Celebration
Eight years and four months ago, two
guys who have never met each other,
along with a few other people who
believed in a tiny idea, launched a
few pages on the internet and named it
a magazine called Micscape. I was one
of those two guys, and Dave Walker
(the indefatigable editor of Micscape
Magazine) was the other one. Dave and
I have never met. Most of the hundred
plus people who have contributed since
that first day have not met each other
either. Micscape is not registered as
a business or a charity. The people
contributing to it are under no formal
contract, to each other, us, or anyone
else... neither am I or Dave!
When the first month's Micscape Magazine was
published on the internet, less than a
few hundred hits were received, which
means no greater than a few tens of
people came to read it! Today, some 149,000 people typically visit Microscopy-UK each
month and the highest number of visits
are to read Micscape Magazine.
It is important to remember that
Micscape has come to life and endured
through a period where the biggest
corporate enterprises in the world
have wrestled with this 'internet'
technology; a time where dot.com
'get-rich-enterprises' have come and
gone.
Today, February 13th, 2004, you and
I, and every person from now into the
following decades to follow this 100th
anniversary of the launch of Micscape
Magazine, have cause to celebrate:
its now well established presence on
the Web has helped raise an awareness that studying
the microscopic world is a wonderful pursuit for
young or old alike, whether on a fun or more
serious level.
Micscape Magazine, the people who
contribute to it, the people who come
to read it: the curious and the
truth-seekers looking for more than
the contemporary distraction offered
in mass-media-led channels of
communication, along with the
benevolent use of emerging
technologies created this opportunity.
And we seized it, embraced it,
nurtured it, to deliver a stable home
to bring everyone interested in 'the
smaller' things together.
One easily forgets the thousands of
hours, the isolated moments, sudden
doubts in the belief that this
magazine was achieving something good
based on trust for people from a
diverse set of cultures and
backgrounds, people whose working
lives often had nothing to do with
using a microscope: builders,
teachers, house-painters, labourers,
car-repair mechanics, gardeners,
house-wives, pensioners, students,
artists, writers, IT specialists,
salesmen; all of these and more have
mingled with scientists, discoverers,
and professional microscopists through
the pages of Micscape Magazine!
And all of this achieved these last 8
years and 4 months without a single
contract and without
corporate
intent.
Please let me indulge in stating the
following: if one USA dollar had been
collected per year for every visitor
coming to read the pages of Micscape
Magazine or the supportive material
wrapped around it at Microscopy-UK,
the 'kitty' would today stand at
millions (yes, I said
millions
of dollars), and yet I believe all of
Micscape's wonderful achievements may
never have happened if we had asked
for this.
Our Magazine is supported by more
than money. It is fueled and powered
by common trust - possibly a 'dirty'
word now in a 21st century ideology of
'spin' and perpetual euphemisms
exploited by commerce and politics to
convince their clients and supporters
(us) that they have succeeded in
delivering all which they truthfully
fail to achieve in their original
promise.
Micscape Magazine and the supportive
material surrounding it has a singular
goal, namely - to exceed the
expectations and the doubts which
exist in a cynical word, and to use
the combined interest and support from
like-minded people internationally for
the idea that looking at our world,
when we can free ourselves from the
'must-do' activity of our normal
lives, is of value; not just now, but
as a constant for all who might have
the opportunity to travel this way in
the future. There are many windows
into our world. This is the one we
have come to see for now. And this is
what Micscape, and its founders are
maintaining. A porthole into a our
world and its future for all people
from any walk of life to peer into and
become involved on a new and
worthwhile journey. I believe this
notion is fully supported by you.
continue... into the History of
Micscape Magazine
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