prints digital and classic // Oh yeah!! (fwd)

Michael J. Salvo (salvo@binghamton.edu)
Tue, 25 Jun 1996 17:04:18 -0400


greg siering, _kairos'_ links editor, forwarded this (below) library
catalogue entry from ball state's computer to our staff list. if victor
is right, the vvill to power of publishing is already part of on-line
publication. digital publication is dead, long live digital publication!

what has caught my interest so far, though, is how far-reaching and
*totalizing* all the prognostications for publishing on and off line are
(and traditionally have been). i'm really not all that concerned about
the *ultimate* place of digital print. too much has to happen and will
happen before any electronic or paperless era rolls around. and it will
happen so slowly we won't be able to descern the single moment marking the
"change." heck, historians looking for these moments have been pretty
well shown to be narrating and interpreting -- and we'll do the same ... i
just don't see how productive arguing about "the" place for digital
scholarship is or can be. this is now a hybrid time -- we have to try to
make digital and paper publishing work *together*, and all the while
consider what the future *may* hold.

i'm much more interested in getting what i am doing (on paper and screen)
recognized, accepted, validated. yes, it may change academia (or so i
self-importantly believe) and hope it will change it for the better, but
any attempt to consciously direct or control the change is quite quixotic.
i try my best to get my values recognized, to represent my motives, ideas,
and directions in the on-line work i do, but there are so many factors
affecting the development of on-line scholarship and on-line publication
that we simply can't pretend to know what should or must be done in
digital publication.

i've been workin on _kairos_ with the best group of people possible.
we've had fun and worked very hard to accomplish, well, just a little.
there is very little to build on -- there is little tradition -- so
each decision needs to be considered. and every so often i'm petrified by
the thought that we're working on the betamax of on-line publication.

*my* personal feelings are that through publishing _kairos_ as best we
can, looking at and maybe even influencing (positively, or negatively --
ie, "we're not going to do *that*") other on-line publications, and then
joining debates such as this, we will begin to develop some mores and
traditions for on-line publication. and a big part of that process is
making mistakes, recognizing them as such, and then adjusting the process
accordingly. it's a long, tiring, labor-intensive process -- and the end
can't even be fathomed let alone seen. there may be no light at the end
of this tunnel -- a publication of becoming (?).

more immediately, however, i think it is important to look, as managing
editor, at the *next* issue and then the next volume of _kairos_ and
determine what will work best for the journal and its readership,
authorship, and staff. i'm not going to try to accomodate all the
possibilities, vagaries, and inconsistencies of the evolution (or radical
reformation) of literacy as a whole or of each technological development.
aware of the changes, yes. but not forced into action by the whim of
development.

a note about frames: the staff had many discussions regarding the use of
(what was in december, 1995) cutting edge technology vs. access. i'm glad
that, against my initial reaction, we went with frames because although
they were new and rare at publication january 8, 1996, they are
increasingly common and widely used at publication of issue 2, june 12,
1996. and for academics, netscape 2.02 and 3.X beta are still free to
download, even if it does take and hour ;-)

mike

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 15:15:51 -0500 (EST)

Cool, eh?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Forwarded message follows -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Search Request: K=WORLD and WEB Ball State Catalog
COMPUTER FILE - Record 7 of 82 Entries Found
Brief View

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Title: Kairos <computer file> : a journal for teachers of
writing in webbed environments.

Published: <Troy, NY> : D'artagnan Communications Group, 1996-

Technical details:
Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Subjects: English language--Study and teaching--Periodicals.
English language--Computer-assisted instruction--
Periodicals.
English language--Composition and exercises--
Periodicals.

URL: http://129.118.38.138/kairos

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LOCATION: CALL NUMBER: STATUS:
Libraries' Web Site Periodicals, Online Enter HOL 1 for holdings
(Non-Circulating)