Conference 7.286::digital

re Note 2654.0 by 57066::GRANSEWICZ:

>     I was also told that I could not post any such notice in the DIGITAL
>     conference.  I was again surprised and extremely disappointed.  

        Who told you this?

        Bob

    
    RE: .1
    
    The moderators of the conference.  I tried to explain and convince them
    otherwise but was unsuccessful.  I never thought something as simple as
    this could be so difficult.  I was getting turned down in more places
    than I was succeeding.
    
    I was able to post it in VTX because there is already a DCU section there.  
    But I don't think all that many people know about it or go into it on a 
    regular basis.

    This sort of issue comes up frequently in any high-visibility 
    conference.  Someone wants to get a message out and they naturally
    see a conference such as DIGITAL (or ASKENET or any of a number
    of others) as a handy bulletin board.  The moderators of DIGITAL
    (and ASKENET, and my opinion in any conference where I am a
    co-moderator) is that such use is inappropriate.  These conferences
    are for discussion, not one-way publishing vehicles.
    
    If we permitted Phil's job posting, we'd be hard-pressed to disallow
    almost anyone else in Digital (even forgetting for the moment that
    DCU is not Digital) from also posting openings here.  We'd also get
    course announcements, new product announcements and much more material
    that is not "for discussion" but merely utilizes DIGITAL as a
    bulletin board.
    
    For job postings, VTX JOBS exists, and anyone looking for a position
    is following that.  Some topic-specific conferences do allow
    job postings and other material directly relevant to those conferences.
    But just because DIGITAL has a wide audience, I don't feel that that
    makes it automatically a medium for anyone's announcements.  I do
    regret the passing of the useful regional "newspapers", such as
    Digital This Week, which provided a medium for announcements truly
    of general interest to employees, and if someone wants to start a
    conference dedicated to that function, feel free.  But DIGITAL is 
    not it.
    
    					Steve

    I agree with Steve in that the key phrase is "discussion". 
    Announcements by their very nature are not conductive to discussions.
    
    Bob

    This conference (of which I'm a former moderator), expressed in the
    objectives of the current moderators, isn't intended to be Digital-wide
    bulletin-board.

    On the other hand, there's no restriction that I can see in Digital's
    policies and procedures from someone with disk from opening a
    DIGITAL-BB conference for the express purpose of being a Digital-wide
    bulletin board.

re Note 2654.5 by SDSVAX::SWEENEY:

>     This conference (of which I'm a former moderator), expressed in the
>     objectives of the current moderators, isn't intended to be Digital-wide
>     bulletin-board.

        But there is a conflict here.

        Nearly every conference of which I am aware, be it
        work-related or employee interest, functions both as a
        discussion forum and as a bulletin board for items which
        pertain to the subject of the conference.

        Of course, the subject of this conference is "Digital" and
        thus is extremely broad (as opposed to, say, the c_plus_plus
        conference in which it is pretty easy to determine if an
        announcement has anything to do with C++).

        Thus it would seem unusual if a conference whose purpose was
        the discussion of Digital-wide issues would not also be a
        place where announcements concerning Digital-wide issues
        could be posted.

        The issue of whether the DCU is a Digital-wide issue remains,
        of course.  Is the DCU per se an issue that can be discussed
        in this conference?  If so then it should also be an issue
        around which announcements of broad interest should be
        allowed in this conference.

        Bob
        (not of moderator of this conference, but of several other
        conferences)

re Note 2654.0 by 57066::GRANSEWICZ:

>     I was also told that I could not post any such notice in the DIGITAL
>     conference.  I was again surprised and extremely disappointed.  

        Phil,

        Perhaps you should have phrased it in the form of a question
        for discussion?

        Bob

    How do various orgs. get the mailing lists that they use?  I regularly
    get announcements for courses, and there's some crazy All-in-1 account
    called "Reader's Choice" that's sending me stuff.

	I was a moderator of this conference at one time. As I recall the
	discussion among moderators about announcements, I thought that
	an announcement as a base note was inappropriate. However, if an
	announcement were posted as a relevent reply to an existing topic
	that was concidered OK. I don't know what policy changes may have
	been made since that time.

			Alfred

    re: .8
    
    The Reader's Choice program is a 3 year old effort to communicate
    electronically to employees. While it started in ensuring that marketing
    and sales could communicate effectively, it is now being expanded
    across the company to include benefits notices, etc.  It is currently
    being expanded from the U.S. to Europe, and then onto GIA.
    
    Based on your job code and organisation, you will automatically be sent
    certain information (such as last week's announcement of life insurance
    program changes), or sent a sample newsletter if you are in the target
    profile for that newsletter. After the sample is sent, you must 
    indicate that you want to continue to receive this information through 
    changing your profile on Reader's Choice.  This is simply done by 
    typing VTX Choice at the $ sign.  By amending your profile, you are 
    able to say exactly what types of information - newsletters, 
    sales update summaries, etc. you would like to subscribe to - including 
    by subject matter, and you regulate the volume of routine mail you
    receive to those you need to do your job.
    
    Bill
    
     
    

>        The issue of whether the DCU is a Digital-wide issue remains,
>        of course. 

	Of course it doesn't - DCU is NOT a Digital wide issue, methinks you 
	have forgotten that there are actually people working for Digital 
	outside of the US.

	Heather

>	Of course it doesn't - DCU is NOT a Digital wide issue, methinks you 
>	have forgotten that there are actually people working for Digital 
>	outside of the US.

Well, in that case, we'd better not discuss (e.g.) the recent 
changes in DEC-provided life insurance.   That's clearly a US-only
issue.  Or turkeys - that's even more localised.   Or Thomas Edison,
for that matter.  

And we definitely shouldn't discuss employee-interest-notes-files
in NOTES, since not all DEC employees have access to NOTES.

New rule - the only acceptable topics are those which demonstrably
affect every last DEC employee.  (It'll cut down on the volume anyway). 

	I don't see where you get your conclusions from my comment.

	I didn't say that DCU's couldn't be discussed, I just said that
	assuming it was a Digital-wide issue was erroneous.

	Heather

    
    re .10
    
    >					This is simply done by
    >	typing VTX Choice at the $ sign.
    	
    	$ VTX Choice
    
    		There is no page with that keyword.
    
    	$

    The keyword is PROFILE
    
    Gita

    My point was that Reader's Choice and other orgs. use MAIL for
    communications that they consider "must read" by employees.  VTX and
    NOTES just don't have audience that Paul is looking for.  Trouble is,
    how does he get access to the distribution lists?
    
    Mark

    
    RE: .16
    
    The name is --> Phil <-- !  But I'm getting used to it.  It might just
    be easier to change my name at this point... 8-)
    

    re: .15 
    
    Thanks for the correction.  VTX profile allows you to create a
    personalised profile for mail messages.
    
    BT

re Note 2654.11 by SUBURB::THOMASH:

> >        The issue of whether the DCU is a Digital-wide issue remains,
> >        of course. 
> 
> 	Of course it doesn't - DCU is NOT a Digital wide issue, methinks you 
> 	have forgotten that there are actually people working for Digital 
> 	outside of the US.
  
        Actually, I never said that the DCU was a Digital-wide issue. 
        What I said was that the question of whether the DCU was a
        Digital-wide issue was a separate question from whether
        announcements for Digital-wide issues were allowed here --
        i.e., even if announcements were allowed here announcements
        of DCU might not be.

        (Actually, for most practical purposes, the DCU provides good
        service to only a small part of the US.  On the other hand,
        through the ATM networks, DCU provides some minimal service
        world-wide.)

        Bob

	I posted this note to make people aware of a situation that 
	wasn't readily visible and discuss it.  It wasn't to discuss 
	the current policy of the DIGITAL conference (or Readers Choice!).
	The bigger picture of employee-to-employee communication is
	the issue.  Just how are employees supposed to communicate
	to other employees about employee events, volunteer opportunities,
	leagues, etc.?  Even if the company drops financial support for these
	activities, the need will still exist for communication about
	these activities.  Does anybody have the name of the person 
	responsible for communications WITHIN Digital?

	On the topic of notices in the DIGITAL conference, I would only 
	ask that the moderators consider the changing times and needs of
	the employees.  The elimination of hardcopy media as a means 
	of reaching employees prevents the dissemination of information.
	Would *1* note dedicated to announcements of events, leagues,
	etc. be such a burden to this file?  One additional NEXT UNSEEN
	key stroke for those not interested is not such a high price to pay
	IMO.  I see the benfits far outweighing the drawbacks.  Would a
	trial period be considered and evaluated?

	For informational purposes, roughly 60,000 Digital employees
	(and 20,000 family members) belong to DCU.  Quite a large "club"...
	

>Just how are employees supposed to communicate
>to other employees about employee events, volunteer opportunities,
>leagues, etc.?


We generally use our sports and social club, and in the sports and social 
club we often pass on information from other local clubs.

We have a distribution list of names for just s&sc members and I *think* a 
building wide one.

Alternatively our site managers secretary often sends out the building 
wide stuff....