André HECK Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory 11, rue de l'Université F-67000 Strasbourg, France
The whole procedure can include several internal iterations or interactions between the various steps as well as with external fields (such as instrumental technology), scientific disciplines and information handling methodologies. The trend is also clearly towards panchromatic astronomy, in the sense that astronomers do not specialize anymore exclusively in a specific range of wavelengths (optical, radio, etc.).
In the following, information will be considered as the knowledge communicated by others or obtained from investigation, study, or instruction. In astronomy, information covers the observational material, the more or less reduced data extracted from it, the scientific results, as well as the accessory material increasingly used by scientists in their work (bibliographical resources, yellow-page services, software libraries, and so on).
While publication will be considered as a `public announcement' (no implicit assumption being made as to the medium used), communication will be taken as the act or action of imparting or transmitting (while respecting constraints such as proprietary rights and so on).
These definitions correspond to widely accepted concepts in information sciences, but the meaning of the terms could be different in fields such as marketing or advertising.
It should always be kept in mind that information and its related activities are never an end per se. Science must remain the main objective
Considering the omnipresent connectivity and the decentralised expertise on which they are essentially relying, one could ask whether the data centres are still as indispensable as in the past; whether a coordinating body would not do; and whether the individuals-hubs-individuals cycle is not exhausted with current connectivity. Some agencies have actually envisaged disconnecting their data/information management via outsourcing or other means.
With the documents put on the web becoming extremely visible and the ever increasing popularity of the Internet, one could wonder whether the necessary bandwidth will always be available for professional purposes or whether a public interest in a `sexy' web site could not submerge the available resources. In other terms, should we consider setting up an astronomical intranet for an astronomical business class?
Of course, the interface with the taxpayer who is ultimately supporting scientific research has to be preserved too as the web is also the place for exploration, communication, education, and so on.
Certainly authors have the feeling that more and more work has been gradually delegated to them (from the mechanical-typewriter times through the camera-ready-copy techniques to, nowadays, macros and web documents), while the publishers complain about the financial strain of `going electronic'.
On another level, most producers of information seem currently eager to preserve the equivalence of the material provided under various formats or languages such as PostScript, PDF, HTML, and so on.
While it is clear that there is no difficulty to offer a standard paper in such a way, a document (or rather a set of documents) genuinely tailored for the World-Wide Web (i.e. typically written in HTML) cannot fully be converted automatically in PostScript or PDF since there is no way to reproduce in these formats features currently available on the web such as hypertextual structure, sound, motion, applets, and so on. In other words, trying to maintain the compatibility between all the formats would be equivalent to reduce TV news bulletins to silent images of newspapers or magazines.
It is obvious that genuine electronic publishing will have to diverge from paper publishing and electronic provision of traditional papers, all these means remaining however complementary of each other.
Finally, should we not replace the concepts of `papers' and `journals' by the more appropriate ones of documents and resources in an electronic context?
Should we plead for a MIDAS of information handling and retrieval?
Which policy should we design to get rid of the dead wood on the World-Wide Web? These and other points are discussed in the paper referenced below.