The late evening, when I get to sit down and do much of my correspondance, is peaceful and thankfully in the summer also cool. As I write this in late July, it is still pretty warm out and I have a fan blowing across my work area.
I have just been putting some more bits and pieces into the July issue, a feat which I am sure many traditional magazine publishers would love to be able to duplicate. I marvel at the immediacy we can achieve with this technology as I watch our access logs in another window on my computer screen. In yet another window is my mail reader.
Someone from MIT (mit.edu) has just picked up the top level page for the DIGITAL RAG and might pick up one of the files I just finished editing...there they go into 'lint.html'.
This I believe ranks above any other medium in the world for its gratification for the provider. In what other medium can you actually tell when someone is watching/reading your output? In what other medium do you have the possibility of almost instant feedback from any number of people, and the ability to put in corrections and additions to your work?
In some ways I expect the electronic publisher will envy the traditional publishers with their deadlines and closed issues. Once they have put the issue "to bed", they can go home and relax, at least for a while. This medium is closer to the daily newspapers with their various issues and "Final" issue, but even then there are differences.
In Mosaic on the Internet it is possible to produce articles and information at a more relaxed pace than the newspapers, but still have the immediacy of getting out timely information on a moment's notice. You have the time to do a good job if the item warrants it, and the ability to fix up a quick item as new material comes in.
I have done a moderate amount of writing for publication in the past, always to deadline. This freedom from deadline will make my life a lot easier and more relaxed, as it will probably make other's. I won't miss the pressure although I know some writers that won't be able to function well without it. Stretching to take advantage of this new medium will take some time, and I look forward to learning and experimenting.
More than anything else though, I am simply glad to be part of what I expect will be later judged as the very beginnings of a new form of communications. We are seeing many attempts at taking advantage of the Web. Some of them will prosper and some of them won't. The same happened in the early years of every other form of communications, from the Guttenburg Press, to the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and TV. I can only hope that we have learned something from the history lessons of each of these.
Richard Pitt (richard@wimsey.com)
admin@wimsey.com