CALL FOR DISCUSSION: BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www

[BIOSCI Administrator]

We have received a proposal below for a new newsgroup,

BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www

Discussion on the following proposal will now be open through 12 June
on BIOFORUM/bionet.general (*not* on BIONEWS/bionet.announce).  For
those who are not on the BIOFORUM/bionet.general newsgroup currently,
either read bionet.general on USENET or contact one of the following
biosci addresses to sign up by e-mail:

Subscription Address                 Location
--------------------                 --------
biosci at daresbury.ac.uk               Europe, Africa, and Central Asia
biosci at net.bio.net                   Americas and the Pacific Rim

One warning, however: BIOFORUM/bionet.general is a "chatty" newsgroup
and many other items will be discussed there besides this newsgroup
proposal.  USENET news access is definitely better than e-mail if you
want to monitor only this discussion.

Discussion Guidelines
---------------------
Please do not post one-line messages saying things like "I am in favor
of such a newsgroup".  We will collect votes later.  The discussion
period is an opportunity for anyone to bring up reservations about the
proposed charter below and to propose modifications prior to the vote.
If the charter is perfect as is, then there is no need for anyone to
say anything!!!

The newsgroup discussion leader may submit a revised proposal in light
of the discussion, and the new charter would be included in the call
for votes which will go out on 13 June (Newsgroup Discussion leaders -
please note this deadline - if no revisions are received before the
deadline, the original charter will be voted on.).

Please be aware that only one vote is counted per e-mail address, so
it is necessary to have your own account in order to vote.  Multiple
votes from the same address are not accepted.  If you are interested
in the following newsgroup, but do not have an e-mail address of your
own, please obtain one from your computer center before the call for
votes is issued.

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Proposal to establish BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www

Proposed USENET name: 		bionet.software.www

Proposed Mailing list name: 	BIO-WWW

Proposed e-mail addresses:  	bio-www at net.bio.net
                            	bio-www at daresbury.ac.uk

Moderator:          		EMBnet Switzerland
				Reinhard Doelz
				bio-www at comp.bioz.unibas.ch



 
 Based  on  a Workshop  at the WWW'94  conference  "WWW in  BIOLOGY", 
 a group  of enthusiastic  researchers  propose the  above-mentioned 
 moderated mailing list / newsgroup / public  archive to  be created: 

 Purpose: 
         Announce, and  inform  on, new  achievements on servers and 
         services which can  be  accessed  by programs using the WWW 
         protocol. Proposals and discussions of  these  with respect
         to new strategies and tools, as  well as links to contribu-
	 tions  dealing  with  issues of  performance and quality of
	 networked information in Biology shall inform and invite to 
	 participate. 
 
 Status:
         moderated  (Moderator: Reinhard Doelz @ EMBnet Switzerland, 
         bio-www at comp.bioz.unibas.ch). 
         Achievements  are  exposed  on a WWW server simultaneously. 
	 The intention of mederation is to (a) ensure quality, resp.  
	 relevance of postings and (b) compose a common format which
	 is intended to server as URL derpository where appropriate.

 Charter:
         New Servers using the  World  Wide Web and tools associated 
         to the  browser  shall  get a (non-WWW) forum which bridges
         the gap between application and informatics  issues. Estab-
         lished servers shall have a medium to announce improvements 
         and new achievements to the  community. The  Newsgroup will
         be  made available  on  WWW  as  well, and include links to 
         other  documents,  which are  located at  the poster's site 
         in order to overcome the  maintenance  issue. Sites running
	 GOPHER and WAIS servers are  invited  to  supplement  their 
	 information if their usage with WWW and associated browsers 
	 is possible.
 
 Exclusion: 
         General  issues  on accompanying software problems shall be 
	 placed  in  bionet.software  or  suitable software-specific 
	 newsgroup s in the comp  hierarchy. Established WWW indices 
	 shall  not be  competed. Specific  items on GOPHER and WAIS 
	 software which deal with non-WWW issues are not intended to 
	 be  discussed. The  newsgroup  shall  not be used for large 
	 papers  and  discussions, as the posting of the link to the 
	 own server would be sufficient. 
 
 FAQ: 
         Periodic (e.g., quarterly)  postings  of a 'biological' WWW 
	 FAQ is intended. This  shall  summarize  the discussion and 
	 reconfirm announced links (quality control). 

 
 Supporters: 
	 Attendeeds of the WWW'94 conference /Biology Workshop 

 embnet at comp.bioz.unibas.ch, bairoch at cmu.unige.ch, appel at cih.hcuge.ch, 
 bks at s27w007.pswfs.gov, stoehr at embl-heidelberg.de, paolo at www.ist.unige.it,
 edvard at fagmed.uit.no, ajt at proteus.com, p.kocab at dkfz-heidelberg.de,
 m.senger at dkfz-heidelberg.de, rherzog at ulb.ac.be, harper at csc.fi, 
 pmr1716 at ggr.co.uk
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