moderated list? Should there be a special
process for list notes and submissions? How could a language and
editorial group work in a list such as this? Who would do the work?
How would it take place?

These ideas and issues are interesting in what they might reveal. It
seems unlikely that the PhD-Design list would change its current
form, but it is always possible. It is also possible that these ideas
will give rise to a new kind of project or list.

I will use the opportunity of my quasi-moderating role to note that
PhD-Design works quite well in its current state. A review of the
archives of available design and design research lists at JISCMAIL
reveals that we have the largest membership, the greatest number of
individuals who post, and the highest number of posts of any list
hosted at JISCMAIL. I have my wishes for this list, but I am pleased
with the many things we do right.

Dick Buchanan¹s keynote speech at Common Ground spoke to the
importance of maintaining a wide dialogue. While the narrower lists
or projects that might grow out of proposals such as those Francois
has posted have value, I feel there is a value to a large, open list
such as we have now. On the other hand, if a significant number of
subscribers feel differently on this issue, the floor is open. Keith,
David, and the DRS Council will certainly heed a strong call for new
directions.

If you wish to read any of the past contributions to this on-line
conference, you will find them in the list archives at URL:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/phd-design.html

JISCMAIL archives offer multiple search features. You can browse
contributions within any month in different ways. You may organize
the page by author, date, or subject. You can also view posts in
chronological order or in reverse chronological order, latest post
first.

JISCMAIL also supports a powerful search feature. You may search
using keywords or phrases to locate ideas or topics, or to find
citations, or specific items or issues mentioned on the list.

This URL is also the site of the Subscriber¹s Corner. You can go to
the Subscriber's Corner to modify your subscription settings. The
most common modification is setting the list to digest to read
everything once a day instead of getting each post when it is sent.
This is where you can send colleagues to subscribe or unsubscribe.

Best regards,

Ken

--

Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University