Date:  Mon, 25 Mar 1996 14:20:34 -0500

From:  Allan Metcalf <AAllan[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>

Subject: e-usage survey declined



The question was, Should ADS be officially involved in the survey of e-usage?

Thanks for your input earlier this month. Your replies were mixed, and the

ADS Executive Council voted to decline official participation, the greatest

concern being our practice of not endorsing commercial activities of any

sort.



That does not mean, however, that we are expressing any opposition to the

project. I am asking Mr. Bruner to keep us informed about the survey and its

results. And now I will reprint his initial inquiry, inviting subscribers to

our list to respond directly to his request for suggestions.



- Allan Metcalf, ADS Executive Secretary



-------------------------------------------

Proposal for Standard Press Styles of Internet Terminology

              and invitation for participation



Background



The birth of the World Wide Web in the fall of 1993 brought the power

and promise of global networking to the masses. With the Internet as

its poster child, the press community began intensely to examine and

report on the state of the online world. Since then, the Internet has

become a social phenomenon that has found its way in every

publication from Computerworld to Cosmopolitan.



Given the Internet's rise in social prominence (a stature that has

garnered literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of clips in

the past two years), it is disheartening that the journalistic

community has not been able to arrive at standard conventions for

common Net-related terms.



For example, which is the correct spelling?



  E-mail  or  Email  or  e-mail  or  email



The American Heritage Dictionary says "E-mail." The Oxford English

Dictionary says "email." Wired magazine writes "e-mail." Many

publications, however, are routinely inconsistent within their own

pages.



PROPOSAL



Traditionally, styles on spelling and usage are established only after

words have been in common use for years. The momentum of the digital

age, however, has forced copy editors and language pundits to

consider standards for a whole new lexicon sometimes mere months

after the words are coined.



In the true spirit of "interactivity" which the Internet embodies,

Niehaus Ryan Haller proposes to let those who use the words -- the

online community itself -- contribute to determining their spelling

standards. The event will be a World Wide Web survey, widely

promoted across the Internet, as well as in the popular and

professional journalism press. The survey will be hosted for several

weeks on a Web page with a polling technology, containing a

list of word choices for Netizens to vote among and add comments as

desired. At the close of the survey period, the results would again

be promoted broadly across the Internet and journalist communities.

The project represents a unique opportunity for those who set

journalistic standards to get feedback first from readers themselves.



Co-sponsors of the endeavor currently include Fitzgerald

Communications; PR Newswire; Ziff Davis; Quote.com, an online

financial services review; GeoSystems, a mapping software firm; and

Release Software, a company that offers an online auto-payment

solution for software developers.



In addition to these, we are eagerly seeking other interested

companies in the high tech industry and journalistic institutions to

join in endorsing the project. Just as Netscape benefited in being

an industry leader behind standards when it created HTML tags and

then submitted them to the Internet Engineering Task Force for

standards approval, participants in this standards drive can benefit

as being active leaders in the formation of how the Internet affects

the everyday person. Sponsors are in name only. If you would like

to lend your name in support of the survey, the polling Web site

would contain a link to your URL.



Below, please find a list of potential terms to be included on the

survey. Please suggest any additional terms, likely to be used in

the popular press, which routinely present confusion.





          Potential Terms for Survey



* Note use of capitalization



(Noun)

  Cyberspace  or  cyberspace  or  Cyber-space  or  cyber-space



(Noun & Verb)

  E-mail  or  Email  or  e-mail  or  email



(Noun)

  Homepage  or  homepage  or  Home Page  or  Home page  or

   home page  or  Home-page  or  Home-Page  or  home-page



(Noun, abreviation of Internet)

  Net  or  'Net  or  net  or  'net



(Prepositional phrase, as in "Check out our site xxx")

  on-line  or  online  or  on line



(Adjective)

  on-line  or  online  or  on line



(Prepositional phrase, as in "Check out this imagexxx")

  on-screen  or  onscreen  or  on screen



(Adjective)

  on-screen  or  onscreen  or  on screen



 (Noun, abreviation of World Wide Web)



  Web  or  web  or  WWW



(Noun)

  Web page  or  Web Page  or  Webpage  or  webpage

   or  Web-page  or  web-page



 (Noun)

  Web site  or  Web Site  or  Website  or  website

   or  Web-site  or  web-site





 Rick Bruner

 Niehaus Ryan Haller

  Public Relations

 Tel: (415) 827-7058

 Fax: (415) 615-7902

 bruner[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nrh.com

 (http://www.nrh.com)