Saying hello to an old friend.
John December, and especially his online
Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine
were among my early favorites. I'm sure I bookmarked many of the articles on that
magazine/site. But it's been years since I last visited the site, doing so now
only because I remembered that he'd done something with links that "back
then" seemed interesting.
On the one hand, it's pleasing to see that although countless sites have come
and gone he's still filling the niche he eeked out for himself more than a decade
ago. On the other hand, it's hard not to question whether he's still filling that
niche. On his only recently updated page about internet tools he tells us that
he no longer lists a number of tools because
Many ancient tools
listed there are now obsolete and are no longer supported or widely used.
True, many tools that we once loved are now obsolete and there's no reason to
continue to promote them. But the problem is that the page devoted to tools that's
presently on December's site is in itself terribly out of date. Numerous tools
that I doubt that anyone still uses are listed, and many newer ones that might
be very useful are missing. I suppose that education the public to the communicative
possibilities of the internet is a thankless task, and he deserves credit for
persevering for as long as he has. Perhaps even longer than is actually necessary.
Go to: Dr. Hierarchy and Mr. Associative