Re: Electronic newsletters

[Eric Ray <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

LaVonna (and others),
Putting newsletters out on the list sounds like a great idea! There are
a couple of issues to address, but nothing really big.

First, as soon as something is posted to a newsgroup, the copyright
falls into question. I don't think the poster necessarily loses the
copyright, but claiming rights would be problematic at best. Posting
a copyright notice at the beginning of each article might help. I am not an
expert, just relaying what I have heard. Definitive answers would be
appreciated.

As Ken pointed out, format could cause some extra problems. For this
forum, I believe we will have to stick with straight ASCII text. While
there are a couple of other options to get, for example, Pagemaker files
through the system (e.g. uuencode), I don't think we need the hassle or
heavy use of bandwidth. Posting a message about the availability of a PM or
Postscript version of a technical communication related newsletter
available via FTP on the net would be great.

I don't see any problem with posting individual articles, or even a
newsletter or two to test this idea out, but I doubt that any of us
would be willing to deal with all newsletters being posted. Perhaps
a couple of willing volunteers from whereever would like to be guinea
pigs (or scapegoats, as the case might be)? If you are interested,
let me know and we will deal with some of the logistics.


After we get the logistics straightened out, perhaps newsletter editors
or their representatives could just post announcements of availability,
and people could then "subscribe" to the newsletter electronically by
sending a mail message to the editor. Just the announcement would happen
on the list, and everything else would take place off list.

Well, what do you all think? I would like to hear some other opinions on
this, not to mention volunteers. 8-)

Eric
ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu