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With this, issue six of the third volume of First Monday, our on-line journal of the Internet has crossed its second birthday. For us at First Monday it has been as much a fascinating journey as an enriching journal: for the publishers, an experiment in a new medium; for the editorial team, a challenge to benefit from the quick turn-around time of the Internet while not losing the rigour of peer-review; and for the design and production team, FM has been an adventure in creative presentation of visually bare pages of text. The point of all this being that you, readers, get the most of it: we welcome you to add to this list of birthday greetings.

Rishab Aiyer Ghosh,
International and Managing Editor, First Monday

Happy Birthday, First Monday! You're two years old already? In terms of the Internet, that makes First Monday as old as the Paleozoic. You're no fossil, though. First Monday still seems to be the most stimulating electronic journal on the Internet (I confess that I am a little biased). Thanks for changing my life, First Monday.

Ed Valauskas
Editor in Chief, First Monday

Happy Birthday, First Monday! In First Monday years (one per month), you are getting older and wiser....and better! And what you do is indeed like a birthday: You make us sit down and think about the past, present and future.

Esther Dyson
Consulting Editor, First Monday

Keeping track of the Internet is no easy task and First Monday is to be congratulated for it's efforts for two years and counting. Those of us who try to stay abreast of Internet happenings appreciate that with millions of inventive netpreneurs among the tens of millions of Internauts, ideas flow thick and fast. I am happy to join many others in wishing First Monday many happy returns!

Vint Cerf
First Monday editorial board member

There was a moment a few million years after the Big Bang, or was it a few microseconds, when the hot fog cleared and the universe became transparent. Something equally dramatic is now happening to human society: looking at our planet you no longer see islands of knowledge (such as universities and newspaper offices) in a sea of ignorance, but a worldwide ocean of knowledge in which, regrettably, islands of ignorance persist. The whole evolution of media and communications was preparing us for this, and the Internet finally made it inevitable. Ignorance is not vanquished but I think its fate was sealed at some moment during the past two years. First Monday has been there through this historic period, a quiet and thoughtful voice in the increasing tumult of the new medium. Congratulations to the publisher and editors who have won FM a place in so many Internet users' bookmark files.

Tony Durham
First Monday editorial board member

First Monday is a refereed journal that has the imagination and independence to seek out authors with interesting ideas and to let them present their work in their own terms. That was crucial for my work on the Attention Economy. Instead of debating with referees behind the scenes, I was able to carry out the debate in front of readers.

First Monday went further. Originally, like normal academic journals it required that one pay a subscription price to read it. I must admit that when I discovered that, shortly after publishing my first article, I was dismayed, for I thought it would get little attention under those conditions. The editors and publisher had the courage to recognize the limitations imposed by their policy, and to make "subscriptions" free, enormously increasing the chances that each article find its audience. I'm deeply grateful for all of this.

I wish First Monday many future years of sucessfully publishing path breaking pieces about Cyberspace. I look forward to submitting further articles myself.

Michael Goldhaber
First Monday contributor

Happy Birthday First Monday! What makes you special is that you deal with the whole of the Internet. Sometimes its bytes and message formats, sometime it is legal issues, sometime its introducing sites, and sometimes its introducing people. The subject varies but its always interesting, Remember its no fun to get old.

Ed Krol
First Monday board member

First Monday is a rare treat, like sitting down and being served a ten course, 5-star meal. One becomes stuffed with "wonderous information'; which like any great wine, needs decanting and savouring. Many birthday congratulations to all whom help to keep this very fine E.Journal going - First Monday is literally one of the few places on the Internet where I know I will be able to find expert information which I can immediately translate into action.

Christine Maxwell
First Monday contributor

Many Happy Returns of the Day to First Monday! This past year has seen an amazing diversity of excellent articles from all corners of the globe. First Monday serves, in electronic form, a function similiar to that of publications such as the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly, with quality articles on topics that curious people would never discover otherwise. The short publication cycle, diversity of authors, not to mention those useful urls pointing to other related information, give an electronic edge. First Monday is informative, it's fun, it casts a wider net than a mass media outlet, but it preserves the crucial select-and-edit function that busy people need as they seek quality information. Happy Birthday First Monday, and Many More.

Bonnie Nardi
First Monday editorial board member

It's great to see First Monday celebrating an anniversary - it's arrival on the scene in May 1996 helped fill a large gap by providing a place for high quality articles about the rapidly growing Internet phenomena. Indeed, only two years later, its probably safe to say that 75% of people using the Internet today began to do so after First Monday was launched! In a medium where things grow and change so quickly, First Monday can probably already claim to be an elder statesjournal, covering the most important issues affecting information and communications services development. It has been a pleasure to be associated with this emergence, and I wish First Monday many more happy anniversaries.

Ian Peter
First Monday editorial board member

 

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