usage of the agroforestry newsgroup

["Gerry Lawson, ITE Edinburgh", NERC]

The AGROFORESTRY newsgroup has been running within the 'Bioscience Bulletin
Board Network' for more than a year,  yet it cannot claim to have generated much
enthusiasm either in the UK or abroad.  Nevertheless, the sucess of
international conferences, the new IUFRO group, and several jounals/newsletters
dealing with agroforestry, seems to indicate that there is a need for a rapid
and informal means of exchanging information and questions.

The BIOSCI network takes care of most of the technical and administrative
problems in communicating between registered users worldwide.  Registration is
simple and free (see below), messages can be sent in a few seconds, and there
is no need to spend days polishing your style.

The slow start of this newsgroup may be explained by the fact that
agroforesters in developed countries are not such computer devotees as other
groups of scientists, and colleagues in developing countries have rather
restricted access to international networks.  Both these factors are changing
however, and I'm sure that this newsgroup will grow in its usefulness as it
attracts further participants.

Another reason for inactivity in the newsgroup is that I've been very dilatory
(as convenor) in publicising the service and stimulating contributions.
'Agroforestry Systems' (vol 10,1) published an announcement, and the November
issue of 'Agroforestry in UK' will carry an article.  However ICRAF's Journal
'Agroforestry Today' has not yet published a notice.

So, if this message reaches you electronically through the newsgroup, what
about contributing a brief description of your interests, or a specific query,
or a notice of a meeting, or even just a wee comment about whether this method
of communication is worthwhile.

If someone copies this message to you, how about joining the newsgroup? Its
getting easier all the time, but consult your computer manager on the best node
to use if you don't work in one of the countries below.

INCIDENTALLY does anyone out there know whether machine readable versions are
available of the multi-purpose tree databases held by ICRAF and CATIE ??


Requests to join AGROFORESTRY should be sent to:

Address					Location	Network
-------					--------	-------
biosci at irlearn.ucd.ie			Ireland		EARN/BITNET
biosci at uk.ac.daresbury			U.K.		JANET
biosci at bmc.uu.se			Sweden		Internet
biosci at net.bio.net			U.S.A. 		Internet/BITNET


Messages to AGROFORESTRY should be sent to:

Address					Location	Network
-------					--------	-------
ag-forst at irlearn.ucd.ie			Ireland		EARN/BITNET
ag-forst at uk.ac.daresbury		U.K.		JANET
agroforestry at bmc.uu.se			Sweden		Internet
agroforestry at net.bio.net		U.S.A. 		Internet/BITNET
 or
ag-forst at net.bio.net			U.S.A. 		Internet/BITNET


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

Gerry Lawson, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Bush Estate, Edinburgh EH26 0QB
              TEL: +31 445 4343     TELEX: 72579       FAX: +31 445 3943
JANET:        f_gjl at uk.ac.nbu.va
Internet:     f_gjl%vaxa.nerc-bush.ac.uk at cunyvm.cuny.edu
EARN/BITNET:  f_gjl%vaxa.nerc-bush.ac.uk at UKACRL

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