BTW, I find it kind of amusing that we're talking about print snobbery and
elitism among the traditionalists. Don't we do a lot of the same
thing--suggesting that what they're doing is outmoded and inferior and
everyone should get online and learn the skills we already developed?
Heck, a lot of electronic publications have more gadgetry than content, and
a lot of them are all but inaccessible with the equipment found on the
desks of so many academics, particularly in the humanities. We all
like playing with new toys, and we all like feeling a little smug
because we know how to do something our
colleagues/advisors/administrators/whoever-might-be-superior-to-us-in-
some-other-arena don't know how to do.
But it probably isn't going to help me make a case for acceptance of
electronic publications if, for example, I say to my friendly neighborhood
print-loving administrator, "Here's this journal _Kairos_ that's aimed at
people in our field," and then the journal appears on the screen going
"AHAHAHAHA you don't do frames????? You should upgrade your software, or
you can look at this substitute version of the journal instead of getting
the full experience." So now my administrator thinks you have to be some
kind of geek to even read the journal, and I'm feeling a little alienated
myself because I know what the message means, and I know we don't have and
can't afford the hardware we'd need to run the required software and dammit
I thought people like me were part of the audience for this thing.
I'm not saying you shouldn't push a few envelopes if you've got the means.
I'm just reminding us of how we might look from the other side.
Tari Lin Fanderclai
Boston, MA
tari@ucet.ufl.edu
http://www.ucet.ufl.edu/~tari
Subvert the dominant paradigm.