Thanks, Molly
for being the one to alert us comparative oldtimers to the fact that some
things that used to be discussed or at least mentioned from time to time
have started to be taken for granted.
Perhaps, you Molly and others do not even know that for some time now the
xmca has been one of those mailinglists that have automatic archiving that
puts everything on the Web once every 24 hours. It's there, message by
message, at URL
http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/Discussion_archive.html
This has been done on the basis of a developing agreement on these lists
(it used to be the xlchc) that this is an open forum in a public medium.
The development, however, has taken place over more than ten years, and I
am not sure how newcomers are informed about it. To my mind, on the other
hand, this awareness of its at least semi-public nature is pretty much
becoming a standard on the Internet, unless the forum in case is very
closed, socially and technically.
On the XMCA Website there are also backlogs of most of the mailstream, from
September 1995 when the list was opened under this name.
The FTP site that I mentioned in the message that was interconfused between
Judy and me (I responded in public to a privat request, and my private
excuse to Judy was... not exactly the clearest...) ... well, anyway, the
xlchc ftp site contains the older xlist archives: back to late 1987. The
older stuff is in compressed files, so one has to have software and/or
knowhow to deal with it. It was put there so that people could go back and
see what had passed on the list while they were away (and such), and there
was probably also from the start the intention to keep things for archival
research (I'm currently using it).
Finally (for now) the excerpt on Signs and Tools that is on the
cite.ped.gu.se server in our little lab across the corridor, which I also
mentioned, is actually one of the pages of the memorial site that I set up
for Arne Raeithel soon after his untimely death on December 1st, 1996. I
did not, as far as I remember, ask people one by one then, but I did
annonce my intention on the XMCA list itself, as part of the collective
outburst of mourning we had. Ironically, Arne's voice in the archives is
one of the most explicit about finding it entirely OK to be quoted for
half-baked texts and abandoned opinions, as long as the context of origin
is clear. So when, now and then, I cannot resist forwarding some of his old
stuff, because I have learned so much from reading it, I'm actually
following in his tradition of acting as longterm memory for the list --
this is one of the things he used to do, when he had the time and
inspiration and the discussion was recycling old themes.
Eva
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Dr Eva Ekeblad
Goteborg University
Dept. of Education & Educational Research
Box 1010 S-431 26 Molndal, SWEDEN
eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se
http://cite.ped.gu.se/Eklanda/texter/eva.html#English
Tel: (Int +46 31) 773 22 75 Fax: (Int +46 31) 773 23 91
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