Keywording and Numbering / E9

The contents of each Bulletin should provoke participants to formulate further messages in reply. Other messages will be formulated irrespective of previous comments. In this way new issues of the Bulletin are produced and the process is continued throughout the duration of the conference and even as a postal continuation of the conference.

It is useful to attribute a simple sequence number (eg 1023) to new messages so that they can be unambiguously cross-referenced, cited, etc. There is also advantage in having a standard minimal reference to previous messages by their number (eg 3/59: meaning Bulletin issue 3, message 59 ; although 59 would be sufficient).

Note if the number is generated instantaneously, authors may want to know early on "what is the number of my message?"

Variants of this are:

Hand-stamping each form on receipt with an sequential number machine. If strictly consecutive according to time of receipt, this could also be useful in charting the development of issues in the conference and in tracking where a message might be in the process.
Pre-numbering of all the forms distributed. Pre-numbered forms could also be a design aspect of a method to get quantitative data on, say, messaging rate and participation: "who messages?", "how much?", "how many of the first day's forms have been used?", etc.

Keywording is another way of relating messages. The author could provide keyword(s) or this could be added by the editor. Keywords can be used to selectively compile messages in subject or topic areas - perhaps for a task working group. See Coding / E7.

An example of a pre-printed message form with keywords selected for the conference area is given on the next page.

Return to [Table of Contents] [People's Voices] [Information Habitat]

Written by Nadia McLaren, Union of International Associations, with revisions and HTML layout by Robert Pollard, Information Habitat: Where Information Lives.