Subject: Re: Web pages and chemistry and innovation

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 14:22:00 -0500

The discussion on Web sites and chemistry has lost its mark, and lost 
     sight of the utility of the web. Recent discussion has been directed 
     at databases and catalogues of web sites, which is the 'old' way of 
     thinking and requires no innovation above traditional gopher. If you 
     want to catalogue info on various departments, that is an admirable 
     endeavor, even to the point of keeping some form of master list. It is 
     my experience that Gopher will do that with much greater speed than 
     websites can.
     
     The utility of hypertext links lie in the ability to chain of thought 
     in a non-traditional sort of way: when you surf the literature, you 
     can get cross references in the article, and you can use abstracts or 
     citations indexes to search backward and forward through a train of 
     thought. Like a free-asssociating brain, one web site should have 
     hypertext links to other websites on the topic, with backward loops 
     and cross-referencing extensively *encouraged*. A master 'list of 
     lists' is cumbersome, frequently off-topic, and very slow compared to 
     more rapid traditional methods.
     
     Therefore, if you are maintaining a website on AM1 transition state 
     modelling techniques, you should have the gumption to link related 
     issues and applications of the technique which are located at remote 
     websites as cross references *as well* as just billboarding citations, 
     so that an interested person can see a particular topic, web to that 
     site, get more specific by following the thread down, or if they web 
     to a tiny application, like transition state modelling in AM1 of 
     borane addition to alkenes, web their way up to generalized sites on 
     AM1.
     
     Websites were implemented with this use in mind, and to remove the 
     need for centralized databases. Just because the information is 
     related, doesn't mean it all has to reside on one machine, and links 
     should maximize the distribution of info, to split the cost of 
     maintaining the info evenly among users.
     
     As the load increases, think of the lag on centralized databases! and 
     the use levels as everyone tries to crowd into one website to search 
     the 'master list'. 
     
     It is the belief of this chemist that the discussion to date has been 
     anti-innovative and overly rigid. These views do not necessarily 
     represent that of Thomas J. Lipton, co, but we are encouraged to think 
     innovatively and jump outside the mold, outside the box, not try to 
     force new ideas into the old way of doing things.
     
     matthew e. harbowy
     chemist, thomas j. lipton
     [email-masked]