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

[David Kristofferson]

Voting is now open on the following proposal to create the mailing
list & newsgroup BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www.  The proposal below has
been modified as a result of the discussion period on
BIOFORUM/bionet.general, so please reread it before voting.

*** NOTE *** We are currently running several votes for other
newsgroups, so please be certain to follow the voting directions
*carefully*!  If you just send in a message saying "YES" or "NO" it
will not be counted if it is not clear which proposal you are
responding to.

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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
                                (contact: Reinhard Doelz)
                                bio-www at comp.bioz.unibas.ch


Purpose: 
         Announce, and  inform  on, new  achievements on information
         servers, archives and resources  which  offer  data  and/or 
         services in the biology/medicine/related  area which can be
         accessed  via  electronic  networked  information retrieval 
         software. 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, but not restricted, address see above. 

         Achievements  are  exposed  on a WWW server simultaneously. 
         The intention of moderation 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  and Services offered on the Internet which can 
         be accessed using the  World  Wide Web and tools associated 
         to the  browser, or similar tools which have a similar ver-
         satility,  shall  get a non-WWW, non-information tool forum 
         which bridges the gap between  application  and informatics
         issues  without  the need to install or use the protocol in 
         question.New and established servers shall have a medium to 
         announce improvements and new achievements to the community
         on NEWS and eMail transports.The Newsgroup 'jewels' will be  
         made available  on a WWW server 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,  WAIS,  FTP  or other servers covered by the possi-
         bility to be accessed via electronic networks using public-
         ly  available 'clients' or 'browsers'  servers are  invited  
         to  supplement  their information.
 
Exclusion: 
         General  issues  on accompanying software problems shall be 
         placed  in  bionet.software  or  suitable software-specific 
         newsgroups  in the comp hierarchy. Established WWW, GOPHER,
         or  other  meta- indices shall  not  be  competed. Specific  
         items on the non-biology related technical side of the ser-
         ver software 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' net-
         worked information FAQ is  intended. This  shall  summarize  
         the  discussion  and  reconfirm  announced  links  (quality 
         control). 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Voting is now open on the proposal for BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www and
will run through 24:00 hrs Pacific Time on 13 July 1994.  Please send
your vote to either of the following addresses:

Address                               Location        Network
-------                               --------        -------
biovote at daresbury.ac.uk               U.K.            JANET
biovote at net.bio.net                   U.S.A.          Internet/BITNET

PLEASE BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FORMAT BELOW - WE OFTEN RUN MORE THAN ONE
VOTE AT A TIME SO A SIMPLE "YES" OR "NO" MESSAGE WITHOUT THE NEWSGROUP
NAME MAY BE AMBIGUOUS.  Your vote should contain a single line:

YES on BIO-WWW

if you favor allowing the creation of this newsgroup or

NO on BIO-WWW

if you think that this proposal will adversely affect the
BIOSCI/bionet system.  While not intended to be an exhaustive list of
possible concerns (more specific concerns may have been raised during
the discussion period on BIOFORUM/bionet.general and interested
readers are referred to these), some general reasons for voting NO
might be if you are concerned about newsgroup proliferation and/or
believe that the proposed group will not be utilized, or if you think
that the proposed newsgroup would substantially duplicate or overlap
with the function of existing newsgroups.  If you are simply not
interested in participating in the newsgroup above, please don't cast
a NO vote, but instead just don't vote at all.

The newsgroup proposal must receive at least 80 YES votes to pass and
the number of YES votes must be greater than the number of NO votes by
at least 40.  Discussion of the newsgroup proposal is now closed and
we strongly discourage posting any messages in other forums about the
fact that a CALL FOR VOTES has been issued.

				Sincerely,

				Dave Kristofferson
				BIOSCI/bionet Manager

				biosci-help at net.bio.net