Dear LISTSERV Members:

Late yesterday, I was informed about some more distressing news
regarding NIH.  Apparently, in yet another cost-cutting move, NIH plans to
discontinue their alliance with the FEDIX Opportunity Alert program.

FEDIX Opportunity Alert is a free e-mail service that automatically delivers
targeted research and education funding opportunities to members of the
research and education community.  Since March 1996, the service has
grown to more than 51,000 subscribers who have received a cumulative
total of over 111 million opportunity alerts.

As of June 1997, FEDIX Opportunity Alert had over 12,000 minority
subscribers, which means that nearly one out of every four of its
subscribers (24%) were a minority.  In addition, the number of new
minority subscribers to the service is growing at a rate of more than 300
per week.  Importantly, FEDIX provides site visits and technical
assistance for minority institutions, along with a "1-800" toll free number
for those that do not have access to the Internet.

Now what do you think about my previous statement:

"Perhaps NIH's next goal will be to have fewer institutions receiving
awards, and thus reduce the overall paperwork and computer entry
necessary to maintain grants?  In my opinion, doing away with the
electronic edition of the NIH GUIDE will undoubtedly hurt smaller
institutions with fewer support staff."

How can these moves by NIH to do away with the electronic version of
the NIH GUIDE and possibly the FEDIX Opportunity Alert system be
viewed as anything less than discrimination?  For some researchers, NIH
posting to the NIH GUIDE to the web will be just as helpful as posting the
announcements on a bulletin board in Washington, DC.  How can we
stand by and let this happen?

On a brighter note, the decision to discontinue the FEDIX Opportunity
Alert system by NIH, apparently will not affect researchers receiving
funding alerts from NIAID, NIEHS, NIDDK, NICHD, NIDDR, and NCI, as
these Institutes apparently plan on continuing their alliance with FEDIX.
However, I wonder what the pressure will be like for these Institutes to
continue the FEDIX service, if many of the other institutes are not
participating.

I have one final concern regarding NIH's decision to discontinue the NIH
GUIDE LISTSERV in favor of posting to their web page.  Over the past
several months, I have been personally frustrated with URL changes to
the PHS 398 instructions page, as well as other web pages.  This page
has moved at least twice in the last year with no forwarding address.
Will this continue with the NIH GUIDE web page?

Being a web administrator these days is like being an air traffic controller
without a radar that really works.  Web pages show up as blips on a
radar, and then mysteriously vanish in the Cyperspace triangle,
sometimes never to be found again.  And who knows if the page
crashed and burned, or if it is simply flying at lower level beyond radar
(on a different page).  Sure, we can all use a search engine, but how
many have really mastered it.

It's no wonder why researchers are frustrated with the World Wide
Web.  It's a great place to shop, but it's definitely not a library.  Where's
the Dewey Decimal System when you really need it?  Dewey are you out
there?  If you are, please give NIH and other web administrators a call.

Aren't you tired of looking through other people's closets (homepages)
for information?  Why should our researchers feel any different?

Is the World Wide Web the information superhighway?  I thought
superhighways weren't supposed to move their off-ramps on a regular
basis.  If this is an information superhighway, then how come no one
has created a map?  Lord knows there are plenty of flashlights (search
engines), but what about a map?

Everyone tells me that this whole mess will go away with the
advancement of "push" tehcnology, but just the sound of it makes me
shudder.  How can you "push" something that is constantly moving?
Has anyone really thought about this?

Mike Luczak
Grants Administrator
Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center
xxxxxx@wpogate.slu.edu
Phone:  577-8108
Fax:  268-5551