On demand printing, a nomenclatural problem for botany (and eveybody else too)

[Richard Zander]

My expectation is that the next botanical congress will seriously, seriously
consider allowing certain technological advances in effectively publishing
new
names. There will be some kind of restriction (maybe only authorized
electronic journals and digital signatures, and/or maybe a one-time dated
distribution of many on-demand paper copies to libraries), and a reliance on
some kind of professional "hump" (Latin, tedious details) to ensure valid
publication only by genuine specialists or the otherwise truly dedicated.

New technology, however, seems to come from unexpected directions. We
botanists do have a few years to mull over possibilities, while zoologists
have to struggle with their new CD ROM publication problem. I wonder how
zoologists expect to access information in their nomenclaturally important
CD ROMs over the decades? Is a technological fix expected? Remember that
there has not been a technological fix for 8 inch diskettes, and 5.25"
floppy drives are getting hard to find. Will Windows 25 be able to run the
programs (when Win98 has trouble with Win 3.1)? Good luck....

R.

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Richard H. Zander
Curator of Botany
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy
Buffalo, NY 14211 USA
email: rzander at sciencebuff.org
voice: 716-895-5200 x 351