winfave@dutrun.UUCP (Alexander Verbraeck) (08/31/89)
CALL FOR VOTES
creation of
comp.infosystems
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*** IMPORTANT : followup and general reactions ONLY to news.groups ***
*** VOTES ONLY by E-MAIL. Posted votes do NOT count! ***
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Based on an original proposal, and four weeks of discussion (between
July 7 and August 6), I would like to announce a "call for votes"
on the formation of a new newsgroup "comp.infosystems". This newsgroup
will be UNmoderated. The purpose of this group will be to provide a
forum for the discussion of issues and events which are of interest
to the information systems community as a whole.
The field of INFORMATION SYSTEMS at the moment does not have it's
own forum for discussion. Not only is it missing on USENET, also on
other networks an area for discussions and exchange on topics like
design of information systems, decision support systems, organizational
impact of information systems, support tools for designing information
systems, research methods in information systems, information planning,
etc. is lacking.
SUBJECTS COVERED
The information systems community is dealing with "fields related
to design, construction, evaluation, use and maintenance of
dataprocessing, storage and communication systems, including the
hardware, the software, as well as the human and organizational aspects
and the complex of their industrial, commercial, administrative, social,
and political impacts" (definition by UNESCO).
Subjects that are covered in this area are:
- IS design methodologies;
- Organizational problem solving;
- Decision Support Systems, Management Information Systems (whatever
their definition);
- Implementation of IS;
- Management of IS.
This definition, and for that, this discipline, does not exclude
possible overlap with other newsgroups. However, the focus is
clearly different. It is not the machine, or the piece of software
that is central, but the combination of hardware, software and
people in an organizational setting.
POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
The following is a partial list of topics which can be discussed on
comp.infosystems:
- design of information systems
- decision support systems
- management information systems
- all other types of information systems
- organizational impact of information systems
- research methods in information systems
- information analysis
- information planning
- management of information systems
- management of the IS development process
- developing and choosing
. programs,
. necessary hardware,
. communications,
. user interfaces,
. human procedures,
. organizational changes,
. database design, etc.
for solving organizational problems.
- information systems methodologies
- development methods
- diagramming techniques
- tools in the IS field
- information systems life cycle
- prototyping and 4th generation languages
- testing large information systems
- CASE tools
- discussions on IS standards
- education in the IS field
- conferences and workshops: announcements and reports
- IS book reviews
CROSSPOSTING TO BITNET
The IS professionals and IS researchers have just discovered the Usenet
communications medium. Once in a while there are questions in
comp.databases, comp.misc, comp.ai, comp.soft-eng or comp.cog-eng that
are in fact about information systems.
One of the reasons for the low number of IS discussions could be that
most existing groups give a wrong "feeling" when posting reactions or
questions to them. I tried it several times, and got some reactions, all
by e-mail, because the replyers thought the newsgroup was not the right
place to have the discussion.
Lots of IS professionals were (are?) working on non-Unix machines like
IBM mainframes that do not run 'rn' and are connected only to Bitnet
or Earn. Most of my IS-colleagues from all over the world have Bitnet
numbers and run their e-mail system on an IBM mainframe.
For that reason we shall crosspost from and to a listserver on an IBM
mainframe. In that way non-Unix users will be able to participate in
the discussions (with a slight delay of course).
VOTING
This "call for votes" for comp.infosystems is being issued on August 30,
1989, and will last for 30 (thirty) days, ending on September 29, 1989.
Votes received prior to August 30, 1989, or after September 29, 1989 do
not count.
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*** IMPORTANT : VOTES ONLY by E-MAIL. Posted votes do NOT count! ***
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What follows are relevant excerpts from "the rules." Please read them
carefully before voting:
> The voting period should last for at least 30 days, no matter what the
> preliminary results of the vote are. The exact date that the voting period
> will end should be stated in the call for votes. Only votes that arrive
> on the vote-taker's machine prior to this date may be counted.
> ONLY votes MAILED to the vote-taker will count. Votes posted to the net
> for any reason (including inability to get mail to the vote-taker) and
> proxy votes (such as having a mailing list maintainer claim a vote for
> each member of the list) may not be counted.
> Votes may not be transferred to other, similar proposals. A vote shall
> count only for the EXACT proposal that it is a response to. In particular,
> a vote for or against a newsgroup under one name shall NOT be counted as
> a vote for or against a newsgroup with a different name or charter,
> a different moderated/unmoderated status or (if moderated) a different
> moderator or set of moderators.
> Votes MUST be explicit; they should be of the form "I vote for the
> group foo.bar as proposed" or "I vote against the group foo.bar
> as proposed". The wording doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to
> be unambiguous. In particular, statements of the form "I would vote
> for this group if..." should be considered comments only and not
counted as votes.
> The Result
> 1) At the completion of the 30 day voting period, the vote taker must post
> the vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of the
> votes received to news.announce.newgroups and any other groups or mailing
> lists to which the original call for votes was posted.
> 2) AFTER the vote result is posted, there will be a 5 day waiting period
> during which the net will have a chance to correct any errors in
> the voter list or the voting procedure.
> 3) AFTER the waiting period, and if there were no serious objections that
> might invalidate the vote, and if 100 more YES/create votes are received
> than NO/don't create, a newgroup control message may be sent out.
> If the 100 vote margin is not met, the group should not be created.
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Alexander Verbraeck e-mail:
Delft University of Technology winfave@hdetud1.bitnet
Department of Information Systems winfave@dutrun.uucp
PO Box 356, 2600 AJ The Netherlands
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