issnnet@park.bu.edu (Paolo Gaudiano) (06/02/91)
REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION
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GROUP NAME: comp.org.issnnet
STATUS: unmoderated
CHARTER: The newsgroup shall serve as a medium for discussions
pertaining to the International Student Society for
Neural Networks (ISSNNet), Inc., and to its activities
and programs as they pertain to the role of students
in the field of neural networks. See details below.
TARGET VOTING DATE: JUNE 20 - JULY 20, 1991
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PLEASE NOTE
In agreement with USENET newsgroup guidelines for the creation
of new newsgroups, this discussion period will continue until
June 21, at which time voting will begin if deemed
appropriate. ALL DISCUSSION SHOULD TAKE PLACE ON THE NEWSGROUP
"news.groups"
If you do not have access to USENET newsgroups but wish to
contribute to the discussion, send your comments to:
issnnet@park.bu.edu
specifying whether you would like your message relayed to
news.groups. A call for votes will be made to the same
newsgroups and mailing lists that originally received this
message.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND REPLIES TO THIS MAILING LIST OR NEWSGROUP DIRECTLY!
A call for votes will be broadcast in a timely fashion. Please
do not send votes until then.
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BACKGROUND AND INFORMATION:
The purpose of the International Student Society for Neural
Networks (ISSNNet) is to (1) provide a means of exchanging information
among students and young professionals within the area of Neural
Networks; (2) create an opportunity for interaction between students
and professionals from academia and industry; (3) encourage support
>from academia and industry for the advancement of students in the area
of Neural Networks; (4) insure that the interest of all students in
the area of Neural Networks is taken into consideration by other
societies and institutions involved with Neural Networks; and (5) to
foster a spirit of international and interdisciplinary kinship among
students as the study of Neural Networks develops into a
self-contained discipline.
Since its creation one year ago, ISSNNet has grown to over 300
members in more than 20 countries around the world. One of the biggest
problems we have faced thus far is to efficiently communicate with all
the members. To this end, a network of "governors" has been created.
Each governor is in charge of distributing information (such as our
newsletter) to all local members, collect dues, notify local members
of relevant activities, etc.
However, even this system has problems. Communication to a possibly
very large number of members relies entirely on one individual, and
given the typically erratic schedule of a student, it is often
difficult to insure prompt and timely distribution to all members.
More to the point, up until this time all governors have been
contacting a single person (yours truly), and that has been a problem.
Regular discussions on the society and related matters become very
difficult when routed through individuals in this fashion.
The newsgroup would be primarily dedicated to discussion of items
pertaining to the society. We are about to launch a massive call for
nominations, in the hope that more students will step forward and take
a leading role in the continued success of the society.
In addition, ISSNNet is involved with a number of projects, many of
which require extensive electronic mail discussions. For example, we
are developing a sponsorship program for students presenting papers at
NNet conferences. This alone has generated at least 100 mail messages
to the ISSNNet account, most of which could have been answered by two
or three "generic" postings.
We have refrained from using some of the existing mailing lists and
USENET newsgroups that deal with NNets because of the non-technical
nature of our issues. In addition to messages that are strictly
society-related, we feel that there are many messages posted to these
existing bulletin boards for which our newsgroup would be a better
forum. Here is a list of topics that frequently come up, which would
be handled in comp.org.issnnet as part of our "sponsored" programs:
"What graduate school should I go to?"
Last year, ISSNNet compiled a list of graduate programs around the
world. The list will be updated later this year to include a large
number of new degree programs around the world.
"What jobs are available?"
We asked companies that attended last year's IJCNN-San_Diego and
INNC-Paris conferences to fill out a questionnaire on employment
opportunities for NNet students.
"Does anyone have such-and-such NNet simulator?"
Many students have put together computer simulations of NNet paradigms
and these could be shared by people on this group.
"When is the next IJCNN conference?"
We have had a booth at past NNet conferences, and hope to continue
doing this for more and more international and local meetings. We
often have informal get-togethers at these conferences, where students
and others have the opportunity to meet.
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For more information, please send e-mail to issnnet@park.bu.edu (ARPANET)
write to:
ISSNNet, Inc.
PO Box 557, New Town Br.
Boston, MA 02258 USA
ISSNNet, Inc. is a non-profit corporation in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
ISSNNet, Inc.
P.O. Box 557, New Town Branch
Boston, MA 02258 USA