I've been holding back one idea, planning to raise it at the TSA meeting in April, but Diana's comment below prompts me to mention it now for people to consider.
Have you been to the Karst Information Portal (www.karstportal.org)? It is the result of a partnership between the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, the University of South Florida, the University of New Mexico, and the International Union of Speleology. The purpose of the KIP is to serve as a multidisciplinary tool to support cave and karst science, exploration, education, and management. Currently most of the information is strongly leaning toward the sciences, but that only reflects the interests of the people initially involved. More information on exploration and general caving is appearing. The KIP offers many resources, but the key one relative to the Texas Caver topic is the posting of journals and newsletters for on-line reading and download. The goal is not just to post them, but have all of the text digitally recognizable and searchable so that when you search for material on any cave or topic, the KIP will not just search the titles of articles or a few keywords, it will search the entire content of the articles, notes, tables, figures, and other posted material. The Texas Caver could be one of those newsletters available to the world on the KIP. I understand some people have misgivings about posting the TC on the web. Reasons include not giving for free what was paid for, copyright, security of possible sensitive information, etc. Many other newsletters and journals have easily worked through these issues and posted their publications. The NSS and AMCS are among those organizations that have posted some of their publications. Time is extraordinarily tight for me (there is this thing called the International Congress of Speleology that I'm working on), so I won't discuss this much more, if at all, on this forum. I encourage people to look at the KIP and discuss it on-line and with the TSA officers. I'll be glad to offer more details and answer questions at the TSA meeting. For now, I offer the following thoughts to consider: Why post on the KIP? The same question can be asked of the Texas Caver. The reason we write for newsletters and journals, submit photos and maps, is to share information. The KIP allows us to share our information with the world. There are many good things going on in Texas that would interest many cavers outside of Texas, much like many Texas cavers read about areas and caves outside of Texas that they will likely never visit. The Texas Caver is too good to be restricted to only the couple hundred people who happen to subscribe at any given time. How much work would this be for Texas cavers? The staff at the University of South Florida is already scanning hardcopy material for posting on the KIP. They include copyright experts who make sure those concerns are addressed. They will be glad to do the work and provide high quality digital and searchable scans that everyone can use. For current and future volumes of the TC, when the issues are created, it would be simple for the Texas Caver editors to e-mail the issues to the KIP. Would this discourage people from joining TSA, if the TC can be accessed for free on the KIP? Many studies have shown that posting books and information online actually increases sales and membership. This initially seems counterintuitive, but is true. On-line posting gives people a "test drive" which builds interest, support, and sales. TSA could also decide to not post material younger than a couple of years if it wants hold back recent issues for members only. There is plenty of flexibility for TSA or any organization to develop a custom-fit way of providing information to the KIP. Is this offer limited to TSA? No. Any organization (TSS, TCMA, TCC, AMCS, PEP, grottos, etc.) that wants to post its publications on the KIP is welcome to do so. Contact the KIP via the information listed online for details to make it happen. George -----Original Message----- From: Diana Tomchick [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 9:33 AM To: Cave Tex Subject: [Texascavers] TSA & volunteering All this wonderful time and effort people have been spending both writing and reading and proffering opinions about the TSA! Barack Obama would be proud to know that someone out there in CaveTex land has volunteered to scan many, many editions of old Texas Cavers' and get them into a compact, easy-to-read format on a CD to be distributed to members. Wait, you say that no one has offered to do this, yet so many people would like to see it done? I think I see a great community service opportunity waiting for volunteers...and I've seen so much evidence that there are plenty of people out there with ample time to spend expounding on the issue. Diana * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Associate Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214B Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: [email protected] 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
