InterNIC's 15 Minute Series

[Byron C. Mayes]

On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Bill Drew wrote:

> Maybe this is a dumb question, but why is LITA/ALA doing something to
> keep this series alive?  LITA was a cosponsor of the series.

This is the blurb from the front page of the site itself:

>>PLEASE NOTE: The 15 Minute Series, a collection of Internet training
materials, was developed by InterNIC Information and Education Services to
help the research and education community support the growing role of the
Internet in their day-to-day operations and activities. The 15 Minute
Series has been a success, providing training to literally thousands of
Internet users around the globe in all types of organizations. 

The Internet community has changed, however, since the 15 Minute Series
was launched in 1996. As a result, Network Solutions will continue its
educational efforts but with a new tool, the .Com SeriesTM The .Com Series
is designed to appeal to a broad audience, more accurately reflect current
trends and interest among Internet users, address the growing needs of
small businesses, and serve end users more directly. 

The 15 Minute Series in its present state was discontinued at the end of
the operational period of the cooperative agreement on March 31, 1998. The
15 Minute Series will remain available at this site through the end of
April 1998 at which time it will be retired permanently.<<

In other words, it's not really going anywhere they're just shifting the
focus of the service from researchers and educators to business and end
users. That, of course, could mean anything from a few differences in
examples (tech support examples instead of scientific maybe?) to a
complete "dumbing down" (for lack of a better term) in order to "appeal to
a broad audience". 

Has anyone addressed this on LITA-L? I don't think I've seen it there.

Byron

 Prof. Byron C. Mayes
 Systems Librarian/Assistant Professor
 Hunter College of the City University of New York
 695 Park Avenue * New York, New York 10021
 bcmayes at hunter.cuny.edu  * 212-772-4168 * Fax: 212-772-5113