The Confocal microscopy listserver discussion group was put on the air over 5 years ago by Don Parsons (Albany), Steve Paddock (Wisconsin), P.C. Cheng (Buffalo) and me at the suggestion of Parsons that there should be an open discussion forum for this rapidly developing technology. Parsons is an expert in infomatics (among other things) and appreciated the potential of the “mail reflector” concept at an early stage in its development.

Listserver groups were pretty uncommon then but we figured that since we were dealing with digital microscopists, most of those interested would have computers and access to Bitnet or Internet. For the first month or so Parsons, Paddock, Cheng and I corresponded with one another to work wrinkles out of the system and we then began to publicize the existence of the group at meetings, symposia and through the commercial manufacturers of confocal microscopes and associated hardware.