Persons Present:
Ilan Ben-Zvi, Martin Comyn, Yong Ho Chin, Yanglai Cho, Michael Craddock, Leif Liljeby, Peter Lucas, Bill McDowell, Steve Myers, Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz, John Poole, John Smith, Koji Takata, Marion White, Yoshi Yamazaki
Excused:
Martin Reiser, Bob Siemann, Sergio Tazzari, Bill Weng
Ilan Ben-Zvi welcomes the persons present and recalls the motivation behind the organization of the present meeting.
The original suggestion to create a Joint PAC/EPAC Web Site for the Proceedings of the Particle Accelerator Conferences is amended to include the newly created Asian Particle Accelerator Conference (this will take place for the first time in March 1998 at KEK). A revised draft proposal is attached in Annex 1. Additional conferences may be added following formal policy decisions to be taken by the respective Organizing Committees. It is anticipated that the OC's of APAC, EPAC and PAC will shortly formally approve the creation of Joint Web Sites for Particle Accelerator Proceedings and that the present meeting should thus be devoted to organizational and technical matters.
APAC/EPAC/PAC Joint Web Site Committee
While the OC's will decide policy, it is decided to create a committee to decide on procedures and debate the technical questions. Upon Ilan Ben-Zvi's proposal, John Poole agrees to chair the Committee. Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz volunteers to act as Secretary. Their mandate is up to the next conference (EPAC'98, Stockholm). The list of Permanent Committee Members remains to be decided. The question of financial support to attend meetings is raised by J. Poole who underlines that it may be necessary for the conference hosts to foresee some travel money.
Ilan Ben-Zvi informs the Committee that Bob Siemann has approached the IEEE requesting the release of the copyright for the PAC'95 Proceedings. Mike Craddock adds that to his knowledge the question is under discussion with IEEE and he is optimistic that the question will shortly be solved.
John Poole presents a review of experience gained with the electronic publication of the Proceedings of EPAC'96 (transparencies reproduced in Annex 2). He underlines that it is essential for the Committee to be aware of the complexity of the task in order to appreciate the investment which will be required in the future to converge on standard practices and templates.
The primary aims for EPAC'96 were:
To meet the aims outlined above, significant resources are required, both in hard-, software, and in manpower.
Some of the interesting points discussed following John's presentation are reproduced below:
Martin Comyn reports briefly on the status so far. Approximately 60% of the papers (1500 pages) have so far been submitted. Very few authors submit more than the allowed length (5 pages for invited papers, 3 pages for all other contributions) and he notes that some have submitted fewer pages. Approximately 50% of the participants have requested the Proceedings in CD-form (the figure for EPAC'96 was 30%).
Web Site Locations
A Sub-Committee composed of Martin Comyn, Bill McDowell and John Poole will decide in the near future what the Web Sites should look like. The initial aim is to have something up and working in the Autumn of this year.
Action
The PAC'97 files should be available on the Web by the autumn of this year.
Action: Martin Comyn
It is highly likely that in the not too distant future a search engine will be available for the Web and developments will be closely monitored. J. Smith has passed some information to John Poole who will follow this up.
Action: John Poole
Activities between now and EPAC'98 and PAC'99
Ilan Ben-Zvi is eager to collaborate with EPAC and PAC'2001 to develop a unified mechanism for automated submission of files perhaps even prior to the conference. Although such a system may be a little premature for present planning, it is clear that to encourage laboratories to purchase Acrobat Distiller software to familiarize them with the technology is already a step in the right direction. It may also be possible to make Distiller software available over the Web for authors to check themselves and John will investigate. This however cannot solve the problems of the authors who do not follow the instructions and who do not use the templates. Hopefully our present efforts to educate authors will eventually pay off and we may look forward to meeting fewer deliberate sinners in future.
Action: John Poole
The very automated submission of abstracts to PAC'97 in LaTeX format removed a lot of effort for the Programme Committee. However, it was the cause of a lot of frustration for authors submitting abstracts (when not familiar with LaTeX) and there was a rather large amount of difficulty for TRIUMF to create a useful database for the receipt of the files at the conference. EPAC's Scientific Secretariat could provide some feedback to PAC about the way the database has so far been managed.
Action: Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz
A meeting will be scheduled during EPAC'98. All other communications will be made by e-mail.
Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz
Annex 1: Revised Draft Proposal for a Joint APAC/EPAC/PAC Proceedings Web Site
Annex 2: John Poole's transparencies