News and Resources

Chat: Sunday December 3
Wendy Morgan on the Educational relevance of hypertext literature
9 pm London (BST): In at least two states of Australia, hyperfictions are specified as possible texts or as forms for student writing. How is hypertext/hyperfiction taught and how do teachers use it? in LinguaMOO /more

Happy Anniversary!
The trAce Fifth Anniversary guestbook is now closed, but you can still read the entries. /more

Incubation Presentations wanted
Incubation Presenters are asked to send us electronic copies of their presentations for our archive.

Opportunities: the trAce freelance register
We're still looking for writers and web designers interested in working for us on a freelance basis. /more

The trAce Survey into Writers and the Internet, 2000
Our international online survey aims to find out how writers all over the world really use the Internet (early results). It's your last chance to let us have your views! The survey will close on 1st October 00. /more

Win £1000 ($1600) with your website!
The 2nd trAce/Alt-X Competition for New Media Writing invites entries of the best hypertext, web-writing, web-based multimedia, whatever you want to call it. Deadline for entries is 30th September. /more

Digital Resources for the Humanities
Sue Thomas, Helen Whitehead and Elizabeth James from trAce will be speaking at this conference at Sheffield University, UK, 10-13th September 2000. /more

First findings published of The trAce Survey into Writers and the Internet, 2000
The trAce survey of more than 1,000 UK-based writers has revealed that 55% use the Internet everyday. It also defines the average 'wired' writer as a woman aged between 51-65, who lives in the suburbs. That's not what you expected? Find out more results You can still participate in the international online survey if you haven't already done so.

Opportunities: the trAce Freelance Register
As trAce expands we are increasingly being asked to provide services for other organisations. In 2000 we plan to establish a Register of freelance writers and web designers.

We'll also be providing some UK-based training for writers wishing to develop their skills in the area of net-based arts projects so that they can join the Register.

As a first step towards this, we would like to hear from specific groups of people. Please get in touch if you are:

A writer with net-skills and living in the UK, especially in the East Midlands.
A writer living in the UK and wishing to develop your net-skills with a view to teaching and facilitating online writing projects.
A web-designer with experience of working online with writers (any location).

Please send your CV and any other information you feel is relevant to trace@ntu.ac.uk with the subject line FREELANCE. We look forward to hearing from you.

High Speed Talk
TrAce has opened a temporary board for Incubation, the conference on Writing & the Internet taking place in Nottingham, UK, from 10-12 July 00. http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/~incubation Hosted by Alan Sondheim, it is a place for quick-fire talk and includes a live discussion on Tuesday 11th July from 21.30-22.30pm BST to which all are invited to contribute. The live discussion forms a 'scratch' conference organised for Incubation where delegates are invited to contribute a 5 minute position paper. In a feat of human strength and agility we will attempt to scribe these discussions into a chatroom and convey your responses back. Flesh to flesh via the wires. Perhaps it will all be too much and our minds will explode, or maybe we will just have a very fast conversation. So if you want to take part at a leisurely pace, log on to http://hum-webboard.ntu.ac.uk/~incubation and get involved in the discussions. You can subscribe by email to each individual conference if you prefer. But if you want to type dangerously, or watch others twisting themselves into knots trying to be flesh and virtual at the same time, join IRC channel #Incubation at hum-webboard.ntu.ac.uk:7000 or log on to http://hum-webboard.ntu.ac.uk/~incubation and click Chat on Tuesday 11th July at 21.30 BST for some high speed talk moderated and provoked by Alan Sondheim.

trAced Resources for July
An intelligent poetry generator, DIY e-publication, and international markets for writers are promised at some of the sites visited by trAced this month.

Imaginary Countries
Is still growing. Now with a Post Office to send your postcards! Writer-in-Residence Alan McDonald has recently added a Journal entry too. Check out Imaginary Countries, Also, look in on Alan's project The Longest Day / The Shortest Day with 59 contributions from around the world, submitted on June 21st, the Solstice.

Incubation Online: Discussion Board Open
The Online Discussion area for Incubation is now open. Hosted by Alan Sondheim, it invites participation from everyone, so please do join in whether you plan to come to the conference in the flesh or virtually. Check out the board for details and topics at http://hum-webboard.ntu.ac.uk/~incubation

trAced Resources for June
This month trAced keeps up to date with the latest ezines and finds an Internet radio station that caters for the literary impulse.

Stelarc to give opening address at Incubation
Performance artist Stelarc is at the forefront of some of the most ground-breaking new media arts research. But where do his ideas come from and how does he generate and develop them? The process of evaluating and elaborating ideas is important. How can this be done in a meaningful manner? In this opening talk at the Incubation conference entitled Notions of Incubation and Innovation he will invite us to consider the incubation of his creative imaginings.

Email Subscription to WebBoard
It's now possible to join in the discussions at WebBoard via email - a bonus for those with expensive net access. It means that instead of logging onto the board to read posts to the conference, you can receive and reply to them via email. To do this, log onto WebBoard by clicking Discussions on the right of the black bar above, or go to http://hum-webboard.ntu.ac.uk/~trace. Once signed in, click More... then Mailing Lists, and you can subscribe to the lists of your choice.

trAce wins MirandaRose Award
"MirandaNet is delighted to present trAce with its May Community-site-of-the-Month MirandaRose Award. Our organisation is studying online communities for an educational project in association with Oracle. Your site exhibits good practice in this field as well as support for lifelong learning in writing skills at all levels." MirandaNet is a unique not-for-profit community of trainer-educators working at the cutting edge of ICT power and practice in schools.

Incubation bursaries available for UK-based writers
This is now closed to submissions. Thanks to all those who entered, and we will get back to you very soon.

Love in the Digital Revolution
We're proud to announce our Valentine's special issue of frAme, the trAce journal of culture and technology. Love in the Digital Revolution continues in the original spirit of frAme by exploring culture and technology but this time we look at how they are interwoven with that most pre-eminent proposition: Love. Yes, even in our most cynical time, genuine love is broached in this most digital environment.

Love in the Digital Revolution is guest-edited by Christy Sheffield Sanford with contributions from: Alan Sondheim & Barry Smylie : Carrie McMillan : Mez [Mary-Anne Breeze] : Talan Memmott : Barbara Steinberg : Jennifer Ley : Melinda Rackham : Raul Ferrera-Balanquet : Michael Atavar : Sonja Porcaro : J.R. Macnamara

Assemblage
trAce is pleased to host the Women's Hypertext Gallery, an international gathering of women's voices in a showcase of new media art being created in hypertext on and off the World Wide Web. Assemblage is compiled by Carolyn Guertin, of the University of Alberta, and will be regularly updated. /more

Alan Sondheim: Writer-in-Residence: The Lost Project
This project is closing soon. Please go to the site http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/lost/ and add your name, email address, and a name and/or a description of something you have lost, irretrievably.

Sue Thomas in Australia
Thur 9 March 00
Ngapartji Multimedia Centre, Adelaide Festival
http://www.vervewriting.org
Sue Thomas will be talking about 'Living the New Life' at VERVE: The Other Writing. The day's events will present an array of elements that constitute writing now, a time increasingly mediated by digital technologies and environments. The concerns are a consideration of the 'old' in relation to the 'new', calling to mind Gregory Ulmer's notion of electracy - a literacy suitable for a digital age. An 'electrate' culture would be somewhere between oral and literate cultures. That is, a digital age could afford the chance to invent methods of exchange between cultures and peoples using tools appropriate to any given situation. A shift from alphabetic thinking. VERVE: The Other Writing will be broadcast on the net via QuickTime 4.
Programme http://www.vervewriting.org/vnu/ntimes.html

Wednesday 15 March
CACSA, 14 Porter St, Parkside, Adelaide
Admission Free
2.00 - 3.30
An outdoor round table discussion on internet writing practices with Linda Carroli, Terri-ann White and Sue Thomas http://www.vervewriting.org/vnu/cacsa.html

Monday 20 March
Sue will be talking to students on the Postgraduate Writing Program at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean

Monday 27 March
at 5pm
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia
(Free)
A talk about cyberwriting and virtual worlds
By Sue Thomas, Director, trAce online writing community, Nottingham Trent University, England

This illustrated talk describes the work of trAce, outlines some of its major international projects, and asks where do we go from here?

Presented by the Institute of Advanced Studies, UWA; the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Curtin University's School of Communication and Cultural Studies.

Please contact trAce if you would like to meet with Sue while she is in Australia.

Alan Sondheim's Farewell Party
Join us on Sunday 5 March at 9pm GMT (check your timezone) to celebrate Alan's work as Virtual Writer-in-Residence with trAce over the last six months.

Bad Writing?
Alan Sondheim invites examples of Bad Writing in his continuing project at WebBoard. A prize may be awarded for the worst writing: satirical, clumsy, or just plain horrible. Less than 20 lines of prose please. Post your contribution in the Bad Writing conference at WebBoard. The results of Alan's trAceroute project to follow Internet connections over the Millennium period are now online. Alan's recent work has been about ballet, power, and virtual idols. Read his expanding diary, and other texts. "Yours" is now closed to contributions. /more

Special offer from Bath Literature Festival
If you're visiting the festival in person this year, they have a special offer for trAce members: Get 2 tickets for the price of 1 for the Mark Amerika events on Friday 3 March and Saturday 4 March. Just phone the Box Office (01225 463362) and quote "trAce offer". If you can't get to the festival in person there are lots of Virtual events (26 Feb - 5 Mar) /more

trAced Resources for February
The impact of the Net on all sorts of writing becomes apparent as February trAced reviews the Global Film School, and looks at some sites where poetry meets hypertext and multimedia.

Alan Sondheim Writer-in-Residence
Alan still invites contributions in his continuing project in the Bad Writing conference at WebBoard. The results of Alan's trAceroute project to follow Internet connections over the Millennium period are now online. Alan's recent work has been about ballet, power, and virtual idols. Read his expanding diary, and other texts./more

Love and the Web: Call for submissions (Dec 1999-Jan 31 2000)
Issue 4 of frAme, the trAce ezine of theory and culture, will be guest-edited by Christy Sheffield Sanford. We are now inviting submissions for a Valentine's Day launch on the theme of Love and the Web, or Digital Love. This is meant as inspiration. However, we are interested in seeing essays and reviews on other subjects as well. frAme has a history of exhibiting work that is web-specific, that is, uses the conventions of the web. If the work has been presented in another venue, such as at a conference we will also consider it. Enquiries and submissions to christys@fdt.net. Deadline 1st February.

Helen Lawlor-Flint (Jan 20-31 2000)
All of us at trAce were very sorry to hear of the death on 14th January of Helen Lawlor-Flint. A poet and novelist, she was a lively and valued member of our community, particularly on the original trAce Mailbase list. One of our earliest members, she was a contributor to the Noon Quilt web project and her work also appears in the Noon Quilt book. We will miss her powerful voice.

*sparks* (Jan 1-14 2000)
trAce presents a short writing project to limber up for the New Year, based at the trAce discussion site, WebBoard. Every day for the next two weeks, we will provide a seed word to write from and a style to write it in. Your task is to respond with a piece of prose or poetry of any length and post it to the *sparks* conference at WebBoard. It’s as simple as that.

We'll provide web links where possible as well so that if you haven't come across the featured author you can go and check them out. And if you want to suggest a writer who'd be fun to emulate, drop us a line to trace@ntu.ac.uk and let us know. Some days you’ll be inspired, others you won’t. That’s OK. Participate as the spirit moves. Go as fast or as slow as you like. We’re just trying to get the blood circulating after the festivities. Text aerobics!

LinguaMOO Party
LinguaMOO is celebrating its 5th Anniversary and is throwing a party, at 10:00am CST (click here for a time zone adjuster) at Lingua on Tuesday, January 25th. "We’d love to see you at the party and to thank you for helping make Lingua MOO a vibrant and special community :)" say the Lingua people.

Thanks to Carolyn...(Dec 99-Jan 00)
Carolyn Bamborough, trAce Web Administrator for the last two years, has moved on to an illustrious job in London. As a consequence Helen Whitehead has become Site Editor and we are to appoint a half-time Administrative Assistant. Although Carolyn is moving away physically we do hope she will maintain her online connections with trAce, and thank her for her work in helping to establish the organisation.

Alan Sondheim Writer-in-Residence (Dec 99)
Traceroute - Alan Sondheim's new project, involves a collecting of a large amount of raw data - tracing Internet connections during the December 31 - January 1 divide, as the millennium moves across the surface of the earth. Anyone wanting to participate is invited to join trAce and participate. You need to use the traceroute command in Linux or Unix, or the tracert command in Windows 95 or 98 to take part. We hope to collect all the information and present it on a single Web-page shortly after January 1. The information will be presented "as-is," without editing, a unique portrait of our planet during the peak-ing of the Y2k crisis of the millennium.
To participate, select the trAceroute conference at WebBoard.
Alan's recent work has been about ballet, power, and virtual idols. Read his expanding diary, and other texts. "Yours" is still open for your contributions. Finally, if you wish to work on avatar projects contact Alan at sondheim@panix.com.

Bye to Bernard (Dec 99 - Jan 00)
Bernard Cohen's residency with trAce formally ends this month.
Bernard Cohen has completed his stint as Writer-in-Residence and we are all very grateful for his input and hope to meet him regularly in the community. Bernard is now concentrating on writing for print and we hope it goes well! Read his Farewell Card and the latest results of Speedfactory.

There will be a Fancy Dress Party to say farewell to him at LinguaMOO on Sunday 12th December at the usual meeting time of 9pm GMT. Please come disguised as the author of your choice, and be prepared to recite a short extract of their work relevant to Bernard's contribution to trAce. Bernard is now in the last two weeks of his residency, is tying up loose ends, cleaning out drawers, and conducting the last part of Speedfactory. Check out Bernard's updated front page.

Call for Papers
The Call for Papers for the trAce Incubation Conference has now closed. We've received a wide range of very interesting and challenging abstracts which the Conference Committee is now scrutinising. Their decisions will be announced in early January. Many thanks to all those who sent in proposals. Conference Registration now available. /more

trAced Resources January
Sites that examine, discuss and even sell books about the impact of digital technologies on culture, art, science, literature and their underlying philosophies are visited by trAced this month.