Develop a system to meet a comprehensive set of scholarly needs under the sponsorship of a professional organization or institution. Customize this system to discipline-specific culture, practices, and requirements. Expand and change the system based on members' needs and resources available. The developer gains more control over tool design, maintenance, and use. The resulting system may lose its edge in CMC and NIR technology, as new network tools will be developed.
Specialized training is required for users.
Users' skills developed for specialized system do not necessarily translate to other network tools. Begun from an idea by Timothy Stephen and Teresa Harrison for scholarly electronic communication in 1985, Comserve today serves a stable community of over 6,500 users and has responded to more than 27,000 email addresses in 50 countries. Use existing CMC and NIR tools to create a mix of selected practices that meet some scholarly needs. Training in these tools is becoming more widespread. Develop and run a mailing list for discussion and information-sharing.