by chris_vk3aml » Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:56 pm
I've been watching the development of this topic heading with some interest and concern.
You certainly can't level any criticism at Jeremy, he's having enough trouble picking up the very large NBTVA reins from Doug Pitt which were
established over a 37-year period, to my personal knowledge.
And these people are ALL volunteers - unless one also
volunteers to help them, there is no basis for criticism.
Steve, I agree, we are well into the 21st century, but IN NO WAY do I see
Internet replacing the print medium. Many of the NBTVA members do not
have Internet, and until the start of March, I was one of these.
The NBTVA Bulletin, and in fact all printed publications, especially those
from learned societies like the IREE or IEEE, go through a process of
expert peer evaluation, review and editing prior to publication.
In general, these print publications are available for perusal without cost
at the nearest large local library. One cannot say the same for Internet,
where anyone's opinion can be printed as "fact" within flawed intellectual
concepts such as "Wikipedia", where consensus and facts become
inextricably confused. Just because everybody thinks something is
right, and post it on the net, does not mean that the concept is correct.
We have recently seen ample evidence of that, with extremely overblown
and anti-intellectual attempts to identify Philo Farnsworth as "the inventor
of television".
And - please note - the journals of professional engineering societies
might be available for perusal on the Internet, but THEY CHARGE FOR
THOSE DOWNLOADS, so that the casual user tends not to peruse them
on the Internet. At a library you can peruse them, perhaps photostat
them, for next to no cost.
Blind faith in the Internet and all that it contains - good and bad - is bound
to lead to a "dumbing down" of reference sources.
For audio visual materials - films, sound recordings, images - the Internet
is a wonderful dissemination medium. For solid referenced fact, I have
extreme reservations regarding its effectiveness, and you will note that
often when folk question me about the validity of certain engineering
concepts, I simply reproduce the relevant printed text with its
accompanying references - which flaky Internet sources rarely
give elsewhere.
I think that the NBTVA Bulletin now has the potential for being an
excellent peer-reviewed digest of the banter in these forums, as well
as being an outlet for fully-developed and demonstrable equipment
and concepts, properly presented with references. In that regard the
function of the NBTVA Bulletin is separate and distinctly different in
function and application to this forum, or indeed to the function of
the Internet as a whole.
I'll conclude by pointing to my perpetually-suffixed Internet "signature"
shown below my name on all my postings. Don't put too much faith
in Internet sources. Formal academic methods of presentation via
the print media should, at this stage, be given far more credence
simply because of the intellectual process to which they are
subjected prior to the expensive process of hardcopy printing.
And please, give Mr Jago a break and send him some material to
publish. That Bulletin has held the NBTVA together since 1972!
Emphatically,
Chris Long VK3AML.
