Submitted by:
Giordano Beretta
Senior scientist
RS-02 (Research)
Canon Information Systems
4009 Miranda Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1218 USA
v: (415) 852-2016
f: (415) 852-2060
e: beretta@canon.com
Categories:
Research, commercial; Manufacturing technology
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Volunteer contributions of time and energy
The Story:
Mine is just a small story. It deals with drumming up speakers for an international congress.
Every year starting 1984 the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) sponsors the International Congress On Advances In Non-Impact Printing Technologies. This year for the first time the congress will be abroad, namely in Japan. Because of the high travel cost to attend (approximately $5000 just for airfare, food & lodging), very few papers were submitted this year.
In Mid-February, shortly before the submission deadline, I was contacted by the program chairman because the co-chairman for the session on Color Science and Color Standards dropped out and there were zero papers. He asked me if I could do a last minute effort to try to save the session.
Thanks to the Internet and the e-mail addresses published in membership lists like the one from the Optical Society of America, I was able to solicit papers personally from many of the color scientists here in the US and in Canada. I would never have been able to stuff that many letters through a fax machine in the given short time. Also, many e-mail addresses I got by asking around on the Internet (all Societies should list e-mail addresses).
The Internet, and specifically the BARRNET locally has allowed me to coordinate speakers, circulate abstracts, and check back with the organizing committee in Rochester NY (via Xerox PARC link) almost in real time. I say “almost” because the Internet being asynchronous, I did not have to deal with the voice mail boxes that are now the norm in the synchronous phone system.
I am pleased to report that thanks to the Internet I have been able to line up in an incredibly short time some of America’s finest color scientists to presents papers at the 9th International Congress On Advances In Non- Impact Printing Technologies.