CD ROM's & information

[Namibian Museum Entomology]

Tom Moritz wrote about the Katydid CD ROM:

There is a very fundamental issue which is touched on in Jim's comments but
not fully explored...

There are  enormous disparities in wealth between the "North" & the "South"
(which are everywhere apparent in the "South")

Thank you for the reminder about real taxonomic impediments. A practical
example - due to currency devaluation and budget cuts our journal
subscriptions alone rocketed within 4 months in 1998 from 10% to 88% of the
budget for maintaining collections. We hoped for better times, and as
specimen collections are inherently more resilient, maintained the library.
The situation did not improve, and we now have to decide what is more
important - specimens or taxonomic infrastructure? 4 years ago we were
forced to terminate subscription to Zoo Records, 1999 may see the demise of
all other subscriptions. Without the resources to work with, is it even
worthwhile training or replacing biosystematists in developing countries?

Eugene Marais

National Museum of Namibia
P.O. Box 1203, Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: + 264 61 29 34 354 Fax: 22 86 36
http://www.natmus.cul.na/newindex.html




-----Original Message-----
From:   Taxacom Discussion List [mailto:TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG] On Behalf Of Tom
Moritz
Sent:   14 July 1999 21:25 nm
To:     TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
Subject:        Re: Katydid CD ROM --

-- one simple demonstration
graph some national economic measure (like national GDP) with some
indicator of national IT development  (for example, national distribution
of "Internet host sites");  the curves are very largely coincidental.  Then
plotting some national measure of "biodiversity" elucidates the obvious
that many of the areas of greatest concern (from a biodiversity
conservation standpoint) are least well served by IT.

Visit a university or other library in the develkoping world...
I have been told that Pakistan (as one example) had 1 university at the
time of partition with India and that 19 new universities have been created
since 1949.  (I visited one of these in Peshawar a few years ago and was
amazed by the absence of core science materials.)  I have frequently been
asked by developing world scientists to provide information on how to
publish in existing ("mainstream") journals (which they don't routinely
see) or to provide any possible assistance in acquiring materials.  Even
when established scientists in the South adaptively acquire some of the
literature they need, younger scientists, teachers, students often can not
get access at all...

What has this to do with distribution & pricing of CD-ROM's?

Whatever formats and means of distribution we use for scientific
information,  we should insure that we offer fair access to those who
currently are virtually disinherited. This may mean that we must offer free
access  or perhaps explore options like selective "IP" controls on access
or the "circulation" (check out and return) of electronic documents.
Pricing of any sort may place these products beyond reach.

Design of CD's should also explore options like language interfaces and
"filters" which make the same "product"  accessible to different reader
levels...

(And efforts to extend the *saturation* of Internet access in the
developing world are essential i.e. the Internet *reaches* most countries
but effective access is sharply limited.)

None of this is to say that "cost recovery" is not justifiable but only to
assert that it is in everyone's best (utilitarian) interest to support the
"development" of science internationally and to "level the playing field".
Most of our institutions recognize a "granting function" (pro bono civico)
as part of our missions and the international (and for that matter
domestic-educational) extension of access to those who don't have it is a
way of meeting those obligations...

Tom Moritz
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Tom Moritz                                              212-769-5417
Director of the Library                                 212-769-5009 - FAX
American Museum of Natural History               tmoritz at amnh.org
79th St. @ Central Park West
http://nimidi.amnh.org/library.html
New York, New York  10024                       (Time:  GMT -5)
USA
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At 10:08 AM 7/14/99 -0700, James Beach wrote:
>Hello All --
>
>First, congratulations and laurels to Piotr, Dan and Chris for their
>immense investment in database development and distribution of their
>species information.  ETI is also doing a stupendous job, though it looks
>like their cost-recovery schedule is a bit steeper in that they charge more
>for their CD-ROMS.  NSF (and agency other) subsidies help US efforts.  I
>was working at the NSF and was the person who supplemented the Otte award
>beyond the original request, in the amount of about $50,000 (if I recall
>the amount correctly) to encourage the PIs to further develop their on-line
>resources.  They did that and as pointed out the OSF is a high-quality,
>maintained and freely available resource.
>
>It's going to be a very exciting future for systematics and for collections
>based research if we can build the standards infrastructure and devote more
>of our precious technologists to the task of bringing species and specimen
>data, information and knowledge in interoperating systems on the Internet.
>
>Jim B.
>____________________________________________________
>James H. Beach
>Specify Software Project
>www.usobi.org/specify
>Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center
>Dyche Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
>E-mail: jbeach at ukans.edu
>Tel: (785) 864-4400, Fax: (785) 864-5010