Newsgroups: bit.listserv.commed
Date:         Thu, 5 Nov 1992 13:36:10 EST
From:         Comserve Support Staff <SUPPORT@RPIECS.BITNET>
Subject:      Announcements of general interest within the Comserve community ..

(This issue has been distributed jointly over InterCom & Newsline.)

Three items in this issue:

  1.  Conference:  Innovative Research Trends in the Human Sciences
      (U. of Alberta, Nov. 27 - 28); Includes Comserve/CIOS Presentation

  2.  Call for Book Manuscripts

  3.  Ethno Hotline Discusses Proposals for Name Change, New Hotline

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            INNOVATIVE RESEARCH TRENDS IN THE HUMAN SCIENCES
                         University of Alberta
                             Nov. 27-28 '92

         Submitted by  R. L. Busch, Vice President for Research
                       RBUSCH@vm.ucs.UAlberta.CA

(Note:  A presentation on Comserve and other CIOS projects will take
place at this conference during an afternoon session on Saturday
November 28.)


Session descriptions  (A full conference schdule will be available
                      in Comserve's database within the next week.)


I.PLENARY SESSION

    This Session will hear three twenty-minute presentations.  The
first, representing SSHRC, will address the growing importance of
collaborative research for the Council.  This will include thoughts on
bridging disciplines and making the case for research collaboration
among constituents of Canada's three Granting Councils.  The next
presentation will address newly emergent types of research resulting
from technological change - for example, the use of hypercard for
relational databases, research on computer-assisted education, etc.  A
third speaker will review the alternatives to a traditional research
model, e.g., single-scholar approach, publication essentially by paper
only.  This speaker will endeavour to bring out the strengths of the
alternatives, including their value added in terms of research
outcomes and enabling structures.  Conversely, this speaker will also
address the putative limitations of the alternatives, as well as the
human and institutional barriers that can be encountered in pursuing
them.  Emphasis in this presentation will be on a balanced introduction
of the issues to be addressed in the sessions to follow.

II.BUILDING TEAMS AND PARTNERSHIPS

    The Canadian Tri-Council communique of April 24, 1992 has emphasized
the Councils increasing commitment to a growing trend in interdis-
ciplinary and collaborative research both within and across the
Councils' boundaries.  Successful collaboration cannot be imposed, but
rather needs to be a natural fit whose advantages in terms of enriched
perspectives, critical mass, ability to undertake and complete large
tasks within a reasonable time, and educational rewards to student
participants are readily justifiable.  That the Councils are making
collaboration and networking more of a priority should occasion
researchers to explore the possibilities for a natural fit.  This
Session will emphasize the necessary conditions for successful team
research, and will present a variety of case studies that embody the
collaborative concept and strengthen its rationale.

III RETHINKING THE RESEARCH AGENDA

    This Session will relate an Alberta experience of setting up an
extensive Government-University interchange program to help share and
generate knowledge of use to the broader community.  Additionally, it
will examine, the issue of finding credible and valuable supplements to
the scholarly book and article for disseminating the results of
human-sciences scholarship to decision makers in government and the
private sector, as well as to the general public.

IV SUPERVISORY RELATIONSHIPS

    An important trend in education involves fostering a learner-centred
process as distinct from an instructor/professor-centred process.
Learner-centred education has undoubtedly been highly characteristic of
graduate studies at their best, particularly at the doctoral level where
creativity is expected of candidates.  However, there may be further
room to move in this direction.  While some human-sciences may be more
conducive than others to promoting collaborative supervisory approaches,
and, indeed, disciplinary constraints on collaboration will be
addressed, nevertheless collaborative relationships are conceivable for
almost any field.  Several of these will be exemplified.

V INNOVATIVE USES OF RESEARCH AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

    One can maintain that computers not only aid research, but sometimes
make new sorts of research possible.  This will be demonstrated on the
basis the automated Index of Christian Art and on the basis of ICONCLASS
a hierarchical, automated classification system that allows the
retrieval of information from image data-bases in response to queries
from researchers in different fields, using unregimented natural
language.  Additionally, this Session will demonstrate ways that
computers can be used for advanced research in education delivery, and
University of Alberta Library staff will present on the innovative use
of library network resources.  Another Session under this rubrique will
focus on the challenges and opportunities inherent in the rapid
emergence of electronic journals.  If scholars in the human sciences can
meet refereeing responsibilities, dispense with traditional dependence
on paper and be at home on modern high-speed networks electronic
journals offer a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly way to handle
the information explosion at the speed-of-light.  In addition to hearing
about the Canadian experience with Surfaces and strategies for getting
electronic journals up and running, and an American experience with
Comserve:  an on-line Disciplinary Centre for Communications Scholars
and Students, attendees will learn of the forthcoming Manitoba
Conference to promote the Establishment of a [North-American] Consortium
to Sponsor the Computer Network Publication of Refereed Journals.

VI INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITATION OF ALTERNATIVE MODELS

    As a word networking may still grate on some ears, but it, along
with collaboration, has become increasingly prominent in scholarship.
This suggests that scholars have already been resourceful in developing
collaborative and networked relationships.  It might be asked whether
success has resulted from concerted institutional support, from benign
institutional neglect or in spite of institutional barriers.  To put
matters more constructively, one can ask what institutions and/or their
sub-units need to do to facilitate scholarly collaboration and
networking.  This might be through encouraging interdisciplinary
projects, through encouraging the use of telecommunication applications
by supplying effective support-staff and training opportunities, through
having the reward system recognize meaningful contributions to applied
research aspects of networking and collaboration, etc.  Perspectives on
institutional facilitation will be sought from two panels; panel
discussion; one in which representatives of the the Granting Councils
state their views on the importance of facilitating collaborative
research either within or across Council boundaries; a second panel of
university administrators will share their views on this subject.

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               CALL FOR BOOK MANUSCRIPTS -- HAMPTON PRESS

              Submitted by: Ron Rice <RRICE@ZODIAC.BITNET>

    Hampton Press is a new press committed to publishing outstanding
monographs, textbooks, advanced readers, and edited volumes in the field
of communications.  The press is especially oriented toward electronic
submissions and processing, quick publication turn-around, and paperback
versions, all intended to reduce costs and make communication books more
widely accessible.

Its 16 content areas include:

- Communication Alternatives
- Communication and Law
- Communication and Participation
- Communication and Social Space
- Communication, Culture and Social Change
- Communication, Peace and Development
- Communication Pedagogy and Practice
- Critical Studies in Communication
- Feminist Studies
- Interpersonal Communication
- Mass Communications and Journalism
- Mass Media and Telecommunication Systems, Processes and Effects
- New Media: Policy and Social Research Issues
- The Organizational Experience in Modern Society
- Political Communication
- Quantitative Methods in Communication

    For more information, contact Hampton Press at 23 Broadway,
Cresskill, NJ 07626; phone:  201-894-1686; fax:  201-894-8732

    I am editor of the New Media content area:  "New Media" include
computer-mediated communication and collaborative media, new forms of
telephone service and mobile communications, regional/national/
international telecommunications networks, multimedia systems,
developing applications of cable and television, as well as any other
medium facilitated by computer capabilities.  Approaches to policy and
social research issues include theoretical arguments and research
studies of any methodological or paradigmatic persuasion, including
social science, regulatory, legal, economic, historical, and
philosophical analyses.

    Please feel free to contact me directly concerning possible
submissions to this area (DO NOT "REPLY" TO THIS BULLETIN BOARD):

                             Ronald E. Rice
                        School of Communication
                     Information & Library Studies
                             P.O. Box 5067
                          Rutgers University
                      New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5067
                              908-932-7381
            email: RRICE@ZODIAC or RRICE@PISCES.RUTGERS.EDU

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            Ethno Hotline Discusses Name Change, New Hotline

    Acting on a suggestion from CIOS Associate Alan Harris, Comserve's
staff is considering proposals to either change the name of the Ethno
Hotline (to make it broader and more inclusive of scholars working in
the area of language and social interaction) or to add a new hotline
with a broader focus (possibly named LSI).

    Discussion of this matter is taking place currently on the Ethno
hotline.  Please join in if you are interested in this change.  For a
compilation of recent contributions, send this message to Comserve:

                          Send Ethno Notebook

To join the Ethno hotline, send this message:

                    Join Ethno  your name goes here

e.g.:
                        Join Ethno Sharon Smith

NOTE:  Be sure to leave your mail reading software and send these
commands to Comserve directly. Do not attempt to send the commands
by replying to the note you are reading now.  Comserve's addresses were
given at the beginning of this issue.

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