Re: CAP-L long post

[Dickie Selfe <rselfe -at- MTU -dot- EDU>]

>Dickie,

>I've never heard of CAP-L, and I'm guessing others on TECHWR-L haven't
>either.  Can you tell us what listserv it's on?  "VM1.ucc.okstate.edu"
>doesn't know about it.

>Thanks,

>-BD

>______________________________________________________________________________

>Brian Daley                |     Marquette Electronics, Inc.


Thaks for your interest Brian.  Here's a note I sent out in early Sept. I
think to recruit participants to CAP-L.  I want to encourage both academic
folk and professionals to subscribe.

Cc: cap-l
Bcc:
X-Attachments:
Request for Participants on CAP-L

I am quite new to this list so I don't know if I'm out of bounds here.  But
I find that many of the people reading and participating on TECHWR-L are
very willing to help others and discuss issues.  So I thought that some of
you might be interested in subscribing to an educational, tech.
communication list that I have been running for about 3 years.  Each fall I
teach a Publications Management course at Michigan Tech. Univ.  for juniors
and senior STC majors.  They are beginning to think seriously (and not so
seriously) about issues in the field.  The list is called CAP-L
(Computer-Aided Publishing) and tends to deal primarily with issues
surrounding the field of electronic publishing (broadly construed).  I have
recruited teachers from other universities (South Dakota St., Purdue,
Southern Ill., Eastern Michigan, and others) who are teaching courses
involving the same issues as well as academics interested generally in
technical communication.  But it has been my experience that professional
technical communicators offer advice and comments that are at least as
valuable as those of us in academia.

WARNINGS!!!
1)  I would like to use this conversation in my dissertation research on
electronic conferencing.  I will, of course, be very careful to mask all
identities and institutions, but if you would like to participate but not
have your posts included in my research, please send me private mail.  I
use very few direct quotes in my write ups anyway. I will be glad to
discuss the nature of my research if anyone is interested.

2)  These are students who are as a rule quite new to e-mail and its
ediquette.  I encourage them to talk about projects, issues, and technical
problems but they also bring up social issues frequently.

3)  They are also quite new to the culture of tech. communication and may
seem at times appaulingly naive.  It's meant to be a learning experience
that's not too brutal.

These are the instructions I give to the students:

CAP-L -at- MTU -dot- EDU
Participate in this  informal e-mail conference at least once per week.  It
is a desktop publishing conference made up of professionals and other
students of publishing from MTU and other universities.  The purpose of the
conference is three-fold:  I'd like students in the class to communicate
with professional document managers both on campus and off, asking
questions and helping solve problems with people who face the publishing
industry every day.  Second, I'd like to set up a forum in which you can
ask for suggestions about the projects you are developing.  Third, I want
to discuss ethical and political issues that are hard to cover in any
detail in class.  Some of the topics I'll bring up include

How does the editor of a newsletter act as a censor?
What guidelines can she use to limit the problems of censorship?
In what situations can we use scanned and edited images?
At what point do edited images become the artwork of a designer?
What environmental responsibilities do we have as the creators of markets
for potentially toxic paper products?

I assume that you all will bring up issues about which you are personally
concerned.  Through this conference you have daily, direct access to
professionals (great contacts) on and off campus who can give you the low
down on life as a publication manager.  Please participate.  However, if
you find it too intimidating to post something each week, or just don't
have time, I do give credit for "lurking" on the network.  But you have to
show me that you are keeping up with the discussion.  If during the week
you don't post a note to CAP-L, simply send me a personal note (to
rselfe -at- mtu -dot- edu) indicating in one line the topics covered.  Also include an
approximation of the amount of time you spent reading messages.

I do keep archives of all messages sent to this e-mail conference and use
the discussion in the research that I conduct.  All names are completely
confidential.  If you have questions about the type of research I am
conducting and your involvement in that research, I will be glad to talk to
you about it.

To subscribe to CAP-L -at- mtu -dot- edu you need to
send the following command to

majordomo -at- mtu -dot- edu

subscribe cap-l



Other Stuff:

>This is Brent Chapman's "Majordomo" mailing list manager, Revision 1.46.

>It understands the following commands:

>    subscribe <list>
>       Subscribe yourself (or <address> if specified) to the named <list>.

>    unsubscribe <list>
>       Unsubscribe yourself (or <address> if specified) from the named <list>.

>    which [<address>]
>       Find out which lists you (or <address> if specified) are on.

>    who <list>
>       Find out who is on the named <list>.

>    info <list>
>       Retrieve the general introductory information for the named <list>.



Dickie Selfe            102 Walker
rselfe -at- mtu -dot- edu          Michigan Technological U.
906-487-3225            Houghton, MI  49931

Feel free to cross-post my messages, but please get permission before
quoting them in printed publications.