Transcript of "Future of ISWorld Net" - an online meeting hosted by Reagan Ramsower and Blake Ives on the ISWorld Net Virtual Meeting Center @ Temple (VMC @ Temple) (12/4/1997) Special Guests Ron Weber and Dennis Galletta Participants: Blake Ives Brian Dos Santos, Louisville, Kentucky USA Dennis Galletta Dennis Viehland Dorothy Leidner, Fontainebleau, FRANCE Freddie Quek George Widmeyer, Ann Arbor, MI USA Jose Raul Canay, Santiago Compostela, A Coruņa Spain Mark Fuller Michael Myers, Auckland, New Zealand Mohan Narasipuram Munir Mandviwalla, Philadelphia, USA Peter R. Newsted Prem Premkumar, Ames, IA USA Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim Rassule Hadidi Reagan Ramsower Ron Weber Simha R. Magal, Bowling Green, Ohio USA Reversed Transcript: (original is "new to old" -- this one is more natural, thanks to Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim for reversing the transcript): 3:19:42 PM Blake Ives When I look at the prototype I see a very wide black column on the left. Is that what you see too? 3:19:47 PM Simha R. Magal Hi Blake... any agenda? or free for all? 3:20:18 PM Reagan Ramsower Should we wait until 3:30? 3:20:30 PM Blake Ives I think Reagan has set up an agenda around the discussion document. 3:21:03 PM Blake Ives well, i guess it doesn't hurt to talk about process issues around the session itself. 3:21:19 PM Reagan Ramsower Blake, you should see a java applet but you may need the latest Netscape browswer. I did try it on the Mac here and it work ok. 3:22:36 PM Simha R. Magal One of my biggest problems with this type of chat is that we can very easily switch topics and it is difficult to keep track of a thread... is the re some way to stay on one topic ?? 3:23:02 PM Blake Ives Yeah, it has shown up now. It took quite a while to load the page. 3:23:33 PM Blake Ives But, it's a nice index. 3:23:54 PM Reagan Ramsower Simha, I want to follow the sections in the paper so I will try to keep us on the same topic 3:31:35 PM Blake Ives Five countries so far. Pretty good. 3:31:56 PM Reagan Ramsower Hi Brian and Freddie, I will get us started in about 3 more minutes. 3:36:28 PM Reagan Ramsower I think it is time to get started. I know that not everyone is here yet, but I would like to finish within an hour. First, I want to thank everyone for your interest and participation--Thanks! As I mentioned, I would like to follow the sections outlined in the position paper. Let me say that I felt that something should be on the table so I put the position paper together. I will be making a presentation to the AIS Council on Sat before ICIS and depending on this chat I might want to use 3:36:51 PM Ron Weber entered the room. - 3:37:48 PM Reagan Ramsower Opps, got cut off. Let start with Mission and Vision. What comments do you have? 3:38:12 PM Reagan Ramsower Welcome Ron 3:38:45 PM Simha R. Magal The mission and vision are fundamentally different from the current ISWor ld net m/v.... the scope us also very different... am i right in this conclusion? 3:39:11 PM Freddie Quek The word practitioner is missing in the A/IS version 3:39:31 PM Blake Ives I would suggest we more narrowly focus our intended audience - say, information management educators and researchers (not practitioners) 3:39:36 PM George Widmeyer Why is the electronic magazine metaphor being used? 3:39:47 PM Reagan Ramsower Yes, you are correct. That is why I wanted to put them together to see the extent of the change. 3:39:52 PM Dennis Viehland Reagan, It seems you want to take ISW in a new direction. A monthly magazine instead of a collection of resources. If so, I am not sure is required or good. If it ain't broke... 3:40:12 PM Mohan Narasipuram entered the room. - 3:40:24 PM Blake Ives Opps - sorry about that. I was looking at the old one. Reagan has caputured my concern in the new version. 3:40:28 PM Reagan Ramsower No particular reason. Perhaps a different word, publication would be better. 3:41:09 PM Mohan Narasipuram Hi all 3:41:14 PM Peter R. Newsted The ISWorld part looks much the same as before to me. In checking the new prototype, seems to have a similar structure for current sites. I like the small hierarchical menu. -- Pete 3:41:19 PM George Widmeyer The metaphor is important here because later you talk about invited articles. 3:41:31 PM Michael Myers The original vision and mission were very ambitious, but the new version seems much more limited in scope 3:43:01 PM Blake Ives I am rather wary of the magazine notion. Early on we had people that wanted to contribute "columns" to ISWorld Net and we resisted - the problem is one of currency. We had problems enough keeping stuff current that could afford not to be updated on a regular schedule. I am very wary of the maintenance implications - though there may be some benefits on the reward system side (but not if we call it a magazine) 3:43:01 PM Reagan Ramsower Yes, I wanted to invite people to post articles in their areas of expertise and for this to become part of the permanent respository. But new material would be featured in an edition. 3:44:12 PM Dorothy Leidner entered the room. - 3:44:45 PM Dorothy Leidner Hi. Just checking in. 3:44:50 PM Simha R. Magal I would again point out that the new mission is fundamentally different focusing on "new and information regarding events pertinent to is scholors.." 3:44:56 PM Blake Ives Still, perhaps it is the maintenance that frightens people away. "Articles(" as snapshots in time, need no maintenance. 3:45:49 PM Dennis Viehland I am supportive of a magazine (outlined the idea at AIS95), but feel it should be in addition to ISW and ISWN. Blake's comment about reward stuctre is valid too. 3:46:46 PM Peter R. Newsted ON the AIS side we certainly need the "informational" or current events stuff whether we have a "magazine" or not 3:48:01 PM Reagan Ramsower Let's move to Theme and Scope and come back to Mission and Vision. Comment on the list of areas in Theme and Scope 3:48:04 PM Simha R. Magal continuing on the mission... while the menu in the mockup still includes all parts of the current iswn... the mission would indicate that most the current items (e.g, course pages, research repositories, etc.) are only secondary. The new mission seems to focus primarily on the Professional activities and the former Infosys Junction. Am i misreading the mission statement? 3:48:21 PM George Widmeyer The A/ISWorld mission as proposed only mentions "news" and information regarding "events". This seems to have a short term focus. 3:48:38 PM Ron Weber Hi Everyone, Like a few others, I'm having trouble reading anything because my machine keeps refreshing and returning me to the start of the chats. I'm spending most of my time scrolling back to where I was. Anyway , re mission and vision, I'd like to comment that I believe the change away from having ISWorld be a *single* entry point is good. I believe we were being a bit too chauvenistic with this vision. I think we have to realize that we will be just one of many resources that our collea 3:49:14 PM Blake Ives It seems to me that the place where we have missed the biggest opportunity is in curicullum design and support. Committees get together and spend years to get out new guidelines, which are outdated on the date pub lished - and provide no mechanism for intermediate update. AIS should be taking this highground and using A/IS World as the vehicle. The ir should be teams responsble for oversight of each course. But, this is both periodic edition (revised guidelines) and support (the repository) 3:49:17 PM Michael Myers Yes, I support having a magazine (previously done by Infosys) but do not think this encapsulates the entire vision of A/ISWorld - therefore I agree with Blake on this 3:49:18 PM George Widmeyer How do Michael's Qualitative Research pages fit with the proposed mission ? 3:49:34 PM Reagan Ramsower In replay to Simha. No. The full content would still be there but expanded to include news etc. 3:51:29 PM Reagan Ramsower George, in with IS Research. This is essentially the same division as IS Research and Scholarship 3:51:54 PM Simha R. Magal Reagan, If the idea is to expand the current vision to include news etc. then why a fundamentally different mission statement. Also, as i understand it, there is already a place for news and information in the current architecture.. perhaps not visible enough. 3:52:30 PM Peter R. Newsted In terms of the scope of AIS, it looks like keeping all of these things g oing would be more than a full time job. Dennis V certainly found this with INFOSYS JUNC 3:53:15 PM Reagan Ramsower IS Teaching is also the same division. And I completely agree with Blake on the need to expand this to include much more course related material 3:54:24 PM Freddie Quek Yes I agree (about the magazine). I am involved with a commercial site, BioMedNet, and there is a team of 2 staff on the Jobs placement feature, and a team of 2-4 staff on the newsletter, HMS Beagle 3:54:39 PM Ron Weber I too am supportive of the magazine idea. We will need to discuss how this a fits in we the proposed Communications of the AIS. 3:55:01 PM Blake Ives I am comfortable with community news, journals and AIS. I am lease enamor ed with research - and perhaps this should be something we should drop all together. 3:55:44 PM Mohan Narasipuram I agree with Blake and Reagon : the magazine may be expanded to include IS Teaching. 3:56:38 PM Rassule Hadidi The magazine could include curriculum issues too. 3:57:07 PM Reagan Ramsower Should IS Research be placed within one of the AIS e-journals? 3:57:32 PM Brian Dos Santos I too am a bit confused by the vision statement -- it seems to suggest a dramatic change in direction -- when, in fact (from Reagan's comments), here would just additions to the current offerings. 3:57:38 PM Blake Ives I really don't like this name "magazine" - perhaps "transactions". 3:57:44 PM Mohan Narasipuram The magazine should help establish the scope and (re)definition of IS discipline across countries and cultures on a continual basis. 3:57:53 PM Peter R. Newsted I think dropping the REserach from the AIS "magazine" makes sense, too:1) it's time consuming to do well, and 2) research tends to be more permanent which would seem to fit better on the ISWorld side 3:58:03 PM Munir Mandviwalla I like the idea of the magazine (but not the word) because it is more focused -- "more focused" does not mean that we cannot do grand projects 3:58:44 PM Freddie Quek We can call it Newsletter 4:00:03 PM Dennis Galletta Sorry if this is on an old topic or off the topic, but my screen is behaving very strangely (refresh now 120 seconds and still not high enough!) But...(next message) 4:00:41 PM Reagan Ramsower The problem with magazine and newsletter are they imply information in an issue that is sent out, read and tossed. ISN would be more like a repository with a monthly issue posted and a new home page of What's new. 4:00:52 PM Dennis Galletta I initially reacted negatively to the idea of using Push technology. But after re-reading Reagan's document, it occurs to me that it is important for us to be "in everyone's faces" as much as possible without being intrusive. 4:01:06 PM Jose Raul Canay I agree with the expansion of the "magazine" to include IS Teaching. 4:01:31 PM Dennis Galletta We need to provide value to members (subscribers?) and the work that is being done should be visible to them. 4:01:33 PM Blake Ives Newsletter is worse than magazine. It needs to have at least marginal standing in P&T deliberations 4:01:45 PM Dennis Viehland No, not a newsletter in the e-publication sense. With monthly issues, contributed articles, it is an e-zine. The question is teh appropriateness of the idea (IMHO) for ISW direction.supportabilsuppi 4:02:05 PM Ron Weber I support the idea of using push technology. It helps with overload. 4:02:06 PM Munir Mandviwalla (to Ron Weber) also get rid of the spaces around the letter and the equal sign (by the way this is a private message) to send one click on users 4:02:26 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim It is 5:00 am +0800: are we still at "Vision and Mission" ? 4:02:45 PM Dennis Galletta Why give it a name? Just call it a "site" for now and move on... 4:02:53 PM Peter R. Newsted Sounds like the "magazine/newsletter" is a lot like a new INFOSYS JUNCTION: pushed to folks but archived on the web?? 4:02:54 PM Reagan Ramsower Maintenance is the biggest problem. Let's move to Organizational Architecture 4:03:47 PM Michael Myers Do I sense a consensus that "magazine" is not the right word for the entire vision of A/ISWorld? 4:03:52 PM George Widmeyer Should we move to Theme and Scope? 4:04:17 PM Blake Ives Rewards is the essential problem here. If we don't lick that we are dead. Thus, the name is , in my mind, the essential problem. 4:04:34 PM Reagan Ramsower I thought we did, but maybe my messages are getting through. So theme and scope. 4:05:01 PM Dennis Viehland An Architecture-Organisational issue: ISW should be moderated, but remain a mailing list.. 4:05:25 PM George Widmeyer IS Research is less that what we do currently in the Rsch & Scholarship area. 4:05:34 PM Simha R. Magal This is my third and last attempt to focus on the wording of the vision and mission statement....if you have not read it, please do.. it is fundamentally different (although Reagan's comments would indicated that the actual mission is not different). I have a serious problem with this... and am less concerned (yet) about what we call this (magazine, etc.). This is critical as it defines the next section (theme and scope), which is also very very different that the current ISWN... in th 4:05:49 PM Jose Raul Canay Push technology isn't intrusive, I think. We can use it for our goals 4:06:20 PM Reagan Ramsower If we minimize the amount of effort needed to contribute then this is some way lessons the need for a "big" reward. Then perhaps just "visibility" can be reward enough. Is this too naive? 4:06:35 PM Ron Weber I like the ideas proposed in Reagan's paper for organizational structure. I think it might attract more contributors. 4:07:03 PM Simha R. Magal continued.... in the teaching section there is no mention of courseware which se most people seem to agree is important.. ditto with items in the research section.... Please tell me to be quiet if i am the only one with this fundamental question.. then we can get on with details of what to call it and how to deliver it. 4:07:41 PM Reagan Ramsower Simha, can we come back vision and mission in the end to tie it all together? 4:08:38 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim Simha: I second you, however, how much time should we spend ? when ? followups ? 4:08:42 PM Dennis Galletta I agree with Simha in the importance of the vision/mission. I liked the old vision/mission, and expected the new one to subsume the old one. 4:08:44 PM Blake Ives I believe Simha is right. It is a movement from a repository mindset to a transitory mindset. 4:08:45 PM Mohan Narasipuram Instead of a research magazine, can we have a broad discipline based publication such as 'Nature' ? 4:08:45 PM Brian Dos Santos Blake, could you elaborate on the "rewards problem?" 4:08:46 PM Reagan Ramsower George, I think the way ISN does IS Research and Scholarship is what is need rather than "articles" Those sections are valuable resources. 4:08:55 PM Simha R. Magal Ok Reagan, but i thought we were on item one of the agenda... vision and misson. 4:08:57 PM Munir Mandviwalla I think relying on technology to solve a human problem ("rewards") is not going to work -- the "rewards" issue is there. The reality is that today it is very easy to create web pages but we still don't see the stampede of contributors. 4:09:04 PM Freddie Quek AIS is a professional association, catering to the needs of its members. I agree with Reagan, that contributions to AIS activities (whether visible or not) should be an aspiration, and thus the reward will come with it (later). 4:09:56 PM Michael Myers I like most of the ideas in the organizational structure section, my only concern relates to the move away from refereeing contributions to invited submissions. Perhaps this is more realistic but it does signify a watering down of what Blake was trying to achieve with the original ISWorld 4:10:26 PM Reagan Ramsower Visibility is the only reward I know. I cannot control the P&T policies of this org much less the other ones out there. 4:11:04 PM Blake Ives Re: Rewards. I think there are three reasons that one might participate in this activity.. The first, which is only temporary is that it is fun and leading edge (we were blessed with that in 94). The second is that it get s some visibility for you and your university (we didn't have much luck with this and didn't really foster it). The third is that you can put it on your annual report and someone will say it is important. There are several people participating today, for whom that did not hap 4:11:33 PM Reagan Ramsower Michael, you are very correct in the observation. But with the emergence of e-journals and places to publish refeered pieces ISN perhaps should be different. 4:12:52 PM Reagan Ramsower Ron, can AIS help provide some rewards? 4:13:35 PM Ron Weber Re rewards, I think we have to be careful not to berate people into contributing. They must have clear incentives. We are simply one of many activities competing for people's valuable time. 4:14:05 PM Blake Ives I appreciate both Reagan and Michael's attributions of the original vision of ISWorld Net to me, but many of the contributors today, as well as several who are not here, played a very big role. 4:14:15 PM Reagan Ramsower OK, on to Technical Architecture. Comments on these idesas? 4:14:35 PM Munir Mandviwalla Re Rewards: So for the moment the issue is not solvable. Therefore, I don't believe we need to spend a lot of effort making it easier for people - the ones who will do it will do it anyway. Easier in principle is good but we should not fool ourselves that it will have much impact in the short run. 4:15:01 PM George Widmeyer Maybe it is time to move on from the current ISW R&S view and put that material in an online journal. Then the two bullets under IS Research in Theme and Scope are appropriate. 4:15:26 PM Ron Weber Reagan, off the cut, I don't know whether AIS can do much re rewards. Let me think about it. 4:16:20 PM Dennis Galletta How does one become a trusted author? 4:16:21 PM Freddie Quek Technical Architecture - what resources (hardware, software, staff) are available to make this happen on what scale? 4:16:32 PM Jose Raul Canay Do we fall in a e-journal inflation?. This can be a problem 4:16:38 PM Simha R. Magal On technical architecture: i believe that the fully distributed architecture was a good, but failed experiment. there has to be much more centralization necessary... especially for the look and feel..development tools (e.g., templates), etc. Continued...... 4:16:54 PM Dennis Viehland Regards rewards--there are organisational rewards (P&T) and individual rewards (personal satisfaction). ISW has been good at harnessing the latter, but can never provide the former, except in advocacy 4:17:20 PM Michael Myers The technical architecture suggested seems a big improvement and would put A/ISWorld on a sound footing - the only question is who will pay for it? 4:17:55 PM Reagan Ramsower Right now we have a RISC 6000 on T1 all to ourselves. Running Netscape Enterprise Server, LiveWire, directory, etc. 4:17:57 PM Dennis Galletta The distributed architecture concept is fundamentally a good one if people keep things up to date. That's a flawed assumption. But is a centralized system going to be any better in that regard? 4:17:58 PM Mohan Narasipuram I agree with Reagon, ISN should be different, not another research journal; It may provide a forum to discuss more fundamental and popular issues to establish IS as a leading discipline. (ex : 'Nature 4:18:01 PM Ron Weber I like the proposed technical architecture. But will we have mirror sites around the world? Response times in some areas are still horrible. 4:18:07 PM Rassule Hadidi Second Simha's assessment on the technical arcitecture. 4:19:06 PM Dennis Galletta If it's a performance issue, then more than a distributed system is the problem. Isn't it the internet itself? 4:19:07 PM Freddie Quek Authors can host their own pages if they want to, but will be registered. A wrapper program can be used to redirect all off-site pages to provide a consistent look and feel. 4:19:24 PM Peter R. Newsted Both the technical resources as well as "ads" (to be discussed later) require that we have a business plan 4:19:47 PM Mohan Narasipuram Mirror sites are essential particularly for Africa & Asia. 4:19:47 PM Simha R. Magal regarding Reagan's proposal..... i believe that this is a lot of work for whoever is managing it.. that is not saying that it is not a good idea (i need to think some more and look at some more of the details). I like the move to centralization but don't know where the right balance is. I like the idea of mirrors and backups. i like the idea of giving more tools for co ntributors, but doubt that they can be html/web design illiterate. Then there is the question of cost... the advertising 4:19:54 PM Blake Ives One thing we are not doing very well - now, or in the new design - ius harnessing student projects, creativity, and energy. 4:19:57 PM Reagan Ramsower At least with a centralized system, someone else can go in a fix a problem. Right now the editors are at the mercy of the owner of the page. 4:20:00 PM Dennis Galletta Perhaps we need to state what the problem with the distributed architecture is: performance? Dated content? Both? Or something else? 4:20:26 PM Reagan Ramsower Ron, I am glad you asked about the mirrors. This is a funding issue that perhaps AIS can assist with ;-) 4:20:39 PM Simha R. Magal opp.. continued.. Then there is the question of cost... the advertising model has not been really really successfull. 4:21:17 PM Blake Ives Another thing that we have never tried to harness are grants - seems to me that ISWorld Net is a very nice prototype that should attract money - particularly for international issues. 4:22:12 PM Brian Dos Santos I disagree -- with the movement to a centralized site architecture. The resources required would be considerable -- and I am not referring to the hardware and software. Managing a site that will have hundereds of contributers is a challenging task -- at best. 4:22:20 PM Munir Mandviwalla Both distribution and centralization hold advantages and disadvantages. I propose a combined archiecture. A section can be hosted on the central server but if an author wants to post it on their own server they should be be able to. This can all be made transparent with URL masking. 4:22:26 PM Blake Ives Problems with distributed architecture: start up costs for new maintainers, inconsistent look and feel, increased maintenance, performance variations, difficulty in managing. 4:23:10 PM Dennis Galletta Our time is growing short. Are we going to continue in face-to-face mode at ICIS? That implies that we will have an incomplete report. 4:23:46 PM George Widmeyer The decentralized model has allowed individuals to fund the development in some sense. A centralized approach probably needs a part-time student dedicated to managing this (much as Blake has had to do himself). 4:23:52 PM Reagan Ramsower OK, to Financial Support. Direct ads my be good if site traffic picks up but I was most encouraged to see how the revenue associates idea was working. 4:24:03 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim at least there should be a centralized mirror system 4:24:04 PM Mohan Narasipuram This is an area AIS can take lead - provide resources/rewards for student s/contributors 4:24:12 PM Blake Ives A central site would also help in justifying the spending of revenues from ads, sponsorships, grants, etc. 4:25:18 PM Dennis Viehland Regards funding: revenue associates would not seem to work well, but content charges can be expanded publishers for book reviews; journals for TOC). 4:25:34 PM Ron Weber In AIS, my greatest worry at the moment is financials. The shift to the new business office will take most of our discretionary income each year. The problem is that at 1100 members (contd) 4:25:47 PM Freddie Quek To really work, the centralised part must have a full-time support staff to maintain the site to a professional level. I am in favour of a combined approach, but the centralised part must remove the burden of the HTML aut horing/look and feel away from the authors. This is not a technical issue as it can be done (with resources) 4:26:29 PM Blake Ives I think we should go for a grant. I spent a lot of time on EDS and Prentice Hall getting those ponsorships - far more time than they were worth. There will also be a front end cost in setting up ads 4:26:31 PM Ron Weber we simply do not have enough colleagues supporing disciplinary activities We have a free-riding discipline! 4:26:44 PM Dennis Galletta I believe the problems cited by Blake are not solved by centralizing (except performance) as long as individuals are responsible for the content. 4:26:55 PM Dennis Viehland Reagan, how is revenue associates working well? Can a review--adoption be a cause-effect? 4:27:06 PM Brian Dos Santos Are we talking about a centralized site that is completely developed and maintained by a single group? Or, would folks like us mainitin a section of the site? 4:28:20 PM Peter R. Newsted As time is running out, I'd suggest we let Reagan summarize things and reqork the position paper which folks can comment on and then have it presented at ICIS. I think he could get the sense of things and it's important to move us ahead as we're certain never to agree on everything 4:28:41 PM Reagan Ramsower I hope that I can meet with everyone at ICIS that will be there. My time schedule is completely around this topic as you can guess. How about getting together at 6:00pm around the registration desk Sunday to find some meeting times? 4:28:43 PM Dennis Galletta Brian, are you suggesting NOT to hire a central person, but to instead have a small group of proficient volunteers? Interesting idea...would it work? 4:29:27 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim how about outsourcing ? 4:29:41 PM Munir Mandviwalla I would suggest a follow up meeting after ICIS -- it is going to be very hard to find times at this stage.. 4:29:58 PM Michael Myers I suggest the consistent look and feel problem and ease of writing could be solved by giving everyone templates in Frontpage 97 or 98. Most attendees at ICIS are getting this product for free anyhow 4:30:35 PM Dennis Galletta Let me say that the new prototype design is great! I like the dynamic tree on the left. I fully support this approach, if the color schemes can be made to look more attractive. 4:31:07 PM Dennis Viehland Can we use the ISWNet mailing list to continue this before ICIS? 4:31:12 PM Mohan Narasipuram a follow-up meeting after ICIS is a good idea 4:31:18 PM Blake Ives I think this was more productive, for this size of group, than a face to face meeting would be. I suggest that those who are interested, button hole Reagan during the conference. 4:31:18 PM Reagan Ramsower Ok, It been an hour. Formal chat is over. I will re-write the paper, mail a revision and expect to get comments back from you. I will present and revise at ICIS and send around another draft after ICIS. Thanks!!! to everyone. It is very appreciated! 4:31:37 PM Blake Ives And then there is the letter evening bar opportunities. 4:31:51 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim However, the new prototype does not have a bookmark facility and (BACK) and (FORWARD) bottom. 4:31:57 PM Michael Myers Thanks for the opportunity to participate today! I look forward to continuing the conversation later 4:32:03 PM Brian Dos Santos Dennis is right on. The technical problems are getting easier to handle. What about the problem of gathering the information and composing content. That is getting to be more difficult as more people try to contribute. 4:32:05 PM Simha R. Magal I strongly recommend that we meet at ICIS.. perhaps Reagan can get e-mail from everyone interested with times that they are available and he can pick a time when most can meet? 4:33:03 PM Mohan Narasipuram Thanks to all of you, Reagon in particular. 4:33:12 PM Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim Can you send this transcript by email ? 4:33:44 PM Freddie Quek Munir, this chat facility is great. Good advert! 4:34:10 PM Reagan Ramsower My entire time at ICIS is dedicated to working and talking about ISWorld Net. Please find me and individually or in groups we can talk. 4:34:17 PM Munir Mandviwalla It is possible to make the chat transcript available -- if the participants have no objections 4:34:27 PM Blake Ives I think we are off to a great re-start, with lots of obvious enthusiasm, if not complete agreement. Nice kick off Reagan!! 4:34:34 PM Dennis Galletta Yes, this was pretty slick, even though my screen always refreshed to an OLDER VERSION! I had to manually refresh to stay current. 4:34:45 PM Reagan Ramsower Fine by me. 4:34:45 PM Brian Dos Santos Thanks for putting this together. 4:34:57 PM Rassule Hadidi Munir, a good idea. 4:34:59 PM Jose Raul Canay I think taht a IRC net, as Undernet or Dalnet is better for a discussion than a JAvaScript chat.but it is only a idea 4:35:32 PM Jose Raul Canay :-) 4:35:42 PM Peter R. Newsted Really appreciate all the effort and views; it's starting to get exciting again! 4:36:23 PM Dennis Galletta No objections here, either. Perhaps we can remove the messages dealing entirely with set-up and running problems. 4:36:32 PM Mohan Narasipuram Its great start. I really appreciate the efforts of Reagon and Blake. 4:36:54 PM Munir Mandviwalla Try just the colon and parenthesis Jose (no dash) 4:36:56 PM Mohan Narasipuram No objections here either 4:37:06 PM Blake Ives No one seems to be signing off. Suggestion. Lets talk up ISWorld Net and ISWorld Net at ICIS. 4:37:24 PM Mohan Narasipuram but we need a better interface for this chat 4:37:48 PM Simha R. Magal no objections to transcript Reagan... nice job getting things rolling.. Nice to see the enthusiasm surfacing.. hope it stays when it is time to actually do the dirty work.. 4:37:57 PM Dennis Galletta Munir, are you saying the colon and parenthesis is how to make a graphic smile? 4:38:19 PM Blake Ives Words like "fresh start" "reenergizeed" "fresh new leadership" "exciting things in the works" 4:38:21 PM Dennis Galletta See you all at ICIS! Signing off.