By the time you read this, NASW's web site will be just about a year old. I'm happy to report that nasw.org has proved extremely popular with its users. Since opening for business in July 1996 (and through April 30, 1997, when I compiled the data for this article), the site has logged 367,899 "hits" from visitors from 90 different countries. Activity has increased month by month, and in the last week of April we were averaging 2,864 hits per day.
Two of our three main mailing lists are daily sources of stimulating discussion on everything from contract terms to broken embargoes to inexpensive accommodations at the AAAS meeting. The nasw-talk list, which is intended for topics of interest to all science writers, has 325 subscribers who have generated 1,803 messages since the list's inception. The nasw-freelance list, for discussions of freelance science writing, has 245 subscribers who have generated 993 messages. Only nasw- pr, for discussions of science public affairs and public relations, has proved disappointing, with 174 subscribers and only 180 messages. This may be due to competition from PIONET, a pre-existing mailing list moderated by NASW member Roger Johnson, which serves the same constituency.
More than 700 NASW members have taken the time to register at nasw.org.
While many of the site's features are available to members and non-members
alike, registration gives members access to a number of special features.
For one thing, thanks to Earle Holland, there's a searchable archive containing
virtually every word of every issue of ScienceWriters since the Fall of
1995. And the NASW Membership directory is online also.
I think the three most useful member benefits are the nasw.org e- mail alias
and forwarding service, the ability to create a personal web page, and the
job ad mailing list.
No longer will you have to inform all your friends and reprint your business cards every time you switch Internet service providers. You can be yourname@nasw.org forever, or at least as long as you keep paying your dues.
You can also join the NASW members who have chosen to set up free personal web pages. I was one of the first to take advantage of this feature, and it has worked spectacularly well. I've landed several assignments from strangers cruising the web searching for freelance science writers.
And if you're looking for a new job, for freelance work, or if you just want to keep your finger on the pulse of the field, you can subscribe to the nasw-jobs mailing list. Each week an average of two job ads are sent to the list's 250 subscribers--more than 110 jobs so far. For a $40 fee an advertiser gets immediate distribution on nasw-jobs, and the ad is archived on the web for up to 12 weeks. In addition, notices can be posted in ScienceWriters for $4 per line, minimum 10 lines.
The newest member benefit, of special interest to those of you who have written books, is the NASW Science Bookstore. If your book is available through Amazon.com (which claims to be the largest bookstore in existence, with more than a million titles), we can "stock" it in one of the eleven sections of our bookstore. The bookstore itself is accessible to everyone surfing the web, NASW member or not, and visitors can purchase books from Amazon.com with the click of a mouse. A small percentage of all sales ends up in the NASW treasury, but I see the primary benefit as an additional method of marketing your work.
If you haven't yet visited the site, please come on by. If you need to register, just click on the "Register Here" link, fill out the form and submit it. You'll be fitted with a shiny new password in no time. And if you have any questions, you can write me at cybrarian@nasw.org or telephone me at 562-439-0426 (after 8 a.m. Pacific time, please). See you online!
Main address: http://nasw.org/ (http://www.nasw.org/
also works)
Mailing list information: http://nasw.org/swlist.htm
Mailing list archive: http://nasw.org/lists/
NASW Science Bookstore: http://nasw.org/bookstor.htm
Personal home page information: http://nasw.org/homepage.htm
Members' Lobby: http://nasw.org/NASW/nasw.htm
Jobs archive: http://nasw.org/NASW/jobs.htm
ScienceWriters archive: http://nasw.org/mem-maint/sciwrtr/
Contributed by Robert Finn, science writer and editor [finn@nasw.org--http://nasw.org/finn 562-439-0426 (voice)--562-439-5126 (fax)]