Electronic publication

[John Noyes]

>We use high quality CDs - and have been told they should last a few hundred
>years if properly cared for.

We shall know that only in a couple of hundred years, but will we still
generally have the technology available to read them? Who, at present, can
read the original IBM 7.5" floppy, or even the more recent 5.25" floppy.
The latter was still in use only 10 years ago, but who can read it now. We
will soon be using micro discs, about 1.25" in diameter, that may be able
to hold more than a 10gb of information. I daresay some sort of solid state
plug-in which can permanently record humungous amounts of electronic data
may be available in the not too distant future. Where will CD's be then?

As I see it, the real attraction of CD's as a means of making available
taxonomic information is their low cost and ease of production. However,
the cost consideration is very insignificant when compared with the actual
cost of the taxonomic work itself. A sizeable revision may cost $10,000 to
publish as hard copy, but the actual cost of getting that far may be
>$300-500m. The ease of production is a real attraction, but I have the
constant worry that this could be open to abuse as there is absolutely no
quality control of the product which, theoretically at least, is present
with hard copy. The same could be said of web-based taxonomy.

John

Entomology Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South
Kensington, London, SW7 5BD, UK

Tel. +44 (0)207-942-5594  Fax: +44 (0)207-942-5229

INTERNET: jsn at NHM.ac.uk

Interactive catalogue and biological database of World Chalcidoidea on CD:

Contact the publisher: DickyS._Yu at telus.net, or Dicky S. Yu, P.O.Box 48205,
Bentall Centre, Vancouver B.C., V7X 1N8, CANADA;
see also www.taxapad.com

Encyrtidae of Costa Rica:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/intro/entom/project2/index.html

Course on taxonomy and biology of parasitic Hymenoptera:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/hymcours