The tools of online community : the first five years of the trAce online writing centre
Date
2005
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery, Inc . (ACM)
Type
Book chapter
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Description
This paper gives an account of the first five years of trAce, 1995-2000, and looks to the future from the vantage point of 2005. The trAce Online Writing Centre grew out of a small research project called CyberWriting established by Sue Thomas in 1995 in the Department of English & Media Studies at Nottingham Trent University. It rapidly made close links with arts organisations in Australia and America and operated almost exclusively on the internet, researching information about internet-based writing resources of all kinds including fiction, poetry, hypertexts, cyberculture theory, conferences, journals, and webzines. In 1996 trAce launched its own website and quickly became a popular and useful resource for the dissemination of information about writers and writing on the net. In 1997 it received a substantial grant from the Arts Council of England, followed in later years by a total of half a million pounds worth of funding, and continued to grow until Thomas left Nottingham Trent University in 2005. Shortly afterwards the project was closed and work begun by Thomas to create an archive was completed. The trAce Archive is housed at http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk
Keywords
RAE 2008, UoA 66 Communication, Cultural and Media Studies
Citation
Thomas, S.J. (2005) The tools of online community : The first five years of the trAce online writing centre. In: Creativity and cognition: Proceedings 2005 (12-15 April, Goldsmiths College, London).pp. 63-70.