Why are online conferences rare in the chemical sciences, and what can other chemical communities learn from the education community’s experience with 20 years of ConfChem? Is there a role for ConfChem–like communications in other fields of chemistry, and how can this model of scientific communication be adapted to the needs of other fields? In the background reading for the first ConfChem (accessible from reference 7), Thomas C. O’Haver wrote:
“Scholars [in 1993] depend upon two main existing avenues of public communication with their colleagues, physical meetings and print publication. On-line conferencing is not meant to replace either one. It is rather a new medium that complements and to some degree fills in the gap between these traditional channels. On-line conferencing is distinct from electronic publishing (electronic journals), which seeks to provide a new channel for formal, peer-reviewed publication using computer networks as a medium of distribution. The essence of on-line conferencing, as any conference, is interactive discussion and exchange of ideas.”