chiafari@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Mr. Frank Chiafari ) (07/22/89)
Followup-
Distribution: Bionet.general
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Collegues,
I would like to add my voice to the protests raised over the ending
of funding of BIONET. It concerns me personally, because I use BIONET as a
means of communication, but also from a point of funding policy.
BIONET presently provides a rapid communication service not available from
any other source. It stimulates the exchange of new ideas and the dispersal of
information on a global level, between independent researchers who may have
questions of interest to the scientific community at large. A decision to
kill this program, in it's infancy, is representative of the short sightedness
goverment funding of science was originally intended to prevent.
Additionally, it concerns me that this decision demonstrates a policy that
appears very frequently in the distribution of science funding. The policy of
SIZE. The larger the lab, the better known the investigator, the more likely
the project will recieve funding. BIONET and it's services are of little use to
a big lab. Large labs have computing power. They have access to collegues
among whom they can discuss results. The smaller labs do not fare as well.
I do not possess a solution to this dilema. Funding constraints are a fact
of life in most endevours. I am always in favor of ensuring that funding is
spent as efficently as possible. However, progress is the result of the ideas
of one man, shared with the world. A reduction of this capacity is most
unfortunate.
Francis A. Chiafari