~e; note on content development

["brian carroll" <human@electronetwork.org>]

apologizes for the formatting mess of these last posts.
i believe it is the server software that runs the list
and how it is dealing with how posts are sent to the
list: via e-mail versus a web interface, as before.
it used to only happen in digest mode and i try to
zap gremlins, but frankly i find these types of
errors difficult to fix as i do not know all the
arcana of bbedit which may be the cause but it is
so complex an editor with so many options it is
a needle-haystack situation. to me this is where
computers are not actually evolving but devolving
the situation by needless and opaque complexities.

in any case, i was going to write about an idea for
a new format for the news/views, which would be up
to some of the dozens of people on list to share
unique points of view, with some basic commentary
or preface to an url or just sharing of an idea,
as a way to widen the scope of current events EM
content. what i would like to do, then, is to be
able to put time into the site and send the new
updates to the list as content, yet i do not have
enough time/energy/resources to do both, by myself
and the larger goals need to become the focus now.

i am ready to write about 'learning basic electro-
magnetics' which may be a shorter format than other
essays, yet i would like to get this underway and
out of the way so that other works can also progress,
such as an ongoing project that is in the background
that carries forward the EM Assemblage exhibit and
builds it into an online resource for art, culture,
and electromagnetism in what may be a 3 part series,
the latter two sections hopefully involving persons
on the list in some active way to build it further.
yet the newsletter is frankly a time-sink and so i
hope some can participate with unique contributions
and share some online stories/resources/projects to
keep a general information/atmosphere around here,
while projects can also be developed shared at the
same time, which could become weekly updates if the
newsletter could become a shared/group project. else,
it is unsustainable to do it all and i really want to
start working on these other projects to share ideas
about electromagnetics education, and also about art,
culture, society and electromagnetism as so many are
involved in these areas that maybe a wiki or some kind
of collaborative publishing could help develop these
later projects into a more public research of ideas.

in any case, what stands in the way is some kind of
basic format for sending news/views about electro-
magnetism, such as:

1) title:

2) content:  url or idea

2a) (if url-- preface it with a reason why it is being sent)

2b) excerpts/quotes (text only, HTML breaks formatting)

3) subject heading to indicate it is a post for the list,
to get past spam filters: such as an asterisk in the subject
such as subject: * on nuclear medicine and nuclear war

any ideas or suggestions about this are appreciated.
maybe something else would work better, or maybe there
are better ways to go about it, so looking for whatever
works best. and for others to contribute to list content
that involves browsing/thinking/sharing/wondering/dreaming.

the one difficult area is the news is one giant repetition,
story recycling and subject recycling, so most times repeat
items are not sent because redundancy unless there is some-
thing new or noteworthy or worthy of discussing, anything
but just another newsfeed of the same ubiquitious stories
that most are reading anyways. so unique content is valued.

thanks for input/ideas/contributions. i hope to start on
this other stuff as soon as i can figure a way to finagle
out of doing this newsletter instead of developing new and
original content for the website, also sent to the list...
brian

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