|
|
CROCODOPOLIS world of crocodilians TM SCIENCE · CULTURE · INDUSTRY · NEWS · COMMUNICATION · CONSERVATION
|
||||
|
BLOGS
Publisher/Editor
September 24, 2006
Where are we going with this site?
Does the Internet need a new crocodilian-interest website? I've been asking myself that question for a few years now - my own answer is now obvious.
As evidenced by the burgeoning demand for crocodilians in popular entertainment and commerce, there is a place for such websites. I have admired those few but fine publications on the web: The Crocodile Specialist Group's, where official, government-endorsed scientific research and conservation efforts are documented; Dr. Adam Britton's Crocodilian.com, which, among educational sites, with its comprehensive, highly readable biology articles and special features, has no equal; the pages of various well-known entities such as nature- and science-based television programs; and the recent growth of grassroots websites by individual professionals and enthusiasts, such as biologist Christopher Dieter's TheCrocodileExperience.com, which specializes in captive husbandry education, or Flavio Morrissiey's ReptileTraining.com, focused on groundbreaking reptile behavioral conditioning.
My original desire was to create a website of my own, a simple facility for sharing my perspectives and enthusiasm, my singular ideas. But I was compelled to broaden the reach.
A PLATFORM
I have been fortunate to make the friendships and acquaintances of numerous extraordinary individuals in crocodilian-related fields who've dedicated much of their lives to those disciplines, and even some non-professionals whose enthusiasm for the great reptiles betters even that of some pros I know. I realized that if my little voice might merit a platform, so did those of so many others who wish to contribute to the dialogue and to the practice. Some of those perspectives have exposure, but this site could potentially add more.
A solution: just build a bigger platform.
This is it - Crocodopolis, a non-profit journal with a name that smirks at the absurdity of croc worship while acknowledging the great modern interest in the scaly descendants of the Archosaur lineage (see About). After all, the successful 1993 pop film Jurassic Park may have revived interest in the ancient dinosaurs, but, as National Geographic's tagline for it's Super Croc program reminds us, in the dinosaurs' era, crocodiles ate them.
CONNECTION
The field is growing, and as a result of a growing body of people, knowledge and experience, and public interest, there's a growing need for accessible resources. The resources are plentiful, of all shades and colors, but scattered. My wish is to connect them, so they can be readily tapped, recognized for their value, and intersected with others in an easy-to-use, efficient instrument. I think a step has been made here, by the hundreds of entries in the International Directory, Websources, Bibliography and Filmography, which I've compiled over the last three years or so.
The other connection deals with people. I hope this website can play a role in connecting professionals, and connecting the general public to the professionals. There are so many ways of doing so, and I look forward to exploring them with participants and readers.
What this magazine will look like six months, a year, two years from now, I'm not sure of. This electronic organism is still taking shape. I relish its potential, the pleasant surprises, and the connections to be made among croc professionals and enthusiasts, and, perhaps most importantly, with the average John and Jane Public, great in number, members of our own species who have the intelligence to recognize the importance of crocodilians among Earth's life forms and cycles, and the power to play a role in conserving them.
End of blog.
|
ARCHIVE
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
