I’ve been doing some housekeeping and cleaning. Trying to decide what to keep or not. Do I really need to keep that ancient laser printer that was top-of-the line when I bought it, but for which I can’t get parts anymore? The one I haven’t plugged in for at least 8 years? So very many files to go through and oh so many copies on backups.

It’s been 24 years.

Originally, I had a vision for a site that would publish articles, using many of those files. An archive that could expand and grow as a source for students of the arts (and a place to put stuff). There were the more interactive features I always wanted to add. Tried doing that a few times in different ways, discussion boards (yes, we do go back), trying to add video in 1998 and settling for animated gifs because they were more reliable. I’ve tried a host of other things over the years, some that worked well and a few others that just didn’t work out at all.

Sometimes it was that the technology available to me wasn’t capable of doing what I wanted to do. Sometimes, there were issues with display and management of the Chinese sections of the site; keeping the two languages closely aligned. Using an article format (published articles) allowed us to manage translations. Unfortunately, keeping close to that approach hasn’t worked out either.

So this year, we are remodeling.  icon-smile-o  …. again.

Early on, one of my goals was to focus our brand on the “research” part of our name, taking an early-academic focus to our web site (Gopher, Compuserv anyone?), not so much a commercial one. Interest in the arts we teach was high, we were both very active in various circles, and we taught frequent workshops and classes. That’s changed, too. Ah well, we all get older.

What’s the new site going to look like? What will you have on it?

The new site is going to appear almost the same as the current site, at least for now. What’s changing is the content. That’s going to happen in three ways:

1. I’m going to split the languages. By that I mean I’m going to stop trying to keep the pages and posts aligned.
2. I’m going to surface new content that I will be creating on the English home page.
3. I’m going to include additional advertising.

Up to now, we’ve had some advertising on the site. But I’ve kept it minimal – just there. One of the visible changes will be more ads. Maybe the site could pay for itself? And buy me a coffee?

The most significant change will be the content that I will be creating. All those files I mentioned? Books or parts of books that may never be published, photos from back, way back in the day, and some seriously great stories that go with. The writer in me has decided it’s time to tell some (maybe not all) of those stories. We’ll see how good my memory is.

I’m going to be writing about three other topics: 1) practice, my own as well as what I have taught my students, 2) philosophy, focused on what I’ve studied, learned and my interpretations, and 3) culture and communication.