  The aim of this brief note is mainly to advocate our approach to homotopy
algebras based on the minimal model of an operad. Our exposition is motivated
by two examples which we discuss very explicitly - the example of strongly
homotopy associative algebras and the example of strongly homotopy Lie
algebras.
  We then indicate what must be proved in order to show that these homotopy
algebraic structures are really `stable under a homotopy.'
  The paper is based on a talk given by the author on June 16, 1998, at
University of Osnabrueck, Germany.
