From: frank@rover.uchicago.edu (Frank - Hardware Hacker - Borger)
Subject: Re: EXECUTION of DECUS Standards
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Reply-To: frank@rover.uchicago.edu
Organization: Joint Center for Radiation Therapy
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 20:02:00 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.082309@mccall.com>, tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot) writes...
> 
>In article <16DEC199216495941@rover.uchicago.edu>, frank@rover.uchicago.edu
>>>Another idea would be to dump DCS and put the
>>>leadership onto DECUServe with the rabble. That would do some good, in
>>>>addition to maybe saving some money, though I don't know enough about that
>>>>setup to know if there would be any real savings to that.
>>	Would you really like to see 10 or 20 mail messages a day from the
>>	small SIGS, more from the big ones, all posted to DECUServe? DCS
>>	provides targeted messaging, via mail lists. RUN DECUS using DECUServe
>>	urk, choke, ghasp.
> 
>Yup. Put all those mailing lists into public conferences and/or newsgroups.
>(Mailing lists are a lousy vehicle for conferencing anyway.) 

	Agreed. That is why Notes was added to DCS. But conversely, a notes
	or net type of conference or newsgroup is a lousy for targeted
	communication. For that, you need electronic mail and mailing lists.

	If I had to read every communication coming out of DECUS to decide
	if it applied to me or not, any type of leadership functioning on
	my part would cease forthwith.

	Do you really want to pour through all the messages that tell you
	deadline for the store representatives for submission of articles
	to sell at spring DECUS will be such and such a date?????

	Agreed, there are some problems with openness. When we set up the
	Newsletter conference on DCS, it was agreed that it was open to all.
	We hoped we could get feedback from users, we wanted that to be the
	place where the back-porch type of discussion was held, (versus the
	stereotypical smoke filled room.) Regretably, not all conferences
	that should be open are.

>And, the traffic
>comes pre-sorted by topic (conference/newsgroup) rather than just dumped into a
>mailbox in chronological order.

	Only if you have enough topics. If you look at the net conferences,
	you rarely find one actually sorted. Let's see now, I would need alt.
	decus.newsletters.L&T, alt.decus.newsletters.DAARC, alt.decus.news-
	letters.finance, ... sure guys. 

>Again, I'm not picking on individuals, just the system. DECUS does itself and
>its members a disservice simply by the way it does business. DECUServe and the
>net are great tools for communication, but neither is used to facilitate the
>running of DECUS, (even though one is a service provided by DECUS!). Granted,
>these tools haven't always existed, but they do now and should be used
>(especially now that the vehicle for written communication has vanished).

	Ok, lets try to summarize. (I just checked, you don't have DCS access,
	so you really are not active in DECUS day to day running. What I feel
	is:

	DCS works well for messaging concerning day to day operations of DECUS,
	where I have specific information that must go quickly to a key person
	or a few people. example: Many messages go back and forth between a
	few people charged with coming up with a commercialism policy pertinent
	to th newsletters in particular.

	Notes/etc works best for taking that commercialism policy you have just
	sweated out and submitting it to the general populace to get their
	reactions. (Hopefully you will get constructive criticism, in truth,
	you will typically end up with few responses.)

	The trick is to balance proper use of DCS versus notes so that I am
	properly informed and told of major changes that will take place,
	without being snowed under by the sheer volume of messages that
	go flying by.

   Frank R. Borger - Physicist    __       Internet:  Frank@rover.uchicago.edu
Michael Reese - Univ. of Chicago |___      Phone : 312-791-8075 fax : 567-7455
  Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   In the first place God made idiots.
                                   | \|_)  That was for practice. Then he made
    "Birthplace of Softball"          |_)  school boards. - Mark Twain