[KS] "InfoShare" / "Korea InfoPool": any suggestions?

[Stephen Epstein]

Hi all,

As a former co-owner of the list, I was always of the opinion that these sorts of detail questions are appropriate here. Often in the past they have generated some of our most interesting discussions. That said, digital communication platforms have evolved significantly in the last few years, and there are increasing possibilities for creating a separation on such issues. Those who have a Facebook account may prefer to use  the Koreanists group for these queries. Though still smaller than the KS list, it does have close to 600 members at this point and can readily accommodate what Frank suggests, I think. 

Best, Stephen
________________________________________
From: Koreanstudies [koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com] on behalf of Frank Hoffmann [hoffmann at koreanstudies.com]
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 12:33 AM
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com
Subject: [KS] "InfoShare" / "Korea InfoPool": any suggestions?

Dear All:

This is just a very loose idea -- and I wonder what your take is on
this, and what more specific ideas you may have (in case this seems
something that may be wanted)?

Originally, when Rob Provine started an email discussion list in 1994,
an important function was to exchange all kind of informations
regarding publications, research, conferences, positions. That is still
the same today.

What I myself am sometimes missing -- and here I am not too sure if
that is or is not shared by others -- is some sort of micro information
exchange, or whatever you want to call it. Sometimes I wonder about
smaller detail questions, issues that I would not want to post and
"bother" 1,700+ scholars with, or that I might feel are questions whose
answers I should certainly know the answer to by now but still do not.
A typical example that came up today: some old newspaper article very
briefly lists a person's education and then his current whereabouts,
and there it reads something like: "[city name]서 自管" -- and I now
wonder if this means person X runs his "own business" in [city name].
Or, a few days ago I was wondering about another very tiny detail: how
would you transcribe "[person's name]氏" -- would you put a dash in
between the name an ssi, better write it in two words? These kind of
questions are clearly not questions one would want to really bother a
whole list with, nor any personal friends. When you look for
information of how to fix your computer or your car, you just search
the Web and find some posting in some forum for sure that has the
answer. Korean studies is obviously not such a big field, and the
"forum" format would likely not work, because nobody would go there
unless he/she has a question.

Anyone has suggestions and ideas?


Best
Frank



--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com