Nick Eiteljorg, Center for the Study of Architecture "Publishing Electronic Data - Are We Ready?"

Materials created by scholars in electronic form - data tables, GIS (geographical information system) files, and CAD (computer-assisted design) models - should logically be distributed in that same electronic form. Paper versions necessarily sacrifice information content; so something is lost in reducing electronic data to paper. Using electronic files, however, requires access to appropriate computer software.

Examples will be used to illustrate the problems encountered with publication of electronic data. With each of these technologies, significant advantages are available to scholars who create electronic files and to those who use them. The advantages for the latter, however, are dependent upon access to appropriate software. If the user has the same software as the data provider, the files can be used easily. If the user has only similar software, it may still be possible to use the files, but only after transferring them from a standard transmission format to the format needed for his/her software. That, of course, means that the user must have some level of sophistication with computers, more, indeed, than most archaeologists. If the user has neither the correct software nor the skills necessary to use the files with other software, access to the electronic data is effectively impossible.

These problems make it clear that electronic publication must not be undertaken lightly. Projects must be evaluated carefully to determine when electronic publication is possible; whether publication should be only electronic, only on paper, or both; and, in general, how to distribute information most fully to the largest number of users.