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the
current
Monday
Report
below!
This week's report by Alan Lastufka of Fall of Autumn
"ZineWiki:
The Great Database"
There are two ways to approach an unforgiving road. Rather
than struggle along the rough terrain, Alan Lastufka chose to
build a more suitable path.
The idea for ZineWiki, an online open-access/open-source
encyclopedia devoted to the world of zines, initially sparked
Alan's interest after a fellow zinester's page on Wikipedia, the all-
encompassing open-source encyclopedia, was deleted based on
dubious "relevancy" standards; apparently, the zinester in
question hadn't made a big enough impact on the independent
publishing community to warrant an entry. If we told
you the zinester's name, you'd roll your eyes and shake your fist
at The Man. Suffice it to say that The Man doesn't know impact
from a hole in the ground.
Believing that the power to define the zine community should not
belong to the uninformed masters of Wikipedia, and believing
that the zine community could be organically self-defined, Alan,
along with Chicago zinester and ZineWiki's second administrator
Kate Sandler, started building the encyclopedia of the zine
community in June of 2006.
Each of the admins, plus recruited helpers including Webly
Bowles of Touched by an Anvil Zine, Joe Biel of Microcosm
Distro, Aaron Cynic of Diatribe Zine, Stephanie Scarborough of
Whammy Industries and Emerson Damerson of Wherewithal
Zine, set off discussing the project and adding informational
pages about the zine world as they know it.
While Alan set up the technical details of the Wikimedia software
on his server, Kate played a huge role in defining the site's
direction and goals. Alan originally saw ZineWiki simply an
independent repository for information. Kate developed on the
idea, seeing ZineWiki as an easily accessible online database that
could serve public, institutional and independent librarians. Also
owing to early conversations with Joe Biel about this direction,
the ZineWiki soon developed into a project of interest to
librarians and project heads across the US and Canada.
The site logged over 100 new content pages in the first week, and
as the content continues to build, ZineWiki will grow into a
useful and interactive database, serve as a living record of the
independent publishing scene and help to solidify zines' place in
the archives of culture, no matter how irrelevant The Man
thinks they are."
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Alan Lastufka is a founder of http://www.fallofautumn.com
Independent Publishing, Creative Resources and Distribution,
Zinester Podcasts! www.zinewiki.com
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