Supercourse Newsletter, June 21st 2001
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Dear Friends,
Feel the "Josh"
...the atmosphere created {Supercourse} is like a movement or a cru-
sade, and I admire what we in India call the "josh": enthusiasm, de-
votion, dedication, sheer enjoyment: all these are included in the
term."
Arvind Dayal
Arvind sent this beautiful statement right before we presented at the
Supercourse meeting at the Congress of Epidemiology in Toronto. It is
indeed what we feel as we work with our friends on the Internet. It
is great that we are working on this all together.
The meeting in Toronto was excellent. There were over 1,600 people at
the meeting. We were very successful providing information to the
participants. Over 800 of the people took a CD and a description of
the Supercourse. We told them the criteria for giving the CD to them,
that the lectures cannot be sold, it is a gift meant to be given,
where they need to copy it to their students, colleagues, and close
family members. The newest criteria is for them to think of the worst
lecture they plan to give next year, and to substitute a Supercourse
lecture or slides for their dullest presentation.
We held a Supercourse meeting. It was great fun. Over 40 people at-
tended including John Last, the father of preventive medicine, as
well as Manning Feinlieb, the former head of the National Center for
Health Statistics. John Last gave a stirring opening address. He
talked about the power, advantages and dangers of the Internet. Ini-
tially Akira Sekikawa presented and discussed how physicians need
epidemiology, and how the Supercourse is an excellent means to im-
prove the training of clinicians. Eun Ryoung Sa presented an exciting
overview of the concept of open source systems, and the power of the
Supercourse because it is open source. Ron LaPorte talked about the
future of the Internet, especially as related to the Digital Divide,
and speeding lectures into classrooms.
The meeting was open for "out of the box" ideas. Excellent comments
were made for improvement of the Supercourse, especially related to
downloading the course, quality control and how to make the course
more interactive.
After these sessions the food fest began. It was very enjoyable, with
Ann Sorenson and Andy Dennenberg and others bringing delicacies such
as salt-water taffy and cheese and crackers. It was a wonderful op-
portunity to get to know each other, and to generate new ideas.
Disappointingly all of you could not attend. Faina has nicely taken
some pretty pictures and we will put these on web for you to come and
join our Supercourse party. Hopefully next time you can attend.
Next newsletter we will give you a more in-depth overview as much has
been happening.
Thanks so much...
It is beautiful weather here this week, we wish you were here.
Ron, Akira, Eun Ryoung, Benjamin, Faina, Mita, Fan, Beatriz, Tom, Deb
mailto:super3+@pitt.edu
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