Hello, One of the points raised in the discussions at the meeting last week was the 'education' necessary for progression of the use of the Web as an information/education resource for chemists. It was pondered what the role of the people at the meeting was, whether we were to return to our respective institutions and 'spread the word' as it were, of the joys/possibilities of using the Web both to gain and spread information. All well and good for the majority of people at the meeting I presume, but for someone like myself (a postgrad student who does the departments web pages, for the fun of doing it) this poses a problem. Basically, I am not believed when I try to convince people that they should be interested in the subjects discussed at the meeting. I have seen that most academics only respond when told about/shown something like this from their peers. Hence, I suggest it necessary for the 'fab four' (as the RSC page put it) to spread the word. Obviously, giving demonstration lectures at every institution in the country is not feasible, but possibly key institutions in different areas of the country could be chosen for lectures. It would of course require the involvment of the RSC (probably financially) to stir up sufficient interest in Heads of Departments/managers/lecturers and to convince them that the Web is not a complete waste of time. (This appears to the be the biggest fear at the moment - that the web/internet in general is a waste of time and is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in convincing the academic masses). I would like to hear any opinions about this. Has anybody any other suggestions as to how the education of the eventual end-users of this new technology should be achieved? Are we trying to do too much too quickly? Thanks Steve ------------------------------------------ Stephen Le Hunte (cmlehunt@swan.ac.uk) Author of the HTML Reference Library ftp://ftp.swan.ac.uk/pub/in.coming/htmlib/ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
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                Stephen Le Hunte