Hello,
Lyman Chapin wrote (and was in line with Harry Rudin and Guy Leduc):
I agree with Guy - it doesn't matter what happens to any of the various print publishers, because the printed books are irrelevant. IFIP and TC6 must move very quickly in the direction of on-line publication; if they do not, they will also become irrelevant.
Hmmm. I cannot fully agree on that. Of course a CD-Rom or another electronic medium is nice, cheap and maybe unavoidable for the future. But a book is something else: from a useability aspect, from a cultural point of view,..... The major negative aspect of books is the time needed to print them and the price (which becomes higher and higher and even unaffordable if not enough books can be sold any more). My feeling is that we still need books for a while (and "for a while" could mean "for many years") in addition to electronically available material.
Best regards Otto