Educating the academic society

[Stephen Le Hunte]

Hello,
  One of the points raised in the discussions at the meeting last 
week was the 'education' necessary for progression of the use of the 
Web as an information/education resource for chemists.  It was 
pondered what the role of the people at the meeting was, whether we 
were to return to our respective institutions and 'spread the word' 
as it were, of the joys/possibilities of using the Web both to gain 
and spread information.
  All well and good for the majority of people at the meeting I 
presume, but for someone like myself (a postgrad student who does the 
departments web pages, for the fun of doing it) this poses a problem. 
Basically, I am not believed when I try to convince people that they 
should be interested in the subjects discussed at the meeting.
  I have seen that most academics only respond when told about/shown 
something like this from their peers.  Hence, I suggest it necessary 
for the 'fab four' (as the RSC page put it) to spread the word.  
Obviously, giving demonstration lectures at every institution 
in the country is not feasible, but possibly key institutions in 
different areas of the country could be chosen for lectures.  It 
would of course require the involvment of the RSC (probably 
financially) to stir up sufficient interest in Heads of 
Departments/managers/lecturers and to convince them that the Web is 
not a complete waste of time.  (This appears to the be the biggest 
fear at the moment - that the web/internet in general is a waste of 
time and is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in convincing the 
academic masses).
  I would like to hear any opinions about this.  Has anybody any 
other suggestions as to how the education of the eventual end-users 
of this new technology should be achieved?  Are we trying to do 
too much too quickly?  
  Thanks
  Steve
  
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Stephen Le Hunte     (cmlehunt at swan.ac.uk)
Author of the HTML Reference Library 
ftp://ftp.swan.ac.uk/pub/in.coming/htmlib/
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