HI Brian,

>> Good to see that an increasing number of UK people are on the list and
>> taking an active pary. Have you given any thought to having a web site?
>>
>>From your comments I deduce that there has been no formal contact with Head
>Office about an 'official' PDS Web site?  If that is so, I can't say I am
>surprised.

I have had no official contact with head office. Personally I think there
are people who are making it their business to make sure that head office
don't want to work with me on any issue, but I might be paranoid.

>   I am not actually a member of YAPP&RS.

Ooops, sorry.

[snip about the need for research]

>    That cri de coeur was so that you understand why I am a founder member of
>SPRING - No doubt you saw our stand at the AGM, and the page in the recent
>issue of the Parkinson. Basically we fully support the need for expenditure
>on Welfare projects, - in fact I am not only Treasurer of the Derby branch, I
>am also Welfare Liason Officer. I just wish that the Welfare Mafia at Head
>Office could be as even-handed.


Areed - extremes help no one. The only difference between research and
welfare is the time horizon within which people are to benefit - just like
any organisation we need a sensible balance between the very short term
(hands-on welfare) and the very long (fundamental research) and everything
in between. Unfortunately people don't seem to be interested in having a
reasoned dialogue. Oh well....


>   I fear that we could wait for ever for Head Office to move on the Web site.
>(I believe that Helen Pask, our Research Officer, about whom I have had very
>good reports, still does not have Internet access).

Yes, I was lucky enough to sit next to her at the AGM dinner. A nice,
sharp, lady. From what I see, the senior management don't know what to do,
and they have no support in the IT dept. Any IT person worth his salt would
have got a dial up account by now.


>   Do you think we could make a start by YAPP&RS and SPRING each supplying a
>page or pages, based on their special interests, in the hope that it will in
>time mature into a fully representative site ?

Yes! Yes! Excellent.


>This is where I grind to a shuddering halt! My computer is an Acorn RISC PC
>which as you will know is incompatible with IBM PCs or MACs.  I do have a
>486 - based PC card plugged in to my machine, running Windows 3.11, but I
>have a hate/hate relationship with it , and could not justify buying costly
>programs.

As long as you have a web browser, all you need to write web pages is a
text editor. HTML is OK to learn, a mark up language just like the old word
processing programs (and WordWise)!

However, you don't need to do that with our nifty tool, which takes away
all the pain (designed for journalists). You can mail stuff into the web
site using normal internet mail. The tool we are using is designed to be as
platform-neutral as possible (my insistance :-).

BTW - I found a BBC Model B emulator for the Macintosh the other day
(emulates it in software). Ah, the memories came flooding back. Am trying
to get "Elite" working at the moment. You have to set an option to make it
run at original BBC Micro speed......


>I assume that if I were to produce pages myself it would be by using html ?
>That is a little more likely, but when you are as old as I am ( cough,cough)
>learning new tricks does take (much) longer.

No, we can use our publisher.


>> You can use another service provider to create your pages (might need to
>>pay)
> -sounds expensive

Yep.

>I am very appreciative of the generosity of NIP, and (in the interests of
>learning to walk before we try to run) my instinct is to go for the cheapest
>option.  If I have understood you correctly, that means that I want to
>continue to presume on NIP's co-operation and goodwill.  I would like your
>comments.

Yes, no problem, NIP seem willing to help as long as it doesn't suck too
much of my time - although I am getting quite creative in finding
work-related angles on the PD stuff I am doing!

If SPRING want to do a web site I would be delighted to help - probably
best if you have a little think about the sort of stuff you want to put up
(although I could give you some ideas) and we talk in a few weeks? (I'm
away for 2 weeks now).

Speak to you when I get back,




Simon

--------- My opinions are my own, NIP's opinions are theirs ----------
Simon J. Coles                                 Email: [log in to unmask]
New Information Paradigms                  Work Phone: +44 1344 778783
http://www.nipltd.com/                     Work Fax:   +44 1344 772510
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