lute@abnjh.UUCP (10/25/83)
Well, I received over a dozen responses to the issue of using the NET to help find missing children. Almost everyone liked the idea in principle, however, there were a number of comments that revealed serious problems with the implementation. They were: - lack of photos to aid in visual recognition of a missing child, - high volume of child descriptions to go through, (coupled with the above remark it would be difficult to expect a significant number of recognitions.), - difficulty of keeping the information up-to-date, - clogging the machine with descriptions, - doubts on the adequacy of distributing the information efficiently to the proper authorities, - doubts that the NET community is mobile enough to increase the chances of bumping into one of these children. I feel I must agree with several of the above arguments, and conclude that the NET is probably not the best medium for such an effort at this time. However, with improved technology available to the general NET community in a few years, this idea may (and should) be entertained again. Thank you all for your show of interest, and your comments. Jim Collymore