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This is the latest incarnation of a site that dates back to 1993. At that time I began posting papers and reports on a public FTP server, and later on a community "gopher" site, as a convenient way of sharing information with peers and kindred spirits.
In those early days, the Net consisted mostly of "dot-org's" and "dot-edu's" — people in the organizational and academic worlds. "Dot-com's" were still uncommon, even sneered at by some. The idea that commercial entities would stake out a presence on the net seemed to us a very ominous development at the time. Most of us were academics, writers, independent media producers, computer professionals, community organizers, government employees, etc. We saw the net as a promising new tool for information sharing, public discourse and community building. E-commerce was the last thing on our minds when we spoke of the "digital revolution." (I wrote a short piece on this in 1996 called "Cyberspace and the New Consciousness") When the Web began to take off, I put up my first bona fide Web site. The year was 1995. In addition to my writings, I posted program listings from my weekly radio productions. I was happy to get four or five hundred hits a week. That later grew to an average of around 3,000 a week. The site was overhauled and moved to its current domain in May 2000. The goal was to create a more active online presence and open up my radio archives. In the past, the only way of hearing a radio program once it had aired was to order a cassette. Needless to say, sending and receiving checks, taking credit card orders, dubbing tapes, etc., was cumbersome for everyone. By the year 2000, however, streaming media was opening up new vistas for radio stations and producers. People could now listen to programs around the world on demand. The site got a much-needed face-lift in the summer of 2005. The main additions this time were a guestbook feature and a section devoted to image galleries and photo essays. I also added a page of news and commentary. In January 2007, I added an RSS news feed for those who want to be automatically updated on the latest articles, photos, and features. In April 2008, at the urging of many friends and colleagues, I finally introduced a personal blog. I call it "The Art of Change." The fact that it has entries dating back to 2005 reflects the fact that I ported over entries originally published on the now-defunct news page. There is now some 1,000 pages of material on the site. (For an overview of the contents, please visit the site index.) Though exact totals vary, it logs an average of 300,000 page-views per month. The large volume of traffic can be credited in part to links from a wide range of organizations and sites on the Net. They include:
The rise of Wikipedia and Google Scholar, two remarkable new research tools, has brought a surge of visitors in recent months. Wikipedia, especially, has been a source of much traffic, referencing this site in numerous of its pages. I'd love to hear from you. I'm especially grateful for constructive feedback — what works, what doesn't, dead links, etc. Your comments are always appreciated. Scott London |
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