[Ansteorra] Re: Electronic publishing

[Stephen Macthomas]

> So do I.  It's much easier than a full-size computer to throw on the
> dashboard on the way to an event.  Some folks don't have a printer to
> print from the electronic form (or a "Palm Pilot" to download to
> ). Francesca

I own a Palm myself (I am an avowed techno-junkie) and would have to agree
that our publications should remain on paper.  I'm going to guess that even
if the Black Star could be converted into PDF, and if it could be imported
onto the beta Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, it would be a tremendous
file - bigger than the memory on older Palms and precipitously large on
newer ones.  Also, if the publications were to go to electronic format,
which format would be considered standard?  Just in handheld computing,
there's Palm OS and Windows CE - what about desktop/laptop versions across
Windows and Mac?  Who would be the one to determine the standard and require
our participants to get a $250 or higher software system just to read their
newsletter?  And lastly, who would be the one charged to format the file
once a month into all these formats so that the information can be
disseminated, which is the primary function of the chronicler to begin with?
I've seen people on this list start to get a little vocal about their Black
Star being just a few days late - what happens if your server's down for
maintenance when the mass e-mail goes out or you've changed your ISP and
forgotten to tell the chronicler, and you miss it altogether?

All of our electronic forms of communication are designed to supplement the
one official publication the Kingdom has - that being the Black Star.
They're not there to supercede it, just help it along in these rare cases
where the Black Star is in transition.

And Michael, you have my thanks for taking the reigns during this time.  I
dare say there are precious few that would have done the same and performed
as well.

Stephen Macthomas, who invites productive dissention and wonders how these
soap flakes got on my shoes <grin>