Monthly Reminder
Dana Noonan
What is the purpose of this list?
To provide an open discussion forum for state and
local providers of public information and others
who care about getting local and state government
information to the people in digital formats.
What are some topics that could be discussed?
Content of servers - how to determine what should be
on a server, the uses and misuses of "shovelware."
Design issues - not so much how you do it technically -
but why you design a service one way rather than another,
how to integrate interactivity into a service design.
Management - who makes decisions on the content and
direction of a service, how talent and other resources
are allocated, how inter-agency collaboration occurs,
budgeting, etc.
Finance - how state and local governments are securing
ongoing funding for their electronic publishing efforts,
and how obstacles are overcome.
Feedback - how can you find out what your audience thinks
of your service? Why should you care?
Marketing - How to draw users and bring them back again?
Technical topics, such as, what is "cold fusion" and what
will it do for your service?
Other related items:
Announcements of new government services, conferences, etc.
Reviews of books, articles, and software
What topics should be avoided?
Too techie questions about HTML, CGI, browsers & servers.
A number of discussion lists and newsgroups already tackle
these topics.
Politics - in the big arena - should be avoided.
But a thoughtful discussion of the politics of who controls
the content, look and feel, and access to internet sites
offering government information could be fascinating.
Flames of any kind should be avoided. If you feel that you
have been flamed, please take a day or two to cool down
before responding or take it off the listserv.
Spams - hopefully the software at NDSU will catch these
before they get to the list.
Blatant advertising. Learn to be subtle or read Marcia Yudkin's
"Marketing Online." Three chapters are on the web!
Requests by students to help in research unrelated to the
mission of this listserv. List subscribers are generally too
busy to respond to off-topic requests of this kind.
Who says so?
In the long run the subscribers will determine what is of
interest and what is acceptable on this list. These are
just suggestions.
Many subscribers have experience as providers of government
information on the net, others come to the list as avid
consumers of government information. Hopefully there will
be something of interest here for all.
Who is the list owner?
I'm Dana Noonan, a consultant with a strong interest in
access to government information online. I am also one of
the partners of Piper Resources - a electronic publishing
venture on the web.
My role is to try keep us on-track, to field bounced messages,
and ward off spam attacks.
Joining in the discussion
Send discussion messages to: gov...@listserv.nodak.edu
Please sign your messages and include and email address
(not all mail program automatically include these items).
Please send only plain text (ASCII) messages to the list.
Last of all, go easy on lengthy quotes from previous
messages when you send a reply to the list. Many subscribers
pay by the minute when they download messages and will
appreciate your thoughtfulness.
The network host for the GOVPUB listserv is the North Dakota
Higher Education Computer Network.
List Newbies...
There are a number of list programs about the net and
remembering the proper command syntax can be tricky.
Fortunately, James Milles has created a web page on
Discussion Lists: Mailing List Manager Commands at
http://lawwww.cwru.edu/cwrulaw/faculty/milles/mailser.html
Please hangout on the list a week or two before joining
in the conversation - so that you will get a feel for
the topics that folks are interested in discussing.
GovPub Newsgroup
If you are overwhelmed by the flow of messages on the list, try
the Usenet newsgroup: gov.topic.info.systems.epub
GovPub Archive
http://listserv.nodak.edu/archives/govpub.html
Features include:
1. Subscribe or unsubscribe via the web.
2. Post a message to the list.
3. Browse the messages by month.
4. Search the messages.
The archive goes back to November 1995 so this is
quite a valuable resource.
Administrivia:
Send listserv management mail to: list...@listserv.nodak.edu
Subscribing: sub govpub your_name
Unsubscribing: unsub govpub
List of participants: review govpub
Digest format: set govpub digest
Please do not send subscribe/unsubscribe messages to the
GovPub list, send them to the listserv address. If you run
into problems, please contact the list owner at
noo...@piperinfo.com
Set your email program to send an automatic reply when you
go on "vacation" and you will drive everyone nuts. When
I see an auto-reply message, I delete the subscriber from
the list.
If you are going on vacation, please send the following message
to list...@listserv.nodak.edu: SET govpub NOMAIL
When you return, send the message: SET govpub MAIL
to the same address.
Dana Noonan
Piper Resources
noo...@piperinfo.com
State and Local Government on the Net:
http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm