The Surface Science Forum was set up and placed on line in September 1997. The idea was, and remains to date, to create a "gateway" providing access to various sources of information about surface science. The original creators of the site were
Ugo Bardi and Luca Pedocchi, respectively staff and postdoctoral at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Firenze, in Italy. After that Luca left surface science for a different career, the site was managed by graduate students and postdoctorals, first Monica Galeotti and later Delia Nieto. At present, all of Ugo Bardi's students seem to be extremely busy, and so the site is managed mainly by him in hard-earned bits and shreds of free time, with the help of Andrea Atrei, staff researcher at the University of Siena.After two years of operation, the site has stabilized to what we can call a "moderate" level of activity. We observe some 10-20 "hits" per day and we receive an average of 3-4 messages per week, requesting information or asking for posting of announcements. Even though the traffic is not very intense we think that the site is doing a honest service to the surface science community.
On March 1999, the site was transferred to a new server (http://www.cesit1.unifi.it/unifi/surfchem/ssf) , the old server having become obsolete and unserviceable. This upgrade comes in a period of assessment and rethinking. As these notes are written (March 1999) we plan to keep the site active and alive, but we do not know whether our human resources will be sufficient for this purpose. If the number of contacts were to increase substantially (and it seems to be increasing) the site could be killed by its own success, unless we find some help finance it.
Some further reflections about this site
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