A Message from the International Mathematics Union:
4. PERSONAL HOME PAGES AND AN ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE
WORLD DIRECTORY OF MATHEMATICIANS (EWDM): A SUGGESTION OF THE CEIC
After the discontinuation of the WDM was announced in IMU-Net 1 a
number of colleagues asked whether it would be possible to establish
an electronic version of WDM. The IMU Committee on Electronic Information
and Communication (CEIC, see http://www.ceic.math.ca) has attended to
this request and investigated the possibilities.
Due to the limited financial means of the IMU there is no way to set up
and maintain a central registry such as the combined membership list of
AMS/MAA/SIAM/etc., see
http://www.ams.org/cml
It seems feasible, though, to keep a central list - based on distributed
input and voluntary contributions. CEIC proposes to give this idea a try
and start with a basic version of an Electronic World Directory of
Mathematicians (EWDM).
The CEIC would like to couple this suggestion with the request to every
mathematician to offer a personal homepage on the Web. With respect to
the contents and structure of such a personal homepage CEIC proposes the
design of a standardized personal homepage for mathematicians, to be
called the Mathematician's Professional Homepage (MPH), that contains
personal mathematical information in an organized fashion - just as the
Math-Net Page is designed to display institutional mathematical
information in a structured way. The design comes in two versions, a
simple design and a more elaborate one.
The plea to offer and maintain a structured personal webpage should not
be interpreted as a bureaucratic dampening of individual style. Reasons
why structured webpages are desirable can be found at
http://www.mathunion.org/MPH-EWDM
The Personal Homepage Call
IMU asks every mathematician to set up and maintain a personal homepage.
IMU requests that this homepage is presented in a userfriendly way, and
suggests a structure along the lines of the Mathematician's Professional
Homepage (MPH).
The Electronic World Directory of Mathematicians Call
IMU plans to set up and maintain an Electronic World Directory of
Mathematicians (EWDM). Every mathematician who has a homepage is asked to
register the homepage through the EWDM registration mechanism, see
http://www.mathunion.org/ewdm/join.php
For detailed information on these suggestions click on
http://www.mathunion.org/MPH-EWDM
Please follow these calls!