Rob Kirby copied this letter (to Carlos Simpson) to me, and said that I could post it if I wished...........Don Davis From: kirby@math.berkeley.edu (Rob Kirby) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 13:44:06 -0800 (PST) To: carlos@picard.ups-tlse.fr Cc: dmd1@Lehigh.EDU, greg@math.ucdavis.edu, hatcher@math.cornell.edu Dear Carlos: I just had a look at your letter (forwarded to me by Allen Hatcher), and I agree with you on the subject of diversity. Last fall I had been planning to start a preprint server for low dim topology, but never did because of the ease of letting Kuperberg et al do it. Mine might have been a little different. For example I was inclined to refuse trash or very low quality papers--I didn't want the server to end up like abstracts in the Notices. Otherwise it might have been the same. But I'd like to see Wilkerson continue, but to have all of Wilkerson's papers in xxx and vice versa (just the alg. top.). It is not clear how things will evolve, but Wilkerson may try some innovations that xxx won't, may offer some services than xxx doesn't. That's all to the good. For example, Wilkerson may offer subdivisions that xxx won't. But I do think it is important that there be one (preferably more) central archive that has everything, and that, for the moment, is likely to be xxx. As with Math Reviews and Zentral., it might be nice if someone in Europe organized a version of xxx. One of the virtues, I believe, of a one archive that carries everything is that it strongly encourages standardization, something that some people with their own special versions of TeX may not like, but will on the whole be good for our communication. I suspect that DOE will eventually want to stop paying for xxx, just as the government quit with the internet. But again, if xxx becomes as widely used as I hope it does, somebody will organize to take it over (perhaps a consortium of universities). If universities have been willing, up to now, to pay huge amounts through libraries for journals, they are likely to be willing to pay far smaller amounts for supporting an xxx. On a different matter, it may be that I am taking a legal risk in Europe with the two documents I've written. In fact a number of people asked me if I'd been sued yet, after the first document on journal prices appeared. I don't think they would stand the slightest chance in the US. But I hear of equal unhappiness in Europe over journal prices, and since I'm not involved in any money making journal operation, I doubt that anyone in Europe will sue. I certainly am puzzled however, as to what Elsevier will do. Yours, Rob