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  December, 1995    _EJournal_   Volume 5  Number 2    ISSN 1054-1055

                    There are 699 lines in this issue.

                 An Electronic Journal concerned with the
              implications of electronic networks and texts.

              At last count, 3018 subscribers in 37 Countries

            University at Albany, State University of New York
                           Department of English

                            EJOURNAL@albany.edu

  CONTENTS:                                         [This is line 22 ]

      ARCHIVING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS              [Begins at line  65]
         A Report of a Proposal
               by David Bearman

      PRIORITIES FOR PUBLICATION PRESERVATION            [at line 339]
               by Sheila Webber

      AMBIGUITY MACHINES                                 [at line 452]
         [OR, "Precision, hah!  Computers are
          better at poetry than they are at math."]
               by Jacques Leslie
                  (republished from BYTE magazine)

  Editorial Comment                                      [at line 553]


  Information about _EJournal_                           [at line 604]

      About Subscriptions and Back Issues
      About Supplements to Previous Texts
      About _EJournal_

  People                                                 [at line 661]

      Board of Advisors
      Senior Editors
      Consulting Editors

  ***********************************************************************

    *****************************************************************
  *  This electronic publication and its contents are (c) copyright  *
  *  1995 by _EJournal_.  Permission is hereby granted to give away  *
  *  the journal and its contents, but no one may own it.  Any and   *
  *  all financial interest (except where noted) is hereby assigned  *
  *  to the acknowledged authors of individual texts.                *
  *  This notification must accompany all distribution of _EJournal_.*
    *****************************************************************

  ========================================================================

  A R C H I V I N G   E L E C T R O N I C   D O C U M E N T S
        A Report of a Proposal
           by David Bearman

  PREFACE    (by _EJournal_)

  In an era of electronic communications one can mount many arguments
  against building more filing cabinets to hold paper.  This essay is
  an _EJournal_ adaptation of David Bearman's extensive proposal about
  standards for Virtual Archives.  It proposes six layers of
  "metadata" that ought to surround all electronic records so they can
  be considered permanent and trustworthy.  It also suggests,
  implicitly, that we should establish and begin using standards for
  such metadata capsules.

  Along the way, almost incidentally, the essay highlights the amazing
  amount of information embedded in those oft-maligned folder-filled
  filing cabinets. By pointing out some of the minutiae needed to
  upgrade everyday binary storage into trustworthy virtual archiving,
  the essay (and especially the detailed proposal) may spur the
  on-line community to establish standards and "enforce" them soon-
  -perhaps with the example of SGML's development as a model.  Or the
  proposal might prompt us to think again about our paperless
  fantasies.

  David Bearman's own complete proposal is to be presented in Beijing
  in 1996.  It encompasses the extreme case of recording business
  transactions so they will be acceptable as evidence in courts.

  The most up-to-date version of the requirements, specifications,
  production rules, metadata standards, literary warrant and research
  papers on the variables in electronic recordkeeping in organizations
  are maintained on the Project's Website at the University of
  Pittsburgh.  Go to:

  http://www2.lis.pitt.edu/~sochats/nhprc.html
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  ARCHIVING  ELECTRONIC  DOCUMENTS
        A Report of a Proposal
           by David Bearman

  INTRODUCTION                                            [line 107]

  Within ten years, most of the records in our society will be made
  and transmitted and stored electronically.  We will be able to
  access them from anywhere.  This means that our default assumptions
  about the custody of records, which are still rooted in physical
  terms like "hold" and "musty" and "on-site availability," will be
  replaced by policies to ensure the more generic "retention" and
  "disposition" and "virtual availablity."

  The ultimate goals of archiving won't change, but the means of
  achieving those goals will.  Right now, we should be adopting
  standards and methods of virtual archiving, using available
  technology, so that we can be spared having to redesign multiple
  ad-hoc systems and then, a few years from now, retrofit masses of
  accumulated documents.  Indeed, critical observers have argued that
  the Global Information Infrastructure will not be able to support
  "serious" work until we can satisfy requirements for the
  "integrity," "authenticity," "reliability" and "archiving" of
  digital information . [1]

  THE METADATA

  These six encapsulating layers would constitute documents destined
  to qualify as and to be archived as virtual records:

          1. Handle.

          2. Terms and Conditions.

          3. Software and hardware dependency flags.

          4. The document-creation context.

          5. The binary-large-object, or BLOB- -the text/ display, the
             document, the record- -itself.

          6. The history of the record.

  In visual, paperbased imagery, the first four layers are on the
  "top" of the document and the sixth is on the "bottom."

  Some points about about the six Metadata layers:         [line 149]

  1>   Handle:  Uniqueness is important, of course, and so is a flag
  showing that what follows (or is "enclosed," in paperbased
  terminology) is indeed a record.  Such flagging will have to conform
  to an international standard.

  2>   Terms and Conditions:  At the outset, eligibility is set by the
  creator.  Are there restrictions involving permission, payment, or
  "not before" criteria?  What's the address of whoever can grant
  permission?  Is the record "read only"?  Within the access layer
  there should also be disposition information.  Who may authorize
  erasure?  Is there some "Sunset" provision?

  3>  What kind of file is it?  Text, graphic, sound ....?  ASCII,
  raster, sampling ....?  Compressed?  Encrypted?  With what hardware,
  operating system and application was it created?  When these data
  are provided (in the kind of drill-down detail laid out in Bearman's
  complete proposal), they will make it possible to adapt the record
  (and metadata) for reading with hardware and software constructed to
  specifications not currently anticipated. [Worriers should look at
  Jeff Rothenberg, "Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Documents" in
  the January, 1995 _Scientific American_, pp 42-47.]

  4>  The context of the document's origin:  Who created it?  Where
  was it broadcast, or to whom was it sent?  Who got copies?  For
  business transactions, who is responsible for contractual
  implications?

  5>   The encapsulated BLOB itself, the record, the document, the
  text/ display- -the Binary Large OBject.  [It could, of course,
  contain links to other documents and sites; the thought of archiving
  www hypertexts is enough to make the virtual archiving of
  standalone documents look easy.]

  6>  The history:  Viewed, copied, edited, filed, indexed, forwarded,
  abstracted- -when, and by whom, and what portions.  Among other
  matters, the history should assure readers that nothing from the
  original document has been left out along the way.

  Stripped of  details and references, this is the conceptual core of
  David Bearman's proposal.  What follows are pointers
  (non-electronic) to pertinent material.

  ---------------------                                   [line 193]

  First, the professional and organizational aspects of reengineering
  the archival profession can be explored in these references:

  David Bearman & Margaret Hedstrom, "Reinventing Archives for
  Electronic Records: Alternative Service Delivery Options" in
  Hedstrom, Margaret ed. _Electronic Records Management Program
  Strategies, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report #18_,
  1993, pp.82-98

  Margaret Hedstrom, "Electronic Archives: Integrity and Access in the
  Networked Environment" (Second International Conference on
  Scholarship and Technology in the Humanities, January 1994);
  forthcoming

  New York State Archives and Records Administration, "Building
  Partnerships for Electronic Recordkeeping: The New York State
  Information Management Policies and Practices Survey. Summary of
  Findings," (by Margaret Hedstrom, Project Director), August 1994

  -------------------------

  Second, questions about the technical needs, and costs, of
  reconfiguring paper-based archives are being addressed by Digital
  Library projects throughout the world:

  Library of Congress, The National Digital Library Program
  (Washington, DC, January, 1995)

  Research Libraries Group, "Digital Imaging Technology for
  Preservation."  _Proceedings_ from an RLG Symposium held March 17 &
  18, 1994, ed. Nancy E. Elkington (Mountain View CA, RLG, 1994)

  Anne R. Kenney & Lynne K. Personius, "Joint Study in Digital
  Preservation: Report Phase I (January 1990-December 1991)"
  (Washington DC, Commission on Preservation and Access, 1992)

  Anne R. Kenney, Michael A. Friedman and Sue A. Poucher, "Preserving
  Archival Material Through Digital Technology."  Final Report (Ithaca
  NY, Cornell University Library, 1993)

  -------------------------                               [line 235]

  Third, these are places where general issues of recordkeeping
  requirements have been discussed:

  IEEE Mass Storage Systems Standards Technical Committee Metadata
  Project, Second Meeting on Metadata for the Administration and
  Access of Stored Information, Austin, Texas, February 17-18, 1994

  [Documents discussed at this meeting included:

     - "The Intelligent Archive" (UCRL-TB-115079-6 Lawrence
     Livermore Laboratory, Carol Hunter, Project Manager)

     - "Whitepaper on Data Management", Robyne Sumpter, Lawrence
     Livermore Laboratory,  February 10, 1994

     - "A Metadata Capability Supporting the Hierarchical Storage
     and Access of Large Abstract Data Entities," J. C. Almond and
     Rekha Singhal, University of Texas CHPC


  New York State Archives & Records Administration, "Guidelines for
  the Legal Acceptance of Public Records in an Emerging Electronic
  Environment," (Albany, Dept. of Education, New York, 1994) 35pp.

  NHPRC grant #93-030, "Variables in the Satisfaction of Archival
  Requirements for Electronic Records Management."

  David Bearman, "Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records
  in Contemporary Organizations," (Pittsburgh, Archives & Museum
  Informatics, 1994).

  David Bearman and Ken Sochats, "Formalizing Functional Requirements
  for Recordkeeping," unpublished draft paper included in University
  of Pittsburgh "Functional Requirements for Recordkeeping" Project
  "Reports and Working Papers" (LIS055/LS94001), September, 1994.

  Richard J. Cox, "Re-Discovering the Archival Mission," _Archives and
  Museum Informatics/Cultural Heritage Informatics Quarterly_, vol.8
  #4, 1994, pp.279-300.

  --------------------------                             [line 277]

  Fourth, these are places where the documentation requirements of
  specific record-keeping domains are discussed:

  A. H. Boss, "Electronic Data Interchange agreements: private
  contracting towards a global environment," _Northwestern Journal of
  International Law and Business_, vol.13 (1992);

  Electronic Data Interchange Association, _The United States
  Electronic Data Interchange Standards_;

  J. L. Lamprecht, _Implementing the ISO 9000 Series_ (1993);

  A. J. Marcella & S. Chan, _EDI Security, Control and Audit_ (1993);

  Miller, _GAAS Guide_ (1994);

  J. A. Rabbitt, _The ISO 9000 Book: A Global Competorts Guide to Compliance
  and Certification_ (1993);

  J. P. Tomes, _Healthcare records management, disclosure and
  retention_ (1993);

  B. Wright, _The Law of Electronic Commerce_ (1991)

  The "Functional Requirements for Recordkeeping" project has compiled
  a database of "warrant" for the requirements defined within the
  project.  The most up-to-date version of the requirements,
  specifications, production rules, metadata standards, literary
  warrant and research papers on the variables in electronic
  recordkeeping in organizations are maintained on the project WWW
  server at the University of Pittsburgh.

        http://www2.lis.pitt.edu/~sochats/nhprc.html

  --------------------------------------------             [line 313]

  NOTE [1]

  Clifford Lynch, "The Integrity of Digital Information: Mechanics and
  Definitional Issues," _Journal of the American Society for
  Information Science_, vol.45 #10, December, 1994, pp.737-744;

  Peter Graham, "Intellectual Preservation in the Electronic
  Environment,"  _Proceedings_, Library Collections and Technical
  Services, 1992, pp.18-32 (Chicago, ALA, 1992);

  Henry Perritt, "Public Information in the National Information
  Infrastructure," Report to the Regulatory Information Service
  Center, General Services Administration, and to the Administrator,
  Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management
  and Budget, 5/20/94

  ******************************************************************
  * This essay in Volume 5 Number 2 of _EJournal_ is (c) copyright *
  * 1995 by _EJournal_.  Permission is hereby granted to give it   *
  * away.  Any and all financial interest is assigned to David     *
  * Bearman.  This notice must accompany all copies of this text.  *
  ******************************************************************
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

  P R I O R I T I E S   F O R   P U B L I C A T I O N      [line 339]
  P R E S E R V A T I O N

          by Sheila Webber

  [Editor's note:  I plucked this Note from a List where members were
  conversing about what constitutes "electronic publication."  Ms.
  Webber's Note appears here with her permission;  I was unable to
  reach her for approval of the changes made in preparing it for
  publication.]

  I think there is a need to look afresh at the whole spectrum of
  media in which knowledge, entertainment, culture (or whatever) can
  be transmitted, and then, as a separate task, to work out fresh
  criteria for deciding what "publications"- -in whatever medium-
  -should be top priority for cataloguing and preservation.

  We should keep clear, I believe, the distinction between being
  eligible for classification as a "publication" and being chosen for
  archiving.  Not every publication should be kept; on the other hand,
  e-stuff should not be excluded from preservation because it doesn't
  fit into papyrocentric "publication" pigeonholes.

  The British Library, for instance, in its leaflet on legal deposit,
  says that  "A work is said to be published when copies of it are
  issued to the public."  As we know, it is not yet universally
  agreed, in an electronic context, just what "issuing" consists of,
  or what a "copy" is.  What if one were simply to substitute
  "accessible to" for "issued to," so that the definition of
  "published" would include material in electronic format that is
  publicly accessible?                                 [line 369]

  Some might worry that this definition would make (e.g.) every World
  Wide Web page a "publication," and that the entire Web would then
  need to be catalogued and archived.  But this is a needless worry.
  Not every "publication" needs to be archived.  The BL doesn't
  collect every printed promotional leaflet or every free parish
  newsletter, etc., on legal deposit.  Although such ephemera *do*
  meet the BL's criteria, and it *could* collect them if it wanted to,
  it makes decisions about not including certain types of publication
  in the national bibliography and the national collection.

  Over the years national libraries evolve policies based on
  pragmatism, and on experience about what seems most likely to be of
  value to future users.  For example, experience showed that material
  published as books was more likely than material published as
  leaflets to be of lasting value. Therefore (as a cost-effective
  alternative to considering the merits of every item individually)
  the type of publication "book" is included in national
  bibliographies whereas "leaflets" generally  aren't.

  As new types of publication evolve, organisations which currently
  have a national/ global archive function will have to rethink what
  type of publication is both appropriate and "reasonable" (including
  cost-efficient) to record and preserve.  For example, a print
  journal may ultimately be replaced by a web site which has new
  material and new links added to it continuously; a company may
  provide information of more than ephemeral interest at its
  "promotional" web site.  The old decision-by-type approach will no
  longer be valid.  New criteria for deciding what type of
  "publication" is likely to be of lasting value will evolve.

  Whilst for scholarly communication the printed (or digitally
  encoded) word may still be the prime mechanism for recording and
  summarising knowledge and research, this might not be the case in
  the future.  From the point of view of historical research, for
  example, a TV broadcast by a world leader may already be the
  preferred and richest source, rather than a transcript of what was
  said; a graphical simulation might form a vital part of scientific
  research, and so forth. In everyday life, most citizens and (as
  surveys show) business people use informal networks, non-print media
  and grey/trade literature before approaching traditional information
  sources.                                                 [line 411]

  It is well known that for relatively new media such as films, sound
  recordings and broadcast programmes, "bibliographic control" is
  still often non-existent, or is restricted to in-print items.
  Online databases have been around for decades now, and more and more
  of them have no print equivalent, but national libraries have for
  the most part failed to work out how or what they should archive.

  Obviously there are huge obstacles to rethinking the area of
  cataloguing and archiving global knowledge: most particularly

  money (lack of);

  the technology itself (the problem of obsolescent and disappearing
  hardware and software);

  complicated issues of national pride (e.g., we still seem to be
  playing the "who's got the largest national library" game); and

  existing structures and procedures.

  I suppose in some ways we shouldn't get too depressed, though.
  Think how long it took between printing being invented and the
  appearance of systematic trade and national bibliographies
  (centuries?).  Even so, we need to begin earnestly sorting out not
  only what constitutes "publication," but also what publications--
  --in whatever medium or format-- --deserve to be preserved.

   Sheila Webber
     University of Strathclyde
       sheila@dis.strath.ac.uk

  ******************************************************************
  * This essay in Volume 5 Number 2 of _EJournal_ is (c) copyright *
  * 1995 by _EJournal_.  Permission is hereby granted to give it   *
  * away.  Any and all financial interest is assigned to Sheila    *
  * Webber.  This notice must accompany all copies of this text.   *
  ******************************************************************

  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  A M B I G U I T Y   M A C H I N E S                       [line 452]
      Precision, hah!  Computers are better
      at poetry than they are at math.

        by Jacques Leslie

  It should not have taken the Pentium math-bug debacle to remind us
  that computers do not always deliver absolute precision.  On the
  contrary, for all their grounding in mathematical exactitude and
  their annoying literal-mindedness, computers are really ambiguity-
  generating machines.

  Consider humble E-mail, perhaps the simplest form of computer-
  mediated communication.  At first glance, the difference between a
  message written on paper and sent through the postal service versus
  its identically worded electronic counterpart seems insignificant:
  Both contain the same language, so their meaning is the same- -or
  is it?

  One is an artifact of the material world, with intimations of
  permanence.  The other, a captive of cyberspace, can be eliminated
  in a keystroke.  One is evocative- -its paper quality, handwriting
  and scent all convey nuances of meaning- -while the other is framed
  within the bland uniformity of ASCII.  Moreover, it is unlikely that
  the two messages would use precisely the same words.  The tendency
  in E-mail is toward informality:  _Gonna_  and  _gotta_  replace
  _going to_  and  _ must_.  The shift in E-mail is toward oral speech
  patterns, a rejection of the precision of written discourse in favor
  of spontaneity.                                         [line 480]

  In publishing, the distinction has starker ramifications.  A
  conventionally printed book may be valued not just for the words
  inside it but as an object, whose worth is often dictated by such
  factors as whether it is a first edition, whether its author signed
  it, or whether a famous person owned it.  In contrast, an
  electronically published book is an entirely different animal.  For
  starters, the idea of copyright is undermined, since the digital
  book is infinitely reproducible.  The notion of authorship is
  weakened, for the new medium encourages collaboration, often by
  anonymous contributors.  Even the idea of the the book itself is
  threatened, as publishers of electronic journals have already
  discovered.

  Photography is also rendered fuzzy by digitilization.  The
  malleabilty of digitized photographs has caused people to look on
  all photos with deepened skepticism.  It is now virtually impossible
  to tell which images are digitally manipulated.  Although
  photographic trickery has been around for almost as long as the
  camera, digital technology makes it much easier to doctor an image.
  Digital art has also broken down the distinction between an
  "original" and its copies, for all possess the same digital
  components.

  In some digital pursuits, ambiguity is exactly the point.  In
  Multiuser Dimensions, or MUDs, those adolescent computer playgrounds
  in which players take on imaginary identities while cavorting within
  a fictional universe, much of the excitement stems from the simple
  fact that few players know with certainty anything about one
  another.  The player with whom I'm conversing may be a man who
  presents himself as a woman, a woman presenting herself as a man,
  or, for that matter, a cleverly designed "bot" that responds to
  comments in ways that produce the illusion of personhood. [line 513]

  Digital audio raises interesting questions.  Composer John Oswald's
  Plunderphonics, for example, consists of works by musicians ranging
  from Beethoven to Michael Jackson that Oswald had digitally
  manipulated in startling and amusing ways.  By creating "new" works
  out of familiar ones, Oswald demonstrated that musical authorship is
  a surprisingly complex issue, since all music borrows from all the
  sounds that surround us.

  One reason for the rise of computer-generated ambiguity surely is
  the newness of digital technology.  Just as in the early years of
  electrification and the telephone, we're still trying to figure out
  what we want computers to do for us, and in the meantime we're
  confused.

  But something else is going on here as well.  We like to think of
  computers as innately masterful at computation (thus, our ridicule
  for the Pentium when it returns inaccurate results).  But we tend to
  forget that because some number strings are infinitely long, even
  the most sophisticated computers must settle for numerical
  approximations- -which is to say, imprecision.  And imprecision
  doesn't apply just to computation.  While computers' breathtakingly
  broad impact stems from their capacity to render so much of reality
  in 0s and 1s, we forget that those combinations of 0s and 1s are all
  approximations or, put another way, metaphors.  Of course, metaphors
  rightfully dwell in the province of poetry, where they don't mimic
  reality but use ambiguity to evoke it.

      by Jacques Leslie
         jacques@well.com

    *****************************************************************
    * Reprinted with permission, from the October 1995 issue of BYTE *
    * magazine. (c) by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.  All rights   *
    * reserved.                                                      *
    ******************************************************************

  =========================================================================

  E D I T O R I A L   C O M M E N T                          [line 553]

  I hope the renewal confusion is over.  THANKS for your patience.  We
  knew that many addresses were no longer valid, and we guessed that
  quite a few people would decide to not renew.  But we did not
  anticipate being caught up in Albany's migration from Bitnet (and
  Listserv).  The transition hasn't been as "transparent" as everyone
  hoped.

  Thanks, too, for the many thoughtful replies to the "ASCII vs. Web"
  question.  Very few said "ASCII only"; some said "ASCII preferred";
  most said "sure, move to the Web."  There were several compelling
  rationales, though, for continuing to deliver the entire journal
  instead of just telling you where to look for it.  So we will get
  our server staightened out and keep e-mailing- -and we will keep
  issues shorter than 1000 lines so we won't overload mailboxes.  And
  we will keep developing our HTML/ www versions.  The journal is
  archived at

        http://www.hanover.edu/philos/ejournal/home.html

  and there is also an experimental Web site at

  http://www.albany.edu/rachel.albany.edu/~ejournal/ejournal/ejournal.html

  About Sheila Webber's text:  It caught my eye as raising a
  distinction not always acknowledged.  Because one of the founding
  purposes of _EJournal_ was to share the kind of Good Point that
  appears on Lists and would otherwise not be noted elsewhere, I
  grabbed it to share with you.

  About Jacques Leslie's text:  Again, I liked it.  It expresses a
  point of view widely shared outside the computing-specialist
  community, but seldom so well articulated and widely distributed.

  McGraw- Hill didn't want to let us re-"print" it, at first, because
  doing so "would compete with the electronic services McGraw-Hill
  offers."  They did go on to say, however, that we could point to
             http://www.byte.com
  "where the article will be posted."

  I took the paradox as a challenge and wrote (USMail) to question
  their decision; they thought the matter over and graciously changed
  their approach.  Paradigm shifts take time.

  ======================================================================

      -------------------------------------------------------------
    --------------------  I N F O R M A T I O N  --------------------
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  About Subscribing and Sending for Back Issues:           [line 604]

  In order to:             Send to:              This message:
  --------                 --------              --------
  Subscribe to _EJournal_: LISTSERV@albany.edu   SUB EJRNL YourName

  Get Contents/Abstracts
   of previous issues:     LISTSERV@albany.edu   GET EJRNL CONTENTS

  Get Volume 5 Number 1:   LISTSERV@albany.edu   GET EJRNL V5N1

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  Reach our archive site:
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  Reach our experimental Web site:
        http://rachel.albany.edu/~ejournal/ejournal/ejournal.html

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  About "Supplements":                                       [line 625]

  _EJournal_ continues to experiment with ways of revising, responding
  to, reworking, or even retracting the texts we publish.  Authors who
  want to address a subject already broached- -by others or by
  themselves- -may send texts for us to consider publishing as a
  Supplement issue.  Proposed supplements will not go through as
  thorough an editorial review process as the essays they annotate.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

  About _EJournal_:

  _EJournal_ is an all-electronic, e-mail delivered, peer-reviewed,
  academic periodical.  We are particularly interested in theory and
  practice surrounding the creation, transmission, storage,
  interpretation, alteration and replication of electronic "text"-
  and "display" -broadly defined.  We are also interested in the
  broader social, psychological, literary, economic and pedagogical
  implications of computer-mediated networks.  The journal's essays
  are delivered free to Internet addressees.  Recipients may make
  paper copies; _EJournal_ will provide authenticated paper copy from
  our read-only archive for use by academic deans or others.

  Writers who think their texts might be appreciated by _EJournal_'s
  audience are invited to forward files to  ejournal@albany.edu .  If
  you are wondering about starting to write a piece for to us, feel
  free to ask if it sounds appropriate.  There are no "styling"
  guidelines; we try to be a little more direct and lively than many
  paper publications, and considerably less hasty and ephemeral than
  most postings to unreviewed electronic spaces.  Essays in the
  vicinity of 5000 words fit our format well.  We read ASCII; we
  continue to experiment with other transmission and display formats
  and protocols.
                                                             [line 659]
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Board of Advisors:
                       Stevan Harnad     University of Southampton
                       Dick Lanham       University of California at L. A.
                       Ann Okerson       Association of Research Libraries
                       Joe Raben         City University of New York
                       Bob Scholes       Brown University
                       Harry Whitaker    University of Quebec at Montreal

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------

  SENIOR EDITORS - December, 1995

  ahrens@alpha.hanover.edu       John Ahrens            Hanover
  dabrent@acs.ucalgary.ca        Doug Brent             Calgary
  kahnas@jmu.edu                 Arnie Kahn             James Madison
  nrcgsh@ritvax                  Norm Coombs            RIT
  richardj@bond.edu.au           Joanna Richardson      Bond
  ryle@urvax.urich.edu           Martin Ryle            Richmond
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Consulting Editors - December, 1995

  bcondon@umich.edu              Bill Condon            Michigan
  djb85@albany                   Don Byrd               Albany
  folger@watson.ibm.com          Davis Foulger          IBM - Watson
  gms@psu.edu                    Gerry Santoro          Penn State
  nakaplan@ubmail.ubalt.edu      Nancy Kaplan           Baltimore
  r0731@csuohio                  Nelson Pole            Cleveland State
  ray_wheeler@dsu1.dsu.nodak.edu Ray Wheeler            North Dakota
  srlclark@liverpool.ac.uk       Stephen Clark          Liverpool
  twbatson@gallua                Trent Batson           Gallaudet
  wcooper@vm.ucs.ualberta.ca     Wes Cooper             Alberta

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  Editor:                       Ted Jennings, emeritus, University at Albany
  Editorial Asssociate:         Jerry Hanley, emeritus, University at Albany
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           University at Albany Computing and Network Services
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  University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222  USA