HUMANIST: Lessons from a Global Electronic Seminar

Abstract

The electronic seminar HUMANIST illustrates how e-mail may foster discussion of basic problems and exchange of information among humanists world-wide, thus aiding research and strengthening the community. With a certain amount of tailoring and editorial care, it has used existing software to support traditional humanistic dialogue - while also solving the problem of information overload, at least temporarily. Through their complaints of "too much mail" members have, however, usefully pointed to our immature understanding of the new medium. Its apparently mixed nature (part conversational, part textual) demands a new paradigm, towards which this essay makes an attempt. Recommendations for the successful management of other such seminars are also given. © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers.