BY NAOMI CRAINE
Participants in the August 5-7 Active Workers
Conference in Oberlin, Ohio, got a sneak preview of
www.themilitant.com.
A preliminary version of the Militant's website will be on line by September 17. Readers are encouraged to check it out and make suggestions as the construction of the site is completed over the following weeks.
Since 1994, the text of all Militant articles has been available on line via a "gopher" site on the Internet. Many readers have made use of the site to get an early preview of the paper and to search for articles by "keywords," going back as far as the paper has been available electronically. But technology moves on, and so does the Militant.
The new website will be a substantial improvement visually over this plain-text format. And the on line paper will be much more accessible, including through web search engines.
The Militant's home page will feature headlines for the front page and feature articles in the current issue, along with the front-page photo. A click on each headline will take you to the full text of the article. Other links will take you to the editorials, other news articles, and regular columns in the current issue.
Other features of the site to be added over the following weeks include a graphic image of the front page, the ability to browse recent back issues, and text- searching all Militant articles back to 1994. Visitors to the site can get information on how to subscribe to the Militant, where to find local distributors of the socialist paper. Eventually they will be able to subscribe on-line.
Once Perspectiva Mundial, the Spanish-language sister magazine to the Militant, is on-line, a link will take readers who read Spanish to that site.
Peter Link, a supporter of the Socialist Workers Party in Detroit who has ably maintained the Militant gopher site on time every week for the last five years, has volunteered to take the main responsibility for the technical work of putting up the website.
"Our aim is to have a page that looks attractive and professional, but doesn't have a lot of extra bells and whistles that would slow down a user who has an older computer or a slow modem," he said.
Suggestions and collaboration, both technical and esthetic, from readers will be a help in making the site as useful as possible. A few notes have already come in and been incorporated, including changes in the color scheme.
"It looks to be a useful tool for fighters looking to get information on struggles past and present," wrote Jake Perasso, a Young Socialist in Chicago, after viewing the initial work on the site at the Active Workers Conference. "Perhaps one day the Militant will be digitized all the way back to its first issue.
"I did notice one thing in the display that I don't think I agree with. The display made a point that the website would not use `frames.' It seemed as if this would be a principle of the website. Frames can make a website more professional-looking and increase ease of use and navigation for the user. Some of the most professional and attractive and effective websites that I have seen make use of frames, and I could imagine some good uses on the Militant site."
Link clarified that tables are used in the design of the front page. They aren't used for the articles, however, so that they can be more easily used with a text- only browser. "I think Jake's statements are correct, insofar as it is not a religious question or a class principle, but right now, with our priority being simplicity and ease of use, we should not use frames," was his opinion.
Any recommendations of how to make better use of tables, frames, and other tools are welcome, as are volunteers to help maintain the site once it's up and running.
Suggestions and offers from supporters to help can be sent to the Militant by e-mail at themilitant@compuserve.com, or by mail to 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.