INFORMS Online
IOL as an Online Community
By Matthew Saltzman
INFORMS Online is one of the most widely used online resources for information about operations research and management science. It is also the definitive resource on INFORMS itself. But this sort of one-way flow of information — we provide, you consume — does not live up to the true potential of the World Wide Web as a forum for sharing information.
It seems reasonable that a resource that communicates in one direction (from a central source to isolated individual users) has a value that varies linearly with the number of users. But Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network of interconnected individuals increases as the square of the number of users. A consequence of Metcalfe's law is a feedback effect: as the number of users of a network increases, the value increases, in turn attracting more users. This "network effect" is what leverages the demand for telephones and Microsoft Windows, for example.
For a given number of users, then, one ought to be able to drastically increase the value of a resource by making it interactive. IOL offers several services that allow users to interact and share information with each other. Most of these have not been heavily used up to this point, probably because they have not been widely publicized. By encouraging members and other readers to take advantage of these services, IOL can jump-start a network effect of its own.
IOL's principal interactive resources are described below:
Presentation and Working Paper Databases. The presentation and working paper databases (www.informs.org/Presentation/ and www.informs.org/WorkingPapers/, respectively) are Java-based tools that allow anyone to contribute URLs of conference presentations or working papers. The entries are indexed by subject. Within subject categories, papers are listed by author, title or submission date. The presentation database also breaks entries down by conference. Anyone can submit a paper or presentation to the database from the respective main pages. As I write this column, the working paper database contains 210 papers and the presentation database contains 63, but the most recent contributions are nearing two years old.
There are different reasons for the low level of traffic in the two databases. The submission of presentation URLs, along with conference registration, was encouraged a few years ago. That didn't work so well, partly because many people don't have presentations ready in advance of the conference, many of us recall fondly writing slides on the plane trip out. It would be better to capture this information at the meeting or shortly thereafter. The working paper database competes with a diverse collection of other databases, including department pages and other societies' collections. On the other hand, the target audience is right and the price is unbeatable. If you have pre-prints that you would like to publicize, please contribute them. The more we have, the larger our audience will grow and the more visibility your work will have. Conference Calendar. In November of 2000, IOL replaced its old, HTML-based, laboriously hand-maintained conference calendar with a new, commercial, automated system customized for our purposes (www.informs.org/Conf/). The calendar automatically rolls past conferences off the front page to an archive page, and it allows indexing by category (e.g., INFORMS, INFORMS Subdivision, Other or Academic, Practitioner, Both).
One feature of the calendar system is that users can register to take advantage of some special functions, including the ability to select entries for a personal database. The most important function, however, is the ability for registered users to add conferences to the calendar. If you are aware of upcoming conferences, workshops or seminars that would be of interest to members, please feel free to register and post them. With your help, the IOL Conference Calendar could become the most complete resource for OR/MS-related events available on the Web.
Discussion Groups. IOL hosts discussion pages (www.informs.org/Discussion/) in which anyone can participate. There is a group where readers can post questions and responses on OR/MS-related topics and one for INFORMS topics. There is a moderated announcement page and a page for discussion of books in OR/MS.
In addition to the general pages, IOL is able to host discussion groups for INFORMS subdivisions. Currently, the Section on Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment (ENRE) has a page. Any other subdivision interested in having a discussion page hosted at IOL should contact me.
The level of activity on these pages has been fairly low. Unfortunately, they lose value as a resource for question-posers if the responses only trickle in slowly. If readers made these pages a regular part of their browsing habit, they could become a valuable information resource and a way for non-specialists to connect with experts.
What's New
In my first column (OR/MS Today, February 2001), I wrote about a plan to enlist the assistance of the INFORMS business office staff in maintaining some of the day-to-day functions of IOL. I am pleased to announce new associate editors for some of these areas: Randy Kiefer (director of Information Technology), AE for Publications; Lisa Klose (director of Marketing), AE for Member Services; Barry List, (director of Public Relations), AE for Outreach; Tanya Skorohod (Meetings Office staff), AE for Meetings.
Matthew Saltzman (mjs@ces.clemson.edu) is an associate professor of Mathematical Sciences at Clemson University.
OR/MS Today copyright © 2001 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved.
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