introductions please

Angie here. I like to see discussions on different magazine articles,recommend- ed reading, and tutorals. My interests are SF, The internet, and graphics.

The previous incarnation of the Spring had a real good sf conference, mixu (the Finnish eccentric) liked the term "speculative fiction" as opposed to science fiction. So that's what we called it.

Hello, all! I'm Josh Daniel, an associate editor at Texas Monthly. At TM I'm in charge of editing Around the State, our event listings. I also edit one or two longer pieces--departments and features--each month and write stories. Most recently, I profiled EFF counsel Mike Godwin for the September 96 Texas Twenty issue. I'm also, I confess, something of a media junkie.

I just talked to Mike at the EFF Legal Issues conference the other day. He was in town from Northern California to give a talk at this conference. In fact, I have some videotape of Mikes talk. Josh, do you do any Internet/Web reporting or is that strictly Joe Nick's bailiwick?

I've done some high-tech stuff, mostly consumer-oriented. So far we've done relatively little trend reporting and focused mostly on products--I've written up four or five boxes in the past 18 months on great Texas-centric Web sites and a few more on CD-ROMs made in Texas. I've also written about AudioNet, a Real Audio-based company in Dallas, and Girl Games, an Austin company. My profile of Godwin (available here) is an example of the kind of thing I'd like to do more often: reporting on important netizens.

Hola, all: I'm the kitchen manger of a really good Italian restaurant here in Austin. I've also helped out with some small press publications, including one of my own, and some web publishing. As far as topics for the conference, I would suggest one on contacts, especially for DIY projects. I'll be by again soon, WER

What are some of your web projects? And what is DIY?

Unfortunately, I don't have my own computer, so most of my projects are collaborative and very scattered. As for DIY, it stands for Do It Yourself. For a listing of projects and etcetera go to http://www.well.com/user/soapbox/eglobal.html and to http://www.realtime.net/~abner/ for some examples of my work scattered throughout his pages. Well, talk to ya'll soon WER

WER, I've set up the Media conference so anyone can start a topic. So feel free to start up one on small-press contacts and DIY projects.

I just came by to visit. I am interested in media of all types. I produce a few newsletters on a local level. I am also interested in graphics and multimedia. I presently work for an internet service provider on the tech support line but expect to be producing material for them later.

Welcome, Shannon! What kind of newsletters do you produce?

Hi! I'm an advertising consultant for my local community newspaper, The Wollongong Advertiser, and have been involved in press advertising for about 15 years. I'm very interested to see how the Net is going to affect advertising revenue, not so much for my own newspaper, but for the larger papers and magazines. I'm also curious as to what is happening with regard to advertising on the Net, especially with standards, censorship etc. by the way, this is my first visit to your site - how do I know if anyone has responded to my input??? Silly question - how will I get the answer to my question??? I guess I just keep checking this page - is that right???

The Stroud site that links to here has huge ad revenues and we're about to take on a venture with a print magazine that will hopefully bring us some ad revenue. I'll have to think about your question on standards and censorship, these are pretty big topics. We may need to start these topics up.

Hi ! My Name is Bob Wilbert and this is my first visit to Spring.com . I had posted an intro in a forum at electric minds and recieved a reponse from Terry Walhus which suggested this site. I am interested in all aspects of advertising on the net I read recently (sorry, I can't remember where) that advertising revenues for the net will exceed 100 million$ this year which is about a threefold increase from 1995. If this is correct, it sounds as though the commercial aspects of the net are just starting to take off. BW

Welcome Glynis and Bob! I think Net advertising can only sustain itself if Net commerce takes off. In other words, advertising depends in the end on consumers who spend $$, and if people don't feel comfortable spending money over the Net, I don't imagine that Net advertising will keep up the pace it's enjoyed so far. Glynis, to check for repsonses, keep coming back to the Spring! From the Main Menu, you can add the Media conference (or any other) to your conference list. Then every time you log on to the Spring, you'll see if there are any topics with new responses (the left-hand column) or any new topics (the right-hand column).

Also, if you'd like to start a topic on Net advertising, feel free. Let me know if you have any problems doing this, but it should be pretty clear from the Media conference page.

Josh : I appreciate your point but according to the latest survey by Frost & Sullivan (Oct96) net advertising now comprises 3.4% of the total ad dollars spent and projections are for growth to 22.2% or 5.8 BILLION dollars by 2002. Bob

Well, I certainly hope that pans out. I was just saying I think that kind of growth won't continue unless certain things happen. I hope they do. Bob, I encourage you to start an advertising topic here in Media!

Welcome sunspot, what types of commerce are you engaging in on the net and what types of tools have you found useful?

Paul, I am currently in a startup business called the Louisville Internet Yellow Pages. It is area specific rather than taking an nationwide or global approach. We will be employing sales persons to actively solicit the business community and promote their products and companies through advertising in our yellow pages. It is being modeled after the printed yellow pages which is involving a tad bit more sophistication in our servers and database setup than we had originally planned so we are not currently online We expect to be up and running by mid December. As far as the tools I find useful, I like Net Objects fusion for web page creation and I also use Front Page. For our Database management we are currently using Access and Back Stage Manager. Bob

Josh: I would love to if I can find the time. Bob

You're using FrontPage, great. I would like to point out that we have a FrontPage topic in the apps conference. Does the server you connect to have the FrontPage extensions installed. I have fond memories of Louisville. I had about a dozen color photos published in the Courier Journals Sunday magazine called "The Face of Guatemala". Barry Bingham Jr. commissioned this photo essay and paid for a few weeks of traveland film.

Paul : Yes they have the extensions. A few bugs at first but smooth sailing now. You should try Louisville Derby week if you like to party. Bob

Been there!

Got here the way sunspot did, through Electric Minds and Terry. I write for trade mags and some others, am a correspondent and feature writer for an area daily, and put out newsletters and broadsides for clients. I am finishing up my first hardcover (case bound) book, typeset with PageMaker, printed out on a laser printer, reproduced with a Xerox 5328, bound with a bind-it thermal glue binder. Edited it for the widow of a fine hounsman (now deceased). A heck of a good read especially for people who hunt North American big game. And a heck of an adventure for me! had put out chap books before, nothing full size, with the whole ISBN and copyright stuff. Other small publishers with hints and lore to share? The DIY (Do It Tourself) guru at the Spring must be out kindred soul. I'll go look him up when I have time.

Previous post. That should be "huntsman," not "hounsman." Why doesn't Internet Explorer have a spell-checker? It would be so helpful to the terminally spellbound, not to mention the witches, among us.

Welcome Martha! What subjects/topics would be of most interest to you?

I'm interested in the daily print-type news, and in electronic media. Some of us are members of what we laughingly call the working press (part-time, in my case). I see the Internet impacting the print news biz in various ways. What are others observing? I'm still a TIME reader, sometimes see Newsweek, read parts of two dailies, and lots and lots of trade mags (computer-related). And Slate-- until they start charging for it...

So far, all I've noticed is that print news seems to be printing lots of rumors that spread on the Net. That, and they tend to blame the Internet for things that happen over it. Take for instance the story in the Austin American-Statesman a few weeks ago about a male prostitution ring busted by police (don't remember where, though not in Texas). The cops found out about the ring because it advertised in the gay press. But the ring also happened to have a Web page or some such. So, of course, the headline was (paraphrased), "Prostitution ring that advertised on Internet broken."

I've noticed that too. I cracked up at John Madden and Pat Summerall's "webtalk" during the playoffs. This is a paraphrase: [commercial for superbowl.com] jm: "that's if you know who to get there" ps: "you have to be someone who can dot com" jm: "how do you get there" ps: "I'd go to an airline ticket counter, those guys would know" And on and on ... Unimaginable clueless commentary on the Internet. Well, back to more dot commming.

Hi-- I am a graduate student interested in information and communications. I stumbled across this list. Sounds neat!

John, welcome. Whre are you doing your grad studies?

Hello all. Looks like this particular topic needs a reawakening... My name is Bryan Venable, as you can tell from the pseud. Currently I live in the Kansas City area and work for a consulting company. I used to work for the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint project of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the MU School of Journalism. I still maintain News on the Net (http://www.reporter.org/news/), a feature on IRE's reporter.org web site. I'm also the new host of The Spring's media conference. I hope we'll see more introductions here soon; I'd like to know more about who's here and why you're here. I'm here because Terry sent me an e-mail and indirectly reminded me I hadn't been around on the Spring in a while, and because he asked me if I wanted to host some conferences. I do. I'm also here because I'm very interested in media and in "the" media - the people and organizations that produce, collect and distribute information and enter ainment via all sorts of methods, from print to television to the web. I think the media and education are possibly the two most influential institutions in the modern world, and as a result I'm intensely interested in how they work and where they're going.

There really aren't very many folks here now. But I feel like there a lot of folks out there like yourself who potentially would enjoy using a system with the same interface and structure as the WELL without the costs. Perhaps you could offer some suggestions to go about pumping things up around here. From one Mizzou boy to another.

weirdly enough this is the cleanest looking online conf system i've seen so far, including salon, nytimes etc ad nauseum. i burned out on the SF bay area online conf scene (well, river, eMinds) with the exception of construct.net/ over the last year or so. i felt it was badly in need of a paradigm shift. i think it is possible i will be migrating to the south soon, maybe new orleans. i'm a writer and a classical musician, & work as a web strategy analyst in a corporate headquarters, & moonlight as a college teacher. i've written for mondo, fringeware review, whole earth review, a few books and lots of web sites. there does not appear to be a boyscout "nice" pledge on this site, which is good as it did not incite my rebel streak. nice job, terry...

HI, I'm George. Welcome humdog.

Hi, I'm CrazyJ, the craziest chick from the West. I'm interested in going into magazine publishing when I'm released from college at U of Michigan...Got any job offers for me??? No, anyway, I came here because of my interest in technology and the fact that my professor's staring over my shoulder...

"released", will they assign you a parole officer? Just kidding. No, there are some magazine editor and magazine writer types that hang around here from time to time, most notably some folks from Texas Monthly. We're trying to attract more folks in the magazine industry to use the Spring for their discussions. Glad you're joining us, you crazy gal.

Me, too. WER

Did crazyJ ever get released?

Well, this conferemce looks like it could stand some Alexandering-up! How about having the superstar-topic in the music conference guest-starring here? superstar is, after all, a print magazine on things music. How about it?

How about it! I say hell yes!

or, make a whole new topic in here entitled, "Submissions for SUPERSTAR" just a thought...

Well, Terry, can you please put superstar up here, too (so it's the same topic as in the music conference, I know you can do this! ;=} )? Wer, yeah, why not also do a place where people can offer me ideas and stories - but then, hmh, maybe not. If anybody has a good idea, let 'em mail me. I have experienced that it's best to do these things with a bit less public attention. It's bad, if it e.g. somehow leaks, you'd run a big articles on person X, but this flops for various reasons, so it's delayed infinitely, etc. Better to do this in private. Less disappointment on all sides.

it's your show, baby, I was just thinking in type...

Thanks Terry! Wer, what's thinking in type? Isn't that when you have all these letters in your head? Puzzled, Alexander.

were's jsut doing his Dick Vitale impression, baybeeeee....

Who's Dick Vitaonethingoranother? Oh, another cultur gap hitting me hard! Arrrrrgh!

He's a hyper basketball announcer, famous for adding baybeeee to every sentence. And I mean hyper.

Thanks for enlightening me, baybeeee!

since you're reading my words, I figured thinking in type was more contextually correct(?) than thinking out loud...

*grin* Yeah, your quite the type to put it this way, too! *wider grin*

(think we've adequately intro'd ourselves yet?)

(Uuh, yeah, ah - sorry, right. So, what foolishness is next on our agenda, sir?)

(my thoughts exactly!)

(the beginning of a wonderful friendship? Hey, different topic, how come it's like just you, Terry and me these days outside of drool. What happened to everybody?)

Stacey's cruising Europe, Riette is in Africa, Autumn and Wolf have both been popping in and out of here, Ray is on assignment in a different town, etcetera, etcetera...we go through periods like this...hang on, everyone will return!

Aha! I have figured it out! WER and Alexander are the same person. Alter egos... The right brain and the back o the brain (neither persona strikes me as left brained... au contraire!) Makes sense too... WER sitting in the dark, talking/ARGUEING with himself... calling himself names yet really loving that inner child... deep deep down... ('cept I can't figure out which persona is the inner child. One must be the innie and the other the outie!)

ooh...that's gotta be it!!!!

which are you ???

I'm the other guy.

oh, i see...

I would like regulars of this conference invite to visit the International Conflicts conference here on the Spring: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/InternationalConflicts/all This conference is dedicated to the disputes between groups all over the world, be that social, cultural, political or ethnical differences.

he would like to extend the invitation to all the irregulars, as well...

isn't it one-size fits all?

if you intrinsically want it to fit...

Ha!

Ah...

So, will you now check that out more thouroughly OR WHAT! NOW! Also please investigate the B92-topic in this conference and point more people to it. B92 is anti-Milosevic, and got MTV's "Free Your Mind"-award for their work. Support B92!

John, remind me to bring a short wave receiver to the Volleyball Tournament histhis weekend. We need to support B92 like Alexander suggests. (You ARE going to the tournament, are you not?)

Tell us about your volleyball activities! Are you and John on the same team, Marcia?

*lol* Terry...if you could only see us...you would have your answer. SOMEONE has to sit in the stands, do commentary and sell T-shirts. The last is my calling. John is one of the former or just a bleacher creature. It is the opening tournament of the UH Hilo Wahine Volleyball season, and teams statewide come to play. It should be lots of fun to watch and compare the Freshmen in their first college tournament with how they perform at the end of the season.