by
James L. Morrison
[Note: This is a re-formatted manuscript that was originally published in
On the Horizon, 1994/5, 3(2), 3-5. It is posted here with
permission from
Jossey Bass Publishers.]
We are taking our service to a new level with the establishment of a World
Wide Web (WWW) site, where you will have easy access to past issues of On the
Horizon, a futures planning database, as well as to other information to help
you work more effectively.
Picture yourself at your computer where you have just launched your World
Wide Web (WWW) browser. At the prompt type "http://sunsite.unc.edu/horizon" to
connect to our home page on Sunsite, one of the major Internet computers, where
you will see our headline graphic and an index containing the following lines:
Past Issues, Futures Planning Database, and Gems from Horizon List. If you click
on the line, Past Issues, the screen will open to another index, each line of
which contains a Volume and Issue Number. Double click on, for example, Vol. 1,
No 1, for the first page of the first issue we published. You can then scroll
through the issue. If you see an article you like, you can transfer (FTP) it to
your computer where it can be stored and printed at your convenience.
At any point in your scrolling, you can return to the home page to select
another feature. If you select Futures Planning Database, you will see a screen
containing a subject heading index. Select a subject heading and you will go to
a screen containing an abstract very much like the one at the (left, right, or
wherever the boxed abstract is located), including the bibliographical citation
and a section of the implications of that abstract for educational leaders. Many
of the abstracts that do not get printed in regular issues of On the Horizon
will be posted in this section. When you want to use or distribute this
information to your colleagues, you can transfer a copy of it to your computer
to print and distribute.
To contribute an abstract to the database, click on a line titled, My
Contribution to the Database There you will see instructions (see box at left)
and a form (above) for insertion of bibliographic information, your name,
abstract, and statement of implications. We will edit this information and
insert it in the futures planning database for others to review and use. We may
also post it to Horizon List for discussion and commentary, which can then be
inserted at the end of your abstract. The richness and utility of the database
depends upon contributions from you and our colleagues in various organizational
and cultural settings around the world.
To review the last section, Gems from Horizon List, return to the Home Page
and select that line. Here we have indexed discussion strings by subject title
that have been posted to Horizon List. These discussions will stimulate your
thinking about critical emerging issues, trends, and potential events for
formulating strategic plans and policies for your organization. Again, they are
available for you to transfer to your computer for printing and distribution to
your colleagues.
In addition, this section indexes relevant documents and services for
educational leaders to use in planning for the future. To review these
documents, click on the title, and you are taken to wherever the document
resides on the Internet, be it in Geneva, Berlin, London, Moscow, Tokyo, or
Washington DC.
A request: we need corporate sponsors to help us expand and maintain the WWW
site. If you know of an organization that would support this venture, let us
know. We would be delighted to acknowledge their support on our Home Page and on
our masthead. |