Computers in forest research newsgroup

[Ernesto Alvarado]

In article <1991Dec4.200404.13406 at kuusi.metla.fi> roimse at tammi.metla.fi (Dr. Saarenmaa) writes:
>
>Our WP has had a quarterly newsletter that has been distributed by
>conventional means so far.  We have decided to go electronic now, 
>obviously with usenet.
>
>Now, the following questions need to be answered:
>1) Are there any existing newsgroups that could be used for IUFRO?
>   The closest is bionet.agroforestry, but I  have seen no activity
>   there lately.  With a little advertising we could maybe join it.
>   But I also think agroforestry is too general a for a title.
You're right, there is a large number of IUFRO fans in the universities who
could take advantage of such newsgroup. In my experience, mostly foresters
with computer, math or stat orientations read the newsgroups. For a more biology
inclined forester, the newsgroups do not offer too much. Hoever, if IUFRO 
goes electronic, with some publicity campaign (Unasylava, IUFRO newsletters,
and several other country-specific forestry journals), I'm sure you can get
a larger audience. Although, you must be aware the openess to discussion of
these newsgroup, for a newsletter format, you may want to consider the
automatic e-mailing lists, and maybe double post.

>2) Is U.S. Forest Service receiving usenet?  It is the largest
>   group of our active members.
I don't think so, they use their internal system (DG). There are several
government agencies posting in the netnews from NASA, the military and
some national labs. I haven't seen someone from the USDA. The Forest Service
people in research may have access to it if they are based in university
campuses. A possibility may be to use a gateway between Forest Service 
and some universities, I'm sure D. Latham knows more about it.

>3) If bionet.agroforestry does not work for this purpose, where
>   should the new group be put?  I suggest sci.forest as a new name.
I guess that you can take advantage of the bionet.agroforestry as a first
step and then once there are enough readers, to create the sci.forest

>4) Can we pass the requirements of usenet for creating a new newsgroup?
>   Will there be enough usenet-aware readers that can vote YES when
>   the time comes?
I'm sure we will, but I guess you will need enough number of voters from
the USA and the other countries currently receiving netnews. 

>
>I would appreciate discussion on these and other upcoming questions.
>The easiest is to use bionet.agroforestry, and start adversiting it
>within IUFRO.   But if I receive enough positive feedback for creating
>a new group, I'll  move on in a few weeks.
>
>Hannu Saarenmaa				Hannu.Saarenmaa at metla.fi
>Finnish Forest Research Institute	tel + 358-0-85705235
>Unioninkatu 40 A			fax + 358-0-625308

I'll be glad to hear more about it.
Ernesto Alvarado

alonso at u.washington.edu