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Now
From a starting point of receiving
just a few tens of visitors a
month, the articles and pages of Micscape are now read
by over 1 million people each
year!
In Jan 04 (normally a
quietish month), the stats for one
month's access were:
Visitors: 149 320
Pages accessed: 671 750
Total files accessed (includes
images): 3 901 530
Total data transferred: 44.8
gigabytes
And how is it all
funded?
A few people each month donate
money (yes, I said money!) towards
the costs of running the servers
and software required to keep 2
massive server sites running. We
keep every single contribution
online as far as possible, live and accessible
freely, all the time. This means
our server space and bandwidth
continually expands at an
unprecedented rate - involving us
with increasing costs and
difficult issues to cope with
owing to the magazine's continuing
success.
A few people have now started to
subscribe voluntarily to ensure we
have the funds to continue. In the
past, I have funded the entire
project but the costs have become
increasingly more difficult to
cover alone. More importantly,
because we have organized our site
and magazine to be
non-profit-making, we have failed
also to put in the right kind of
infrastructure and funding to
develop it to where I as a founder
wanted to see it go.
I know it cannot continue the way
it is currently run forever.
Should Dave Walker or I
unfortunately need to step down, I fear our
magazine will perish too! We have
no funds to employ anyone to
continue in our absence. It is not
about microscopy but about
technology. The internet as a
medium is constantly changing, and
as it does, so are the skills
changing which are required to
organize and present our
information coherently across this
platform. I have been on a
learning curve for 8 years just to
stay with it. I am 54 years old
this year. What will the internet
finally become? How skilled or
multi-skilled will I have to be
ten years from now? Who will have
those skills and be interested
when I fade away into the
abyss?
These are questions which
constantly plague me. I have
solutions but they can only be
applied through the abundant use
of large sums of money. One idea
is to make Micscape Magazine a
shareholder magazine. Every person
contributing has a share of its
future life, and voting rights in
its management. With the right
income we could employ technically
advanced people to manage the
techie stuff of improving it and
its delivery. If Dave and I step down,
the shareholders (that is - the
contributors) simply employ
someone to take either or both of
our places.
I believe the internet will
ultimately combine with
television. A million channels,
each one delivering film and
information on its own narrow
subject matter. I envisage a
microscopy channel or a merger
with a broad science channel where
Micscape Magazine will deliver
content through the internet to a
million TV screens throughout the
world.
A big dream? Can't be done? I
heard all this before when
Micscape Magazine was just a
little gem of an idea. Imagine if
8 years ago, you and I had met at
a club meeting or in a shop buying
bits for microscopy and I told you
I was going to publish a
microscopy magazine which will be
distributed to a million people
internationally each year, without
charge, in full colour, with over
130 people from 24 countries writing for it, and
nobody getting paid.
Wouldn't you have called the guys
in white coats to come and take me
away?
Well, what I promised to deliver,
is now
done!
I want to deliver more. Much
more. Much, much, more! Ideas you
would not believe could possibly
be!
Wouldn't you like to see what can
be
achieved?
continue... into the tomorrow of
Micscape Magazine
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