Re: On-line Paleo. Pubs.

[peterr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peter Rauch)]

>Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 12:08:34 +0000
>To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
>From: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (N. MacLeod)

>I agree that online publications will happen but what are those costs you
>mention Henry? 

>Most academic journal editors and reviewers I know work for free.

They may not bill anyone (yet) but they are mostly not working for free.
They have expenses to do the work of editing/reviewing. Often these
expenses are "absorbed" by the institutions for which these people work.

>So far as paying for on on-line journal, so
>long as it's done on a small scale and doesn't take up much disk space I
>don't immediately see any need for anyone to pay for it.

Perhaps if "anyone" is the end user (reader) of the publication, you
may be right sometimes; the payment could come from elsewhere. But pay,
someone or some organization is doing.

>Perhaps it's my
>lack of a sufficient profit motive but since the InterNet has put the tools
>for "no-cost" mass communication at our fingertips, why not use them?

Again, perhaps it's "no-cost" to some end users (currently), but some
institution/organization/person _is_ paying. There is no free lunch.

Whether or not society/organizations continue to support the present
"payment" infrastructure is to be seen. Everyone is learning a lot
about doing "business" on the internet; now, while services remain
cheap or apparently free to many, is the time to experiment like crazy
in such endeavors as publication. But, once everyone is "doing it" as
just another production mode, I suspect that all of the nasty
recharge/billing/cost recovery mechanisms that Man can invent will have
long since been put in place, and no one will accuse the internet of
being a "no-cost" operation.
Peter