Subject: 1

From: "Robby A. Berry" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 10:56:23 -0400

PLEASE RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE TO
[email-masked], NOT TO THE LIST!!!

Survey on the impact of the Computational Chemistry List

THIS IS THE REAL THING, NOT THE TEST ANY MORE.

PLEASE TAKE A SHORT TIME TO READ AND ANSWER!

This is a survey on the use and impact of the Computational  
Chemistry List. Please answer the questions below; a short  
introduction follows.

Please respond to [email-masked], or if you have a WWW
reader which supports forms, you are encouraged to use the Hypertext
form:
  http://www.ccl.net/cgi-bin/survey
which makes answering survey questions much easier/faster.

The Computational Chemistry List (CCL) has been for many a  
valuable resource and a venue for a diversity of discussions. The list  
has grown steadily in subscriber and recipient numbers, interesting  
and sometimes heated debates have taken place, and consideration  
has been given recently to previously unexplored issues like the  
perspectives for fully electronic publications and similar ones.

It may be time to ask ourselves what actual impact the CCL has had,  
is having, and can further have on our lives, our work, the way we  
use bandwidth, and the like.

To that purpose I have proposed to undertake a survey of the List  
users with the general goal of finding out facts and opinions about  
electronic services and their impact on our work. I have asked the  
List coordinator, Jan Labanowski, if this is a valid use of CCL  
bandwidth and we have agreed to ask a few more questions, relevant  
to the List's operation and its possible improvement, in order not to  
bother you with TWO surveys. In this respect, the added goals are  
to find if the List is useful as is, what and for whom is most and least  
useful, what should be scratched, and how some possible  
improvements might work out.

My own interest in the results of this survey is more on the side of  
understanding its workings and their meaning as underpinning for  
the future of academic communication. The results of the survey will  
be carefully analyzed, which may take some time, and I intend to  
publish the results of the analysis (foreseeably in an ACS  
monograph) as well as post them and make them available for  
downloading.

Some aspects of the survey may be flawed from the beginning,  
mainly as we will not (foreseeably) get response from people who  
have not subscribed or have dropped out, for any of a number of  
reasons. However, much can be learned from your answers! It is  
important that everybody respond to make the survey statistically  
sound and not biased by "aggressive minority opinion". Please let us  
know better just how the CCL is working, if and how much it has  
changed the way you work, communicate, and teach, and understand  
what is to be done next.

I beg you to answer the questions below as objectively as possible. I  
will make my best efforts to keep the responses confidential (I plan  
to share them with Jan WITHOUT RESPONDENT NAMES AND  
ADDRESSES; if you wish otherwise and say so in your answer  
message I will oblige). I will understand that you speak for your  
persons and not for your organizations unless the contrary is  
explicitly stated. All answers are nonbinding. Now look: the list is  
international, legal issues may get real tangled, so let us all assume  
that I will keep faithfully to my best knowledge of ethical and legal  
standards and we all try to get information that will benefit  
everybody, OK?

If you are impeded to respond to any of the questions because of  
considerations of liability etc. do tell me so!

Again, please address your answers/comments/questions to me and  
not to the list - lest you really want everybody to hear you!

Alejandro Pisanty  -    [email-masked]
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Dr. Alejandro Pisanty, Secretary of the Advisory Council on  
Computing, UNAM, and Head of the Graduate Division, Faculty of  
Chemistry, UNAM
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico DF
MEXICO

Tel. (+52-5) 622 4181, 616 1649; Fax 550 0904, 616 2010
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Survey on the use of the Computational Chemistry List (CCL).

Please answer with your best estimates!

In the pilot run of the survey a "closed form" for answers was  
suggested. I have preferred to retain the open form because of the  
WIDE variety of answers possible from all over the world.

The survey cannot be made too short because much valuable  
contents would be lost. If you find that you do not have time enough  
to answer all the questions, please concentrate on sections I (user  
characterization), II and III (impact), VI and VII. Section IX  
provides detailed suggestions for improvement on the list in order to  
open a discussion on that subject.

I. USER CHARACTERIZATION:

This part is intended to characterize the respondent. It is important  
to know ourselves better as a group, and so we can crossreference  
other responses against particular groups of subscribers.

 I.1) How long have you been using CCL (few months, a year, more  
than a year)?
Mark X on this line ...................................

 I.2) What is the character of your organization (e.g., for-
profit/commercial, academia, secondary shool, government, military,  
other non-profit, self-employed consultant, etc.)?

 I.3) Country where you receive the CCL messages (particularly if  
through LISTSERV and similar, which may be different from the  
subscription address):

 I.4) Type of position (e.g, undergraduate student, graduate student,  
postdoctoral associate, assistant professor, full professor, lecturer,  
reader, research scientist, senior research scientist, management,  
sales associate, consultant, etc.):

 I.5) Approximate number of employees in your entire organization  
and its main line of activity (e.g. 2000/college, 1000/pharmaceutical,  
20000/petroleum, etc.):

 I.6) Your field(s) of activity (please be specific: e.g,  
crystallographer, molecular biologist, quantum chemist, medicinal  
chemist, etc.):

 I.7) Is your work mainly theoretical, computational or  
experimental?  
Do you develop software?

 I.8) What computational chemistry methods do you use frequently  
(ab initio, molecular graphics, molecular mechanics, kinetics  
simulation, etc.)?  
What other computational work do you do frequently?:

 I.9) What computer(s) do you use to read the messages, and how  
are you connected to the network (e.g. PC via 2400 modem, Mac  
via 9600 modem, RS/6000 on Ethernet, etc.).
What is the range of network access available to you (e.g., e-mail  
only, ftp, remote logins, gopher, WWW, Usenet, etc.).  

 I.10) What computer(s) and software do you mostly use for your  
work?

 I.11) How did you learn about the list (e.g., from a friend, my thesis  
advisor, a student I supervise, from archie, by searching  
gopherspace, etc.)

 I.12) Could you briefly describe your work (say 5-10 lines):

II. CCL IMPACT ON YOUR RESEARCH/LEARNING/CAREER:

Please be as specific as you can be in answering these questions.
The answers will be used to judge if the list is a useful resource and  
to assess the way media like CCL are changing our ways.

 II.1) Please tell how, and how many times, the messages on CCL,  
answers to your CCL queries, or CCL archives helped you in your  
research.

Anecdotes and specific examples are most welcome!
 List all instances you can remember (e.g., you acquired particular  
software based on CCL messages twice, you selected computer  
hardware based on information from CCL, on three occassions you  
received needed parameters/data, five times you were directed to  
read particular paper based on CCL information, you changed your  
approach/method once based on CCL messages, comments on the  
CCL contributed to the discussion part in two of your  
papers/reports, etc.):
        
 II.2) How many times did you find about a conference via CCL and  
attended it as a result?

 II.3) Have you started a collaboration with a subscriber of the list as  
a result of exchanges on the CCL?

 II.4) Did you find a position or a candidate for the position using  
the positions.offered file in CCL archive?
 Did you seek a position in particular organization/group based on  
messages posted to the list?

 II.5) Add any comments about benefits and impacts of the list in  
your career:

III. IMPACT ON TEACHING:

Answer these questions if you are teaching or if you are involved in  
intracompany training. Please be specific and add as many comments  
as you wish.

 III.1) What subject/course do you teach, is it an  
undergraduate/graduate/professional course?

 III.2) Has the list had any impact on the contents of your courses?
 (e.g., you used materials/examples/opinions from messages or CCL  
archives in your course, you revised/created curriculum/syllabus  
based on CCL material, you suggested a graduate project based on  
CCL postings, etc.):

 III.3) Do you encourage your students to subscribe to the list, or  
forward material from the list to them?

IV. YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE LIST:

Please supply the best estimates. We understand that they are  
approximate. Stories and examples are most welcome! They are  
becoming the oral history and lore of this trade.

 IV.1) How many questions have you posted to the list?
       How many answers or opinions did you post to the whole list?
       How many answers did you send directly the participants?

 IV.2) How many answers/opinions did you receive to your personal  
mailbox instead of list as a result of your question/opinion?
 Did you ever receive a response with the restriction "for your eyes  
only"?

 IV.3) How many people have reprimanded/flamed you for your  
posting(s) to the list? For what?
 Have you reprimanded/flamed somebody? For what?

 IV.4) What is your estimate of the portion of suitable messages, i.e.,  
messages which adhere to the list rules (e.g.: 3/7, 10%)?

 IV.5) What portion of messages on the list do you find relevant for  
your own research/teaching/development/administration?
 Do you forward on occassion messages from CCL to people who  
are not subscribed?
 Did you encourage someone to subscribe?

 IV.6) How do you choose messages to read? What portion of  
messages do you delete/skip before reading based on the Subject:  
field? What portion of messages do you delete/skip after reading the  
first few lines?

 IV.7) How do you receive messages (e.g., you are subscribed to the  
list directly, you are subscribed to a local/internal list/newsgroup  
which receives messages from CCL, you are not subscribed but view  
archived messages via gopher/WWW)?

 IV.8) How frequently do you scan CCL messages and when (e.g.,  
as they arrive, more than once a day, once a day in the evening, once  
a week during the weekend)?  
How much time on average do you spend reading messages?

 IV.9) Have you ever searched the CCL archives, and if not why?  
Did you access CCL archives and in what way (e.g., e-mail, ftp,  
gopher/WWW)?

V. USE OF OTHER RESOURCES

Please share all your experiences and use of resources other than  
CCL.

 V.1 What other Internet and network resources do you use and  
how heavily/frequently (e-mail, library catalogues, gopher, WWW,  
newsgroups, commercial databases, stock prices, commercial news,  
listservers/electronic-lists, electronic submissions of manuscripts to  
journals/books/conferences, etc., etc.). How much time do you  
spend on using the network resources?

 V.2 How much time do you spend on reading CCL list and CCL  
archives compared to other network resources?

 V.3 How do you rate the CCL for usefulness, benefit/effort ratio,  
etc. in comparison to other online and offline resources?

VI. MEMORABLE MOMENTS.

VI.1 What do you remember as the most useful/most pleasant/most  
unpleasant/most obnoxious event on the CCL (and/or other Internet  
services)?

VII. OTHER ISSUES.

VII.1 Please comment on the international impact of the list.

VII.2 Please comment on the choice of language of the list, its  
quality, and its level of difficulty. Do you sometimes NOT write  
because of language difficulties?

VII.3 If you are answering you obviously use the list. Can we learn  
something valuable from those who don´t?

 VII.4 Do you think the list, WWW etc. could provide for formal  
scientific/technical publication? (e.g. with formal review procedures  
and stable archives)

  VII.5) How do you see a development of networks/network  
services in the future (say, 10 years)?

VIII. PLEASE ADD WHAT WE MISSED
See also section IX: how would you improve CCL?

VIII.1 What questions/topics should have been included in this  
survey but were missed?
VIII.2 Share any thoughts concerning the CCL list which were not  
addressed in the survey.

IX. HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE CCL?

Some specific proposals have been made to improve CCL. They are  
listed below. Speak out on your own thoughts; the proposals below  
are intended as discussion openers, not as a bias.

Provide your ideas assuming that resources are not an issue and  
everything is possible. Try to provide ideas, and methods of  
implementation, though you need not be too detailed/technical.  
Please note that some examples given here are very controversial.

 IX.1) How would you improve the list if it stayed unmoderated?
Examples (do not be suggested by them, unless you agree with them  
100%).  
      a) Split it into smaller lists: ccl-ab-initio, ccl-semiempirical, ccl-
force-fields, ccl-molecular-graphics, ccl-???. To which smaller lists  
would you subscribe yourself?
      b) Allow anonymous postings if someone chooses to do so.
      c) Restrict the scope of messages even further than in the rules.
      d) Add specific files to the archives (which?).
      e) Add additional services (which?).
      f) Each subscriber would provide a list of keywords/regular-
expressions and would receive only messages which contain/satisfy  
the keywords/regular-expressions.
      g) Allow only 10 messages a day, and queue the messages which  
are over the limit.

 IX.2) How would you improve the list if it was moderated? Please,  
share your ideas.
      For example (only an example):
       a) 24hrs/day monitoring of the list by anonymous moderators  
residing in different time zones, so the messages are essentially  
approved/rejected in a real time.
       b) provide a once a day digest of subjects and a mechanism for  
retrieval of full messages via e-mail, ftp, gopher, www.
       c) the moderator(s) beside rejecting/approving messages would  
classify them into topics (e.g., quantum chemistry, molecular  
mechanics, molecular graphics, QSAR/QSPR, hardware, drug  
design, [what topics?] and subscribers could choose which topics  
they want to receive. Which topics would you subscribe to?
       d) Provide a rotating body of volunteers in their respective  
fields, who would respond to the simple/trivial questions, forwarded  
to them by moderators (e.g., would point to a file already residing in  
CCL archives, or explain that HONDO is an ab initio program).         
       e) Split the list into "introductory" and "advanced" and  
moderator(s) will assign messages to the appropriate category.

  IX.3) Should the list be available as Usenet newsgroup? Why?

  IX.4) Should the list be monitored/censored? Why and by whom?
       Would you be willing to act as a moderator of the list, how  
much time you would contribute and under what conditions  
(remember, your answer is nonbinding, and anonymous)?

============== SURVEY END===============
     THANKS FOR YOUR KIND COLLABORATION!

(Again: please respond to [email-masked], or WWW,
NOT TO THE LIST) !!!!!!
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Dr. Alejandro Pisanty, Secretary of the Advisory Council on  
Computing, UNAM, and Head of the Graduate Division, Faculty of  
Chemistry, UNAM
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico DF
MEXICO
Tel. (+52-5) 622 4181, 616 1649; Fax 550 0904, 616 2010
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .