19 February 2012
Frequently Asked Questions
about the Laetus in Praesens website
-- / --
A: Website
-- What does Laetus in Praesens mean?
-- Who is responsible for the Laetus in Praesens website and its
contents?
-- Who is the author of the documents on this website?
-- Are the articles associated with a particular ideological agenda?
-- What is the purpose, motivation or bias?
-- Are there any succinct quotations to indicate the intent?
B: Themes
-- Why is such a wide range of topics treated?
-- What it the focus/intention
of the articles on the website?
-- What is the best way of obtaining an overview of the range
of topics treated?
-- How can the site best be searched for articles on particular topics?
-- How outdated are the views of the earlier articles on this site?
-- If it is claimed that this website has no particular ideological
bias, why so much on:
-- -- terrorism? | religion? | Chinese
culture/Taoism?
-- Why so much focus on metaphor?
C: Style / Content / Method
-- How are such articles designed to be read? Any advice for an impatient reader?
-- Why are the articles relatively long / complex / unreadable?
-- Why is there a mix of "serious / responsible" and "playful
/ irresponsible"
articles? Is that serious?
-- How definitive are the points made in the articles?
-- What methodology characterizes the papers on this site?
-- Why are many arguments presented in a confrontational critical style?
D: Credibility
-- How authoritative are the articles?
-- What knowledge background substantiates the articles
on this site?
-- To what academic disciplines do the papers on this site relate?
-- To what extent are the articles subject to peer review?
-- On what basis are the articles produced?
-- Why are so many articles produced?
-- How are the "articles" on this site to be defined?
What is their "status"?
E: Publication policy / Audience
-- What is the copyright status of the articles?
-- Are any of the articles published elsewhere?
-- Are there articles produced in the past as yet to be included on
this site?
-- For whom are the articles intended?
-- How are these articles publicised for wider readership?
-- Will any of the articles appear in conventional
book form?
F: Links / References / Citations
-- Why do the articles have so many links to other documents?
-- Why do the articles cite so many other articles on this site?
-- Why is an accepted standard not used
for bibliographical references?
G: Alternative electronic publishing methods
-- Why not use a Content Management System (CMS)?
-- Why not segment the articles into smaller CMS documents?
-- Why not use a blog facility to enable better feedback?
H: Site maintenance and errors
-- Why is this site still "under construction"?
-- Why are so many papers noted as being in "draft" form?
-- Are checks systematically made to repair broken links?
-- Attention to spelling?
-- Errors of fact?
-- How frequently are articles attributed to thematic indexes?
Z: Contact
A: Website
- What does Laetus in Praesens mean?
The phrase was used by the
Renaissance figure Marsilio
Ficino (1433-99) who headed the Florentine
Academy (motto: Laetus
in Praesens [Joy
in the Present]). It derives from an ode by the Roman poet Horace (Quintus
Horatius Flaccus, Ode
II-XVI 'Otium')
indicating that otium or peace is to be valued
above wealth or power:
Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est oderit curare
et amara lento temperet risu. Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.
Joyful let the
soul be in the present, let it disdain to trouble about what is beyond and
temper bitterness with a laugh. Nothing is blessed forever.
For other comments on this epicurean notion, see: Thomas
Moore, The
Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love (1998) and Composing
the Present Moment: celebrating the insights of Marsilio Ficino interpreted
by Thomas Moore (2001).
- Who is responsible for the Laetus in Praesens website and its contents?
The website is that of Anthony Judge on whom biographical
information is
provided on this site and in a Wikipedia profile. The articles, papers and reports on this site are
authored by him, unless otherwise indicated on the document itself.
- Who is the author of the documents on this website?
As indicated in the immediately preceding point, the author of the documents
is Anthony Judge, unless otherwise specifically indicated on the document itself. Authorship can
be confirmed by viewing the source code of any page (by ctrl-u in browser) where this is so stated in the relevant HTML meta tag for "author".
As noted
above,
biographical information is
provided.
Confusion arises when reliance is placed on an indication of authorship in Google search results (or those of Google Scholar). Google explicitly indicates that it does NOT make use of the author meta-tag and instead endeavours to deduce the author from other information in the document. When "Anthony Judge" is the sole author, as indicated above, and does not then immediately appear below the title of the document displayed by a browser, Google algorithms make unpredictable deductions regarding authorship. This is discussed with examples in an accompanying document (Aliases of Anthony Judge Identified by Google Search, 2011). As indicated in that document, the most frequent "author" indicated by Google search results for these pages is "by CF Reactor" (indicated in Google Scholar Advanced Search as responsible for some 555 documents on this site). This derives from its retrieval from one menu item (common to all pages on the site) indicating "Cognitive Fusion Reactor". More curious, and potentially embarrassing, are other such deductions. For, example an article about the Marketable Exploits of Osama bin Laden is listed by Google search results as "by O bin Laden" (with 47 other documents indicated as authored by "O bin Laden" in Google Scholar, most on other sites and one being an Open Letter from The Project for the New American Century to US President George W. Bush).
- Are the articles and reports on this site associated with a particular
ideological agenda?
Much of the work has been conducted in response to opportunities
created by work at the Union
of International Associations (UIA) and the strategic challenges of governance
perceived from that perspective. Such opportunities notably included invitations
to present papers to conferences or to participate in projects -- of which
the most personally influential has been that of the United
Nations University (on
Goals, Processes
and Indicators of Development). The papers presented do
not necessarily reflect the views of any such body and
should be considered as having been written in a personal capacity. The UIA
has however been closely associated with the development
of the information sciences and with the production of comprehensive reference
books, from an international perspective, covering every field of human activity
-- reflecting a wide range of ideological and other agendas as objectively
as possible. The papers on this site reflect that mindset. Examples of that
perspective are indicated by the long-term projects for which Anthony Judge
was responsible:
Yearbook of International Organizations:
guide to global civil society networks and Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential.
- What is the purpose, motivation or bias?
Irrespective of particular opportunities, which may have elicited the articles,
a continuing concern has been with approaches to synthesis, transdisciplinarity
and transcendence of polarized thinking in responding more strategically
to the challenges of the times. This is associated
with challenging conventional assumptions and exploring potentials
and possible new ways of understanding -- or honouring those neglected
from other cultures or times. This
may simply take the form of formulating interesting questions suggestive
of the possibility of new kinds of answer. Whilst many of the articles
have a practical focus relating to the use and organization of information,
others are more concerned with the challenges of understanding complexity.
Of particular interest is how all such explorations constitute a mirror
to self-reflexivity and what such mirroring implies. In this sense some
of the articles may be understood as exercises in philosophy, possibly
only of personal significance. Many arise from the fun of intellectual
exploration and creativity in a period when there is a desparate need to
bypass the inadequacies of conventional approaches. In this sense, engagement
with such challenges is a significant bias.
- Are there any succinct quotations to indicate the intent?
Fundamental to the approach of this site is the search for new ways to reframe
the challenges and possibilities of the times -- notably through new questions.
For some this intent may be usefully summarized by a set of passing
thoughts -- succinct statements or
self-critical questions.
B: Themes:
- Why is such a wide range of topics treated?
The topics treated have emerged as relevant to a number of interconnected
themes which are briefly listed in the pull down menu on this page and
elsewhere as a single
document. These themes are associated in one way or another with how
what kinds of information are used in response to the challenges of world
problems, appropriate strategies, and to what end -- and how such information
is best to be organized in an emerging knowledge society. One publication
that is an outcome of these preoccupations is the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential, now accessible online.
Many of the commentaries in
that publication are adapted from papers on this site.
- What it the focus/intention of the articles
on this website?
A simple answer to this question is best to be avoided given the complexity
of the relationships between seemingly disparate themes that call for some
non-simplistic mode of integration -- as yet to be discovered. It might be said that the intention
of this collection of papers is progressively to elicit that focus
whilst avoiding premature closure.
Some relatively primitive approaches to this challenge are reflected in a
form of mind map (Distinguishing
Emergent Conceptual Polarities: experimental ordering of a collection of
research papers). Other approaches include efforts to visualize
the relationships between the topics treated. Particular concerns that inform
the explorations on this site include: future orientation, out-of-the-box
frameworks, transcending polarization, computer facilitation, more appropriate
strategies, interdisciplinarity, conceptual integration and synthesis, comprehension
of complexity, benefitting from more powerful metaphors, insights from non-western
cultures and traditions, unconventional epistemological frameworks (other "ways
of knowing").
- What is the best way of obtaining an overview of the range of topics treated?
This is best answered through the pull down Themes menu
on this page and elsewhere as a single
document. A more extensive overview can be obtained from the various resources indicated separately. Note however that the clustering of documents by theme is undertaken only occasionally and that the more recent documents are best identified from the chronological list.
- How can the site best be searched for articles
on particular topics?
Various search facilities are indicated separately. Keyword access to titles only may also be done
via the browser search facility on the chronological page ALL
years. Chronological listings of titles, for different spans of years
are accessible from the home page, and may also be scanned. Alternatively
listings of articles by some 35 themes are available via the pull-down menu
or from this page.
However this facility is only occasionally updated.
- How outdated are the views of the earlier articles on this site?
One of the purposes of this site is to provide an archive of published studies
by the author from the early 1960s. One of the values of such an archive
is to document early understandings of possibilities and fruitful lines of
inquiry at that time. Whilst some of the preoccupations and challenges are
outdated, or have since been reframed, many of the issues explored remain unresolved.
More recent documents may cite such older explorations.
- If it is claimed that this website has no particular
ideological bias:
- why so much on terrorism? The conflicting issues
in the way in which terrorism has been framed, the responses to it, and
the justification claimed for it, together constitute a major conceptual
and strategic challenge, especially given the increasing stress on faith-based
governance. It is as a conceptual challenge that these matters have been
addressed in many papers -- as one of the themes consistent with others
on this website (see Documents relating to Terrorism:
the Conceptual Challenge).
- why so many on documents relating to religion? In
an era of increasing faith-based governance, such implications
cannot be ignored, especially given the manner in which evidence is reframed
from that perspective. A high proportion of the papers on this site are
written from an information science / strategic management perspective
which typically considers the religious dimension irrelevant. It could
be argued that the pro-religious would find the bias of this site to
be anti-religious, whereas the anti-religious would find it too sensitive
to the religious dimension (Documents relating to Faith,
Religion and Spirituality), notably with regard to alternative
modes of awareness (Documents relating to Human
Development and Self-reflection).
It would be more correct to argue that the papers tend to be anti-religious
and pro-spiritual -- but anti-science, to the extent that science itself
tends to take on the problematic behaviours characteristic of organized
religion. The degree of anti-religious bias may be best apparent from Thinking
in Terror: refocusing the interreligious challenge from "Thinking
after Terror" (2005) .
- why so many documents from a Taoist perspective?
One of the major merits of Chinese classical texts (I
Ching, Tao Te
Ching, and T'ai Hsüan Ching) is that they directly
address the challenge of rendering comprehensible subtly complex processes
of change -- recognizing that this remains a lifelong challenge
for everyone.
The texts themselves are all written as poetry -- even though intended
for strategic decision-making at the highest and most ordinary levels.
As such they make very extensive use of explanatory metaphor. These
expository considerations are totally absent from the articulation
of modern governance, both amongst the governors, in their relation
to the governed, and in terms of how the latter are empowered to respond
to a complex environment faced with such directives. In combining mathematical,
strategic, and metaphorical dimensions, these provide potentially important
insights at a time when the Chinese culture is having an increasing role
to play in governance of the world (see Documents relating to Patterns
of I Ching / Tao Te Ching). They are consistent with other
explorations on this website.
- Why so much focus on metaphor? This focus has indeed been
developed in many papers (Documents relating to Metaphor
for Governance) precisely because it is one of
the few tools that enables communication between sectors, whether relating
to governance, academic disciplines, or to wider publics.
C: Style / Content / Method
- How are such articles designed to be read? Any advice for an impatient
reader?
It is assumed that, increasingly, few readers of articles anywhere read lengthy texts
in a
linear fashion -- and from beginning to end. This mode tends only to be used by
those with a deeper interest in the topic treated. Tips for the impatient include:
- Use the table of contents: The articles on this website tend each to have a table of contents enabling readers
to skip directly to points of interest, if any.
- The "introduction" to many of the articles may well serve as
an abstract -- obviating any need to explore the body of the
article.
- Benefit from the extensive use of headings, subheadings and bullet points within a document in order to highlight, and order, items of interest.
- Avoid exploring the many links to related documents: Typically the document title for those links will give sufficient idication of the content
- A recommended mode of reading
is therefore to visually scan the documents for points of interest before
reading the paragraphs which appear to merit attention -- or use the browser find options (Ctrl-F). This also corresponds to the
most frequent mode of access to such detailed themes in the body of an article
-- via search engines and keyword based inquiries.
- Why are the articles relatively "long" / "complex"
/ "unreadable"?
Many of the articles deal with relatively obscure themes. One purpose is
therefore to assemble arguments and references in support of the preoccupation
-- possibly from a variety of otherwise unrelated perspectives. The themes
may be quite abstract and the arguments equally so. Part of the challenge
is to find metaphors and other devices through which to render such abstractions
meaningful and applicable to concrete situations. It is assumed that if
there is a case for a shorter version of an article it can be relatively
easily produced by cutting paragraphs and sections -- or ignoring such
sections when reading them. This abridgement approach is often used when
versions of the articles are included in peer reviewed journals. It is
otherwise more difficult to elaborate a shorter argument at a later date.
- Why is there such a mix of "serious / responsible" and "playful
/ irresponsible"
articles? Is that serious?
Some themes merit treatment in a totally serious, conventional, "academic"
mode. Some challenges faced by strategic governance in responding to serious
problems call for such treatment. On the other hand, some very serious problems
have not responded to conventional solutions and therefore justify exercises
in reframing in a humorous, playful, "irresponsible" mode as a stimulus
to alternative ways of thinking about them -- as specifically argued (cf Humour
and Play-Fullness: essential integrative processes in governance, religion
and transdisciplinarity, 2005; Playfully
Changing the Prevailing Climate of Opinion: climate change as focal metaphor
of effective global governance,
2005). The documents that are more deliberately outrageous and speculative
contain "musings" in their URL and are also separately listed (Documents
relating to Musings
-- Irresponsible
and Otherwise)
- How definitive are the points made in the articles?
A number of the articles should be considered as "essays", namely exercises
in exploring a possibility to see where it leads -- without committing to the conclusion. Some take more extreme
positions -- with an alternative position being taken in another article.
The challenge of polarized thinking is a theme which is explored and such
polarities have been used as a way of organizing the themes on this site
(Distinguishing
Emergent Conceptual Polarities experimental ordering of a collection of research
papers).
- What methodology characterizes the papers on
this site?
The papers typically have a bias characteristic of
a documentalist, due to the information science context of much of the
earlier work. This means that there is an effort to portray the scope of
a field in all its variety with whatevever references and links may be
of assistance to others. Much of the work is also inspired by the exploratory
interdisciplinary methodology of futures studies, with which the author
has long been associated. However the author is temperamentally in sympathy
with the approach of Paul
Feyerabend (Against Method: outline of an anarchistic
theory of knowledge,
1975; Conquest of Abundance: a tale of abstraction versus the richness
of being, 1999), as notably reflected in an early paper (Beyond
Method: engaging opposition in psycho-social organization, 1981).
The "methodology" that characterized a proportion of the work
of the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential is explicitly articulated
in its commentaries.
- Why are many arguments presented in a confrontational
critical style?
Many of the explorations on this site have been
inspired by the inadequacy of the institutional response to dramatic levels
of suffering in the world. This failure is often matched by a degree of
denial, complacency and claims to the contrary, together with appeals
to emphasize the "positive" and to avoid "negativity".
The dangers of the latter attitude have been explored in extensive detail
(Being
Positive Avoiding Negativity: management challenge of positive vs negative,
2005). The broader challenge of critical thinking and bias
has been explored in a range of papers (Documents relating to Criticism,
Bias and Dissent).
D: Credibility
- How authoritative are the articles?
The inclusion of articles on this site is not subject to the authorization
of some external party. Every effort is made to cite sources in support
of the arguments made -- and to provide links to documents on other websites.
These sources may or may not be considered reputable by this or that constituency.
Importance is attached to the possibility that an argument may be considered
credible by a constituency which it would be inappropriate to discount simply
because it is not considered credible from some other perspective. It is
the dynamic between constituencies, respectively considering themselves credible,
that is characteristic of the reality in which strategic governance has to
be elaborated.
Some papers were in fact elaborated in response to the themes of international
meetings or commissioned for presentation at such events. Some were commissioned
for publication in (peer reviewed) journals, or were subsequently included
in such journals. To the extent that the credibility of papers derives from
such relationships, a checklist of papers by (international) institution
and journal is provided (see Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives). This does not
however include the separately-listed documents and publications produced
during the author's work as Director of Research and Communications at the
Union of International Associations (see UIA-related
Publication and Meeting Initiatives).
Some themes may have been very new when the papers were first written
to address them. Their cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral
nature may continue to make it difficult for any particular authority to
evaluate and authenticate the arguments. Many of the papers are also exploratory
and speculative -- as part of a search for more creative ways to present
complex arguments and challenges. Some are also highly controversial.
Ultimately it is expected
that it is for the reader to assess the credibility of the arguments made,
in the light of the resources cited, and thereby to arrive at a conclusion
as to how "authoritative" is the article for the reader's own purpose.
- What knowledge background substantiates the articles on this site?
The articles emerge from a background of decades of work at the interface
between the challenges of knowledge management, its facilitation in computer-enabled
environments, its relevance to international organizations, the need for
more effective strategies and styles of organization in response to new kinds
of problem, sensitivity to more meaningful understandings of human development,
and a sense of the conflicting values that sustain initiatives. This background
is most evident in the author's responsibility over decades for the
Yearbook of International Organizations:
guide to global civil society networks and Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential. With such responsibilities
was associated involvement in a wide variety of international and interdisciplinary
conferences, notably those concerned with knowledge management, international
relations and futures studies (see Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives; UIA-related
Publication and Meeting Initiatives). .
- To what academic disciplines do the papers on
this site relate? As
stressed in the previous points, the range of papers tends to have as a common
thread an interdisciplinary focus, even one that explores the challenge of
synthesis across disciplines (Documents relating to Synthesis,
Transdisciplinarity and Integration). The papers may in addition
have a practical preoccupation whether in terms of the information sciences
or strategic management. Such
a focus is typically anathema to any given discipline. For
students and researchers with career ambitions within conventional academic
disciplines it is therefore inappropriate to cite the papers here, whether or not they contain pointers
and arguments of value. Some may well have been published in peer-reviewed journals, as indicated, and may therefore lend themselves to citation. As noted, below the publication and peer review approach
taken here should encourage readers with conventional academic needs to
focus on journals increasingly available online on a micro-payment
basis and whose contents are strictly controlled according to the
criteria of the discipline in question. A number of the papers on this cite
are explicitly critical of the fragmentation of knowledge into disciplines
that treat each other as mutually irrelevant (cf Dynamically
Gated Conceptual Communities: emergent patterns of isolation within knowledge
society, 2004). Others seek ways to move beyond such constraints
(Coherent
Policy-making Beyond the Information Barrier, 1999)
- To what extent are the articles subject to peer review?
Some articles on this website, that have been accepted for publication in
journals, have indeed been subject to peer review. Such publication
in journals is indicated wherever appropriate (see Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives). Other articles
are modified in response to commentary from readers.
- On what basis are the articles produced?
Articles are produced in response to a variety of situations. Invitations to
present papers at conferences, emergent themes in current affairs, strategic
challenges, creative possibilities, etc. They are not necessarily produced for any particular readership. Few have been specifically commissioned. Fewer still have been produced for financial reward, although some have been produced within the context of projects defined by contract. Readers are invited to make free use of the documents on the site according to the guidelines of the Creative Commons licence accessible from each page.
- Why are so many articles produced?
The articles have been produced in response to a variety of opportunities over
decades. They are a convenient format for any exercise in pulling together
insights and possibilities in response to the challenges of the times. Particular
articles may be considered useful or not by particular constituencies. As
a repository of explorations since the 1960s, the number is largely irrelevant
provided that access to them is facilitated by keywords and other devices.
- How are the "articles" on
this site to be defined? What is their "status"?
There is a mix of "articles" or "documents" on this site.
These might be distinguished as follows:
- academic papers: Some correspond to the conventions of academic papers and
have been published separately in journals (as indicated therein where appropriate,
and so listed Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives).
- reports: Some
take the form of reports typical of management or strategic studies, and may have been intended
to serve that purpose. They have notably included guidelines to meeting organization, the use of computer facilities, or approaches to visualization of data.
- papers for meetings: Some are written for presentation at meetings and may then be included in the published proceedings (see Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives)
- reports of meetings: Some are descriptions of meetings and/or commentaries on them, whether written as a participants or in the light of other reports on the event
- surveys: Some are best understood as presentations of the results of surveys, notably in relation to international organizations, their activities, or their preoccupations.
- essays: Some are commentaries or speculative explorations, perhaps
best considered as "essays" -- possibly of humorous or satirical
intent. These may notably include commentary on current political events considered to be of strategic significance.
- resources: Some are primarily intended as compilations of bibliographic
or web resources (see Resources, links, Resources on international organization). Others may include more bibliographic references and web links than are strictly necessary for the document in an effort to provide additional options for readers interested in matters related to the theme treated.
- experiments in presentation: Some are deliberate experiments in alternative
forms of presentation,
especially when focused on visualizations, animations or the use of unusual
metaphor (see Forms of Presentation and the Future of Comprehension, 1984).
- archival records: Some are primarily included as part of an archival
record of (long) past explorations, whatever the original concern -- and
whether or not they have been completed or are of current relevance.
- blog postings: Given the web context, and their
frequency, some might be framed as blog postings on
current concerns,
or may be so treated and (partially) copied into blogs elsewhere. In contrast to many "blogs", depending on how they are defined, the documents on this website typically use a formal structure and extensive linking to other documents on this site and to other web resources.
- knols: Similarly,
in an extensively hyperlinked web context (and given the intention also to
provide the documents in segmented form in a content management system), some
might be understood as "knols"
(as originally defined by Google) -- pieces
within the larger puzzle constituted by the collection of documents on this
site. This is consistent with the movement towards early "pre-publication" of
academic studies in a Web 2.0/Semantic web environment as a means of eliciting
comment and sustaining discourse (rather than submitting to the delays of conventional
hardcopy publication).
This mix of documents may be characterized as an experiment in a period in which various conventional methods of articulating and presenting copyrighted arguments, information and perspectives are severely challenged -- as with book publication (especially of the encyclopedia variety), journal publication (and especially the associated peer review process), and commentary. This is notably marked by the increasing role of blogs, websites and social networking sites in the diffusion of information. The role of the web and its search engines is modifying attitudes to information and access to it -- challenging those initiatives relying for their viability on restrictive access, paywalls and copyright.
The set of documents on this website is organized to benefit from this transformation, notably by making extensive use of hyperlinks between documents. The structure of the documents increasingly recognizes the challenge of exploring information, given limited time and attention span. In that respect the texts experiment with the balance between linking to remote documents (possibly offsite) and quoting from them to avoid the need to access them.
E: Publication policy / Audience
- What is the copyright status of the articles?
It is deliberately intended that use of the material in these articles should
not be restricted by copyright. Initially a "copy left" policy
was used. Use was then made of a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. Following
consideration of the restrictiveness of this license, articles are now published
under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. As
specified in more detail on that link, this permits documents to be freely
copied, distributed and transmitted,
and allows them to be freely adapted. The restrictions are that: any such
usage include attribution of the work
to the author, Anthony Judge
(but not in any way that suggests that they endorse any such use or adaptation);
the document should not then be used for commercial purposes;
any distributed alteration of a document from this site may only be distributed
under the same or similar license to this one.
- Are any of the articles published elsewhere?
Many of the articles, or sections of them, have been published in one form
or another in other publications and journals (see Conference-,
Organization- and Publication-related Initiatives). When this is the case, this
is duly indicated. Typically publication in journals is only agreed
when the medium in question allows for the possibility of publication
on this site and does not impose some exclusive copyright agreement. Many
of the earlier articles focusing specifically on international nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) were in the past published in the UIA journal Transnational
Associations (possibly under its previous title of International
Associations). Where appropriate, portions of other studies have
also been reprinted in the extensive commentaries sections of the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential.
- Are there articles produced in the past as yet to be included on
this site?
In addition to the articles that
are currently accessible from this site, the respective index pages also
indicate relevant bibliographic references to earlier documents that may
not yet be accessible from this site. Although scanned, these may be included
as image PDFs rather than endeavouring to correct errors from a character
recognition process in order to facilitate full text searching (see Single Documents in PDF Format and Collections of Documents in PDF Format).
- For whom are the articles intended?
Primarily the articles are explorations by the author to clarify issues. At
different stages, particular articles have been designed for the audiences
of particular conferences and journals -- as indicated in the introduction
to the article in question. These may be academic bodies, international organizations,
or commercial constituencies. However, given the variety of topics treated
and interrelated, the articles might be considered as intended for those
who, in pursuit of their own varied lines of inquiry, locate them via search
engine queries that identify content within the body of the papers.
- How are these articles publicised for wider readership?
Other than any immediate audience informed directly, the principal method for
publicising these articles is via web search engines. Given that many of
the articles endeavour to interrelate articles on related topics, a single
article may also point to other relevant articles. Of course other websites,
interested in any of the themes explored here, also point readers to this
site.
- Will any of the articles appear in conventional book form?
Some articles have appeared in collections of academic papers and
conference proceedings, possibly in abridged form (as indicated where appropriate).
The contents of a number of articles have been adapted for inclusion as commentaries
in the Yearbook of International Organizations:
guide to global civil society networks and, more especially, in the Encyclopedia
of World Problems and Human Potential. Presentation of collection
of the articles in book form is not however considered a priority -- given
the publishing and distribution facilities of the web environment.
F: Links / References / Citations
- Why do the articles have so many links to other documents?
One of the intentions is to assemble and interrelate web resources relevant
to the topic treated. These may be valuable to the further explorations of
some interested readers. There is clearly no obligation for readers to
explore such links. This notably applies to links to other articles on this
site -- where an aspect of the topic may have been previously treated in
more detail or from another perspective. Of potential interest is an experimenting in analyzing patterns of links between documents on this site and clusters of authors of external references cited in such documents (see Mapping of Co-occurrences of Document Citations in Laetus-in-Praesens, 2015)
- Why do the articles cite so many other articles on this site?
As noted in the previous point, hyperlinking is used as a means of maintaining
a trace between the many articles on this site. This is considered valuable
because of the complex, cross-sectoral focus of many of the articles. It
is recognized that in conventional academic publishing such self-citation
is considered bad practice, but this is considered an acceptable defect in
endeavouring to respond to the needs for more integrative modes of understanding.
- Why is an accepted standard not used for
bibliographical references?
As author of a number of bibliographical references books, there is no question
of lack of awareness of the issues and the various advocated treatments of
them. The
most offensive, non-standard, approach to references that is used on this
site is preceding the surname by the first name whilst retaining the ordering
by surname. This practice was initiated when this site was first launched
in 1996. This was done to facilitate search engine access to author names,
especially when placed in quotation marks. Typically the references are adjusted
for any publication in professional journals. This approach has been "corrected"
in a separate database-oriented approach to the documents and references on this site.
Basically further standardization of references in the 1,500 articles on this
site, dating from the 1960s, has not been treated as the highest priority.
G: Alternative electronic publishing methods
- Why not use a Content Management System (CMS)?
A CMS segmentation of the documents on this site has been implmented in a test mode as Kairos.
- Why not segment the articles into smaller CMS documents?
A CMS segmentation of the documents on this site has been implmented in a test mode as Kairos.
- Why not use a blog facility to enable better feedback?
The primary issue is the degree of editorial management required. A CMS would
facilitate this.
H: Site maintenance and errors
- Why are so many papers noted as being in "draft"
form? Papers are not made accessible on this site until they are
virtually complete (-- or occasionally abandoned). Thereafter feedback
is sought from colleagues and they are updated. However no cut-off is fixed
for this process and removing the indication "draft" is not considered
a priority
- Are checks systematically made to repair broken links?
No they are not, although occasional
use is made of link checker facilities. Broken links are typically repaired
in response to feedback.
- Why is a standard spelling style not used?
Many of the source materials use different combinations of English and American
spelling standards -- especially when quoting texts from other documents using such standards.
Harmonising these styles for hundreds of articles has been considered a low
priority.
- Errors of fact?
These are corrected as they become apparent, notably in response to feedback.
- How frequently are articles attributed to thematic indexes?
Approximately every six months. However chronological indexes are updated as
articles are added. Search engines (notably Google) offer access within
days to new articles posted on this site.
I: Acknowledgements
- Special thanks are owed to Tomáš Fülöpp of Vacilando for his continuing generous support and encouragement over many years with regard to technical improvements to this site as new computer facilities have become available. He has notably facilitated the hosting of the site on new servers whenever such transfers have been appropriate. Without his encouragement, as a Drupal specialist, the segmentation of documents -- into the Kairos variant of this site in test mode -- would not have been possible.