Editorial

EASST maintains the Review as a means of maintaining EASST as an academic community between conferences. But there are limits to how well a modest journal can do that job. I can’t complain that the journal is hampered in this by a non-responsive readership. We get just enough contributions to fill the issues we’re scheduled to produce. And just the types of contributions we’re intended to accommodate – book reviews, academic event reviews, commentary about trends in the field, presentations of recent dissertations, and occasionally a research article. So far, I have hardly had to make any efforts to recruit these pieces. No, we don’t get many responses directed back through the Review. After all, with three or four issues a year, this is hardly the kind of fast-paced communications medium that can maintain a tennis match-paced discussion. But I don’t doubt that the Review gets read, and hopefully authors who are looking for responses from the readers hear back from them directly. In other words, the Review is probably doing its job as well as a quarterly journal can be expected to do. The question then is, “Do we have to remain merely a quarterly journal?”

I’d like to maintain the Review as a quarterly journal. For now, I’d also like it to remain a journal comprised of types of communications less likely to find a welcome home in journals focused on research articles. But why not, at the same time, add faster-paced discussions by adding some Internet functionality?

After months of thought, preparation, and de-bugging – yet still begging your patience with any bugs yet to be discovered – I am pleased to announce the official opening of EASST Review Forums. Paid up EASST members are welcome to sign on and join in at: http://www1.svt.ntnu.no/forum/easst/index.php.

Many of you will be familiar with discussion forums on other topics, but this one will have a few atypical characteristics. Others may not have participated in on-line forums before. So allow me to point out some of our new forums’ features:

EASST Review Forums will be limited to EASST members, at least for now. Others may read, but only EASST members may post. Consider active forum access a privilege of membership. With nearly 1000 members, we should nevertheless be able to achieve a lively level of discussions, at least as lively as I will be able to keep up with as (so far) sole moderator. One consequence of this decision is that there will be some time lag between signing up for forum membership and being confirmed as a member and allowed to post on the forum. When you sign up, and email is automatically sent to me. I check the membership list and then confirm your forum membership. Until I have clicked the confirm button, you will be able to read the forum but not post there.

As moderator, it will also be my duty to keep the forums on topic, tidily searchable, and civil. I request that, unlike most forums where members protect their anonymity behind an alias, members appear here as they do at annual meetings, wearing their full name on their tag. You may, however, keep your email address hidden. This helps protect against spreading your address to spammers, while forum members can still send you personal messages via the forum web site without using your email address. I also request that you maintain a civil tone. The friendliness of EASST conferences is one of our most appealing features as a community. Sure, we study fascinating topics. But new members stay with us in preference to other equally fascinating conferences because we are so welcoming and have such constructive discussions, lively and critical but not offensive or mean-minded. So let’s keep it that way.

Eventually, spammers and hecklers will probably find their way onto the forum. It is my job as moderator to delete such posts. Other on-line forums I know have an “alert button” on every post. If you find a post offensive (“spam” or “flaming” or otherwise inappropriate), you click on the button and a message is sent to the moderators. Unfortunately, the software we’re using as of now (free and open source software, by the way) does not have an alarm button feature. Instead, you will have to email me. Let’s hope that is not often necessary. I will also try to check the forums daily, skimming through new posts as part of that visit.

EASST Review Forums will consist of two main sections. The first section will have threads corresponding to the substantive pieces in EASST Review, issue by issue and article by article. Each such thread will have a “taster” paragraph from the published item and a URL link to the full text on the EASST web site. Similarly, readers of EASST Review on line on the EASST web site will be able to click their way to the corresponding discussion area at the forums. Come on over, explore, and add some comments. The second section is open for members to start whatever threads they wish. Want to recruit reviewers for your latest book? Or want to announce yourself as a willing book reviewer? I’ve started a thread for book and reviewer “match-making”. Want to develop a session topic for an upcoming meeting? You can send out a mass-emailed call for papers; you can contact colleagues you already know; and/or, you can start a thread on EASST Review Forums. Or how about a student section where members can raise issues about students’ working conditions and form cross-national student alliances? Maybe we could start a Game Room thread and put the cover illustration guessing game in there (This issue I’ve revealed the name of the object on last issue’s cover, but a challenge remains: What can “monodisperse particles” be used for?). “Thread drifts” that wander off topic and become simply sociable? They’re welcome too. Why not open up EASST Virtual Café as a place for just such communications? As long as posts stay civil, your friendly moderator will leave them undisturbed … and maybe join in.

In time, perhaps EASST Review Forums may develop into an on-line, open review journal. But let’s just take it one step at a time. Going fully reviewed would take a lot more planning and organizing, including negotiations with the fields’ existing journals to find ways of co-existing or even collaborating. And it would take more than one unpaid, overworked, volunteer moderator. So for now, let’s just see if EASST Review Forums can successfully supplement the existing Review format as our virtual meeting between meetings.

Want to discuss the forum plans? Go to: http://www1.svt.ntnu.no/forum/easst/viewtopic.php?t=34 Meanwhile … expect another issue of EASST Review before Summer. We should be able to indlude glimpses of the August meeting program, hopefully in good time to remind you all to register.