[WebCultures] Welcome!

[Michael Stevenson]

Hello world,

The response to the list has been excellent so far, with 130+ people signing up to WebCultures since Tuesday's announcement. 

Because of the success, I think we should go ahead and declare this list open for business. Feel free to start posting announcements or get discussions going. Do you have ideas about what kind of list you’re hoping for? Do you have a history project you want to publicize? Looking for pro tips for using the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine? Do you think a list called WebCultures is doomed to become an exercise in nostalgia? Know some art projects that this audience should see? Are you designing a course on internet history or digital culture and want some feedback?

As with all mailing lists, please make sure to keep the archives nice and neat by replying to the correct thread (rather than to the digest, if you’ve signed up for that). If you really want to make it easy to browse the archives, please remove quoted text that isn’t relevant to your reply. And finally, if you’re posting for the first time, perhaps tell us who you are and what you’re working on or what your interest in WebCultures is.
 
In the next few days and weeks, I’ll try and break the ice by asking a few people to get us started. But by all means feel free to start posting!

About me: I’m an assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the department of Journalism studies. I got here via the University of Amsterdam, where I finished my PhD last year. My dissertation was on the history of web exceptionalism, and looks at how visions of the web’s identity and purpose were articulated at various moments in the history of web publishing (with cases on HotWired, Slashdot and early blogging). Although the courses I teach are varied and I have yet to actually teach a course just on web or new media history, students are now used to me badgering them constantly to dig into 1990s material to historicize whichever app or web platform they’re researching. Also, I’ll be at IR15 in Daegu this October, so hope to see some of you there!

-Michael