MDL Information Systems and Current Science Group issued a press release yesterday, announcing a new $6M "on-line club" for chemists, to be called ChemWeb. To quote the release: "ChemWeb will provide secure access to a large number of scientific journals, databases, and references as well as discussion groups, electronic meeting rooms, news services, a job exchange and a shopping mall. ChemWeb will build on the success of Current Science Group's BioMedNet, a popular web club for biological and medical scientists, and MDL's database and Web technologies which provide swift, flexible access to molecular and chemical data. Users will be able to search the entire site through text or chemical substructure. ..... ChemWeb will benefit from the design of BioMedNet's proprietary framework as well as MDL's ISIS and database products....ChemWeb will also incorporate MDL's recently announced Chemscape products. ...MDL will offer its chemical databases and Current Science Group will post its journals via ChemWeb. All academic and commercial information publishers will be able to provide services through ChemWeb." The companies will be previewing the site at ACS Orlando, 25-28 August. The press release is a bit sketchy on details, but $6M seems a major investment and it looks like the companies are aiming to make ChemWeb *the* major subscription chemistry service (with a $6M investment, you can bet that this won't be a free-access site!) So, (1) How does this affect this mailing list...can we expect horders of lawyers banging down Henry's door, demanding a name change? (2) Is this the wave of the future? Useful chemical content as a subscription-only service? (3) Most of the comments from this list so far have concerned the free end of the internet. However, there's a lot of people out there (particularly in industry), using these subscription services. Personally, I've never been in an institution that could afford the access fees. But those of you who do have access, what are your opinions? Do these services offer more than you could get for free? How do you rate the individual services? Are they good value-for-money? It would be great to hear some comments, as the subscription side of the internet is often ignored in the press and mailing list/newsgroups. ---------------- Paul Deards Internet Publisher Chemistry and Industry 0171-2353681 x233 pauld@chemind.demon.co.uk http://ci.mond.org/ ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
MDL Information Systems and Current Science Group issued a press release yesterday, announcing a new $6M "on-line club" for chemists, to be called ChemWeb.
(1) How does this affect this mailing list...can we expect horders of lawyers banging down Henry's door, demanding a name change?
I was invited to the Current Science group by Ian Tarr in the form of a friendly e-mail message to discuss this issue. I visited them yesterday. I am advised that chemweb.com was registered as a domain name in August 1995 by Current Science, but is not yet in common use. There is no registration mechanism for E-mail lists. Chemweb as an e-mail list now been in common usage for some 9 months. My understanding from both local advice and from Current Publishing is that we have two options. a) Continue the discussion list with its current name and location, but making it clear that the list bears no association with the subscription club with the name chemweb.com One way of doing this is via a message retrievable via info chemweb sent to listserver@ic.ac.uk. b) Current Science have offered to host the chemweb discussion list on their own server, and have invited me to continue moderation if I wish. My inclination is that if there is significant positive demand for course b) we might wish to consider it. If anyone feels that we should consider route b) then mail me and I will summarise for the list. If no significant positive response is received, I will assume the status quo will continue.
(2) Is this the wave of the future? Useful chemical content as a subscription-only service?
Membership of Biomednet is still free, although this cannot be always assumed in the future. On the other hand, full article requests cost between $1 and $15 each. I am not sure what else costs.
(3) Most of the comments from this list so far have concerned the free end of the internet. However, there's a lot of people out there (particularly in industry), using these subscription services. Personally, I've never been in an institution that could afford the access fees.
Biomednet do have a scheme for group membership as appropriate for University courses etc. I will leave them to speak for themselves if they wish on chemweb.com
But those of you who do have access, what are your opinions? Do these services offer more than you could get for free? How do you rate the individual services? Are they good value-for-money? It would be great to hear some comments, as the subscription side of the internet is often ignored in the press and mailing list/newsgroups.
Comments are most welcome! Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0) ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
Rzepa, Henry wrote: : : I was invited to the Current Science group by Ian Tarr in the : form of a friendly e-mail message to discuss this issue. I visited : them yesterday. : : I am advised that chemweb.com was registered as a domain : name in August 1995 by Current Science, but : is not yet in common use. There is no registration mechanism : for E-mail lists. Chemweb as an e-mail list now been in : common usage for some 9 months. My understanding : from both local advice and from Current Publishing : is that we have two options. : : a) Continue the discussion list with its current name and : location, but making it clear that the list bears no association : with the subscription club with the name chemweb.com : One way of doing this is via a message retrievable via : info chemweb : sent to listserver@ic.ac.uk. : : b) Current Science have offered to host the chemweb : discussion list on their own server, and have invited me : to continue moderation if I wish. : : My inclination is that if there is significant positive demand for : course b) we might wish to consider it. If anyone feels : that we should consider route b) then mail me and I : will summarise for the list. If no significant positive : response is received, I will assume the status quo : will continue. : There are already a plethora of science/chemistry related groups that use the same name/abbrev. (eg. ACS). I don't think we need to add to the problem. If Cur.Sci is willing to maintain the status quo (i.e. free and open internet chemistry mailing list) but provide you CPU cycles then I'd go for "b". This also has the added advantage in that they get positive PR for maintaing a free access chem list while you might have the opportunity to utilize Cur.Sci resources for the benefit of the free list. My $0.02, -Brian -- ============================================================================= | .---------.| Brian W. Beck | E-mail Addresses: | |/\ | || Biochem/Biophysics | brian@bert.chem.wsu.edu | || \\ WSU || Washington St. Univ| brian_beck@wsu.edu | |\ - *|| 206 Fulmer | URL http://elmo.chem.wsu.edu/~brian | | | || Pullman, WA, USA | VOICE (509) 335-4083 | | \___________|| 99164-4660 | FAX (509) 335-9688 | ============================================================================= ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
Dear Henry, Were you aware this was in the offing? Did MDLI or Current Science involve you in or inform you of their plans at any stage? Best Regards, Alan Mills, Venus Internet Ltd .sig below --------------------------- On Thu, 15 Aug 1996, Rzepa, Henry wrote:
MDL Information Systems and Current Science Group issued a press release yesterday, announcing a new $6M "on-line club" for chemists, to be called ChemWeb.
(1) How does this affect this mailing list...can we expect horders of lawyers banging down Henry's door, demanding a name change?
I was invited to the Current Science group by Ian Tarr in the form of a friendly e-mail message to discuss this issue. I visited them yesterday.
I am advised that chemweb.com was registered as a domain name in August 1995 by Current Science, but is not yet in common use. There is no registration mechanism for E-mail lists. Chemweb as an e-mail list now been in common usage for some 9 months. My understanding from both local advice and from Current Publishing is that we have two options.
a) Continue the discussion list with its current name and location, but making it clear that the list bears no association with the subscription club with the name chemweb.com One way of doing this is via a message retrievable via info chemweb sent to listserver@ic.ac.uk.
b) Current Science have offered to host the chemweb discussion list on their own server, and have invited me to continue moderation if I wish.
My inclination is that if there is significant positive demand for course b) we might wish to consider it. If anyone feels that we should consider route b) then mail me and I will summarise for the list. If no significant positive response is received, I will assume the status quo will continue.
(2) Is this the wave of the future? Useful chemical content as a subscription-only service?
Membership of Biomednet is still free, although this cannot be always assumed in the future. On the other hand, full article requests cost between $1 and $15 each. I am not sure what else costs.
(3) Most of the comments from this list so far have concerned the free end of the internet. However, there's a lot of people out there (particularly in industry), using these subscription services. Personally, I've never been in an institution that could afford the access fees.
Biomednet do have a scheme for group membership as appropriate for University courses etc. I will leave them to speak for themselves if they wish on chemweb.com
But those of you who do have access, what are your opinions? Do these services offer more than you could get for free? How do you rate the individual services? Are they good value-for-money? It would be great to hear some comments, as the subscription side of the internet is often ignored in the press and mailing list/newsgroups.
Comments are most welcome!
Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ (Eudora Pro 3.0)
----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
Alan Mills at Venus Internet Ltd, 24 Denmark Street, London WC2H 8NJ, UK email:alan@venus.co.uk web:http://www.venus.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)171 240 5858 Fax: +44 (0)171 240 5859 Providing Web and Internet services and solutions ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver@ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
participants (4)
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brian＠bert.chem.wsu.edu
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Dr Alan Mills
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Paul Deards
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Rzepa, Henry