publication of IASS papers on CDROM

[Claude Setzer]

There are several issues here there are being somewhat ignored.

1) A single CD-ROM weighing only a few ounces can contain the information of
several hundred books (100's of thousands of pages), weighing many hundreds
of pounds and occupying huge amount of space. This adds unprecedented
mobility to knowledge. When the US Navy converted from paper service manuals
to CD-ROM's, they not only dramatically shortened the repair cycle due to
faster access, but actually saved hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
in fuel cost for not having to carry all those books around on ships!!!

2) With more than a billion CD-ROM's on the market, it is extremely unlikely
that the standard will "suddenly" disappear. If new devices stop reading
CD-ROM's, which is unlikely, then it is quite easy to copy over to new
standard. Today, all new devices are backward compatible.

3) It is dramatically easier to copy a CD-ROM than a printed book and there
is NO loss if done correctly.

4) "permanence" of books is quite an amusing fable if you have ever bought a
"newly" printed copy of many Indian books. Printed books are copied over and
over photographically when more copies are needed. Each time the quality
gets substantially worse, eventually getting almost unreadable, as are many
Sanskrit books. CD-ROM's can be copied indefinitely with zero loss. In may
cases, even a newly printed book has many areas that are unreadable due to
poor printing. This problem does not exist on CD-ROM's.

5) Printed books are virtually "unsearchable," which dramatically reduces
their usefulness.

6) When people start to become more sophisticated, CD-ROM's will allow value
added knowledge that is just not possible with printed books. If we old
people are successful at resisting change to newer technology, the loss
could be immeasurable.
Instead we should start using the inherent capabilities of CD-ROM based
knowledge, instead of simply using it to replace the comparatively lower
usefulness of a printed book.

7) As far as not getting academic credit for CD-ROM published journal
articles, compared to books, that must be a characteristic of Humanistic
disciplines, because in other areas of knowledge, CD-ROM publication is
either identical, or more respected. If humanities professors get together
and ban CD-ROM publications, then they will only hurt the progress of their
disciplines and soon loose the level of respect they still have.

8) In some cases, readability and fonts are still a problem, but there are
current solutions and better ones on the way. In many cases readability can
already be far superior on CD-ROM's with proper software, in comparison to
MANY printed texts.

 It is better to solve the problems than to let the problems restrict our
access to knowledge!

There is huge difference between effective study of ancient civilization,
and BECOMING "ancient" in the study of civilization!!

There is certainly still a place for printed books and there always will be.
But we should not lose the incredible potential for other means of
communication that is inherent in CD-ROM!!!!!!!!!!!!

sincerely,
Claude Setzer



----- Original Message -----
From: "hans henrich hock" <hhhock at UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: publication of IASS papers on CDROM


> I strongly support Dominik's view.
>