Director of Technology's Report, November 2006

Patrick May wrote:

> Hello,
>
> It's been a busy summer and fall at Rhizome, working on the 10th
> Anniversary
> festival, GROK, and the Community Campaign. In addition I finished
> important work on the Artbase and added new member features.
>
> Internally, I've re-written the Artbase admin tools. I added some
> much
> needed search tools and fixed bugs in the approval process. The
> acceptance
> of new artworks in the Artbase will improve.
>
> Also, in the Preferences and Tools section there is a new "Artbase"
> link.
> This page shows the status of all your Artbase submissions and links
> to the
> appropriate edit pages.
>
> We created a New Media Resources section. There Rhizome members can
> access
> directories of New Media Programs and Residencies.
>
> I'd like give a heads up about upcoming new developments at Rhizome:
>
> + Metadata
> + Publishing Tools and the Digest
> + Open Source
>
> – Metadata
>
> First off, implementation of the Metadata project is under way.
> Expect to
> start seeing tagging and folksonomy at Rhizome this winter! I am
> excited
> about this project, as it should improve the accessibility of many
> areas of
> Rhizome.
>
> – Publishing Tools and the Digest
>
> We recently partnered with a commercial firm to develop publishing
> tools.
> This was a rare chance to make a long overdue investment in the basic
> tools
> used to manage the Rhizome website. The firm paid the cost of
> developing
> these new tools, and we agreed to hold back on open sourcing the code
> for 3
> years.
>
> Our first use of these tools will upgrade the Rhizome Digest. I will
> create
> an archive of the Digest, and will also convert the email to an HTML
> format.
>
> – Open Source
>
> Recently Steve Or Steven offered to help with Rhizome development. To
> facilitate this collaboration, I've setup Rhizome at sourceforge.net.
> Let
> me know if you are interested in helping out.
>
> Steve and I are working on a comments system for Rhizome. Another
> project
> under development is a general upgrade to Rhizome's email systems. As
> these
> projects are completed, I'll release the files in the normal open
> source
> fashion.
>
> We will enhance the options for licensing artworks in the Artbase.
> Currently users have no choice and must agree to the Rhizome license.
> We
> plan to add options for Creative Commons licenses. Let us know if
> there are
> other applicable options that should be available.
>
> Thank you for your support!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Patrick
>
> –
> Patrick May
> Director of Technology
> Rhizome
> 210 11th Ave, 2nd floor
> New York, NY 10001
> +1 (212) 219-1288 x202
> mailto:[email protected]
> http://rhizome.org

thats great news Patrick, well done.
You should get a raise!
The fact that Rhizome responded to a long listserv discussion re: Rhizome features a few months ago points out the beauty of a listserv.
Some of the comments may have seemed flamish but the response from you and Lauren proved a listserv, fluid and mercurial, can make a difference.
Once again, cudos and praise,
Eric