Having served as a Webmaster since 1995, I know well the difficulties involved in successful Website development and maintenance. The student workers can likewise be forgiven for not developing a concrete vision of the goals underlying SMSU's Internet presence, when their primary efforts are correctly devoted to obtaining a college education. I am confident that these issues will be settled as the University's approach to the Internet matures, and its conception of the academic Web developer's role evolves. Below, I offer a solution to a more easily addressed problem. Americans have always had places where they could come together and deliberate about their common future.
Today there are fewer and fewer forums where people actually listen to each other.
It's as if everyone wants to spout his opinion or her criticism and then move on. For the average citizen, the opinion-editorial pages of the local newspaper provide about the last remaining forum to engage on dialogue on public affairs issues. The cumulative effect of these factors is that the Southwest Missourian who wishes to spout opinion or criticism is prevented from sticking around afterwards to discuss his or her remarks. Consequently, the SMSU community and Southwest Missourians lack an Internet forum for public affairs discussion. A listserver distributes e-mail messages among a list of subscribers, hence the name.