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Re: dam-l Announcment

Dear Dianne,

I agree with Irwin's suggestion and his endorsement of the value of what you
are doing.

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: Dianne Murray <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>
To: <dam-l@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>
Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: dam-l Announcment


> >
> > Dianne, thanks for all your hard work the past five years.  You have
done our
> > world a great service... the kind which is rewarded from the heart and
not
> > the wallet.  Maybe Sarah would be willing to pay you as a subcontractor
to
> > provide and continue to update your own archive on their site.  We
> > don't need
> two to get the word out, just one that is comprehensive and widely
available
> > on many web sites.
>
> I agree. I'd always intended to make the archive searchable and expand it.
> But with no funding, well... what can I say.
>
> Though you cannot see them DRWG is actually bigger than yours truly.
> We aren't huge but there are under 10 of us.  I'm just the only one
> with the web and technical chops and the knowledge of the literature on
dam
> impacts in the group. The idea for the archive was actually Michael
> Richardson's.  Michael is the donor of the webspace and account and
> the sysop here at sandelman.  He thought it would be good back when
> many of you hadn't even heard of the web, to put the information
> accrued on impacts of dams online since 1991 as a result of group members
> research.
>
> Since that time people from labs, insitutues, ex government folks
> and others have sent DRWG information to place on the website.
>
> We lack a scanner so much of this has been handcoded. When this
> started it was on a 286, LAN'd to Michael's machines.  One ned
> not throw money around if one knows the technology and how
> many bells and whistles are necessary.
>
> It was always meant to be onestop shopping, with a special focus on
> peer-reviewed literature, review papers and stuff that hadn't made it from
> the real world through the scinetific process to the stacks, never mind
> to the mainstream press.
>
> Becasue we wanted information to be universally avaialble and not just
> to those with the latest techno bells and whistles, I've gone out of my
way
> to make sure things are ccessible through any browser, from lynx on up
> to Mosaic,  Netscape and IE, with a lot of help from Michael.
>
> I've wanted to make it searchable and expand it but for
> want of funding this has yet to happen.
>
> The Canadian Directory on Foundations simply showed that Canada
> is not a country that cares much in terms of funding things outside
> its backyard, in the main. Seed funding would have to come from an
> American or internatinal agency or foundation.
>
> But with no money to schmooze what to do?
>
> We've kept costs down because we had to and being in Ottawa doesn't hurt.
> CISTI is here.  They don't need to ship anything anywhere.  And of
> course DFO and Environment Canada's libraries are also here [many
> of them anyway :].  And of course the two universities here - Carleton,
> and U. of Ottawa.
>
> Really, I wish I'd known that FAO was looking for such information.
> But I'm not in any international funding loop.  And neither are the other
> members of the group - primarily scientists.
>
> One of the purposes of the archive - to get the word out on
> impacts, through bibliographies, grey literature, and information
> gleaned from other listservers that may be of interest to listmembers.
>
> It would be good to work *with* the World Fisheries Trust on this.
>
> What does everyone else think?
>
> <snip>
> *blush*
> Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Irwin!
>
> -Dianne
>
References: