April 1997 € Volume 24 € Number 2
April 1997 € Volume 24 € Number 2
In my previous column in the February 1997 issue, I proposed a
design directed to INFORMS subdivisions, individual consultants or
consulting companies, software vendors, academic leaders,
practitioners dispersed within a large firm and others interested in
creating virtual electronic communities of members, fellow
researchers or customers. The proposal outlined the creation of a
family of electronic newsletters on different OR topics or industry
groups, each with its own web site. The newsletter would provide the
(sub)community with takeaway value and stimulation, and its web site
would host discussions and provide searchable archives. I then asked
three questions: (1) What mailing lists, electronic newsletters or
e-zines, news groups, bulletin boards, etc., do you use regularly and
why? (2) What kind of virtual community features would help you with
your work? (3) Are you interested in creating or helping with a
virtual community? Here, are the responses in terms of four aspects
of virtual electronic community design:
Specialized sub-communities
The responses emphasize that OR/MS professionals usually have
specific interests although they do follow such general resources as
sci.op-research and Brian Borchers' weekly digest posted to the list
ORCS-L.
Others follow a variety of news groups; one respondent follows sci.math.symbolic to understand the intricacies of symbolic mathematics software (Maple V.4), sci.math.compsci for NP completeness material, and sci.math.statistics for stochastic models. Most respondents follow or provide specialized services, for instance: