Fundraising Update

Some kind and wonderful people have been generous enough to donate. We have enough in the kitty to stave off imminent disappearance, at least throughout the summer. Thank you!!!

However, we are going to continue asking for donations, for several reasons. One, expenses are ongoing (i.e. paying the host, re-registering the domains, etc). Two, we’re considering upgrading our hosting, which would go a long way towards ending the annoying downtime we’re suffering. Three, we want to resume some other adjunct services we have provided our users and contributors in the past, but have had to suspend due to financial constraints. (Wondering why you haven’t gotten an email update lately? This is why.) And lastly, we want to begin (finally!) working on the long-anticipated and much-needed app and site upgrade.

As always, our community of users and contributors are keeping us alive and kicking. We ask that you continue to donate, for all the above reasons and more. We have big plans for the future, both for new and expanded coverage (LGBTQ rights and Wikileaks are two big subjects that are planned for in-depth coverage) and for upgrading and modernizing the site for easier usage.

Thank you again.

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“Your timeline has been invaluable to me over the years.” — New York Times reporter, and 9/11 researcher and author Philip Shenon

The History Commons Needs Your Support

Historycommons.org (fka cooperativeresearch.org) is a unique and useful web-based tool for documenting facts that are suppressed or spun in Establishment narratives, for researching complex events and sometimes murky relationships between entities and events, and for educating the public (thus increasing transparency and facilitating accountability). The principal feature is the ‘timeline’, which is composed of written entries based on events and facts from mainstream or otherwise credible sources. These facts and events may or may not be well-known; often important details, which may have been buried in a document release, court filing, congressional testimony, the end notes of a government publication, or in a mainstream news report, can be discovered by skimming or searching a timeline. Also, the significance of certain facts, events and relationships generally becomes clearer in the contexts provided by the entry and through association with other entries; the timelines also reveal the bigger picture. Members of the public are welcome to contribute information or edits to historycommons.org, but, unlike Wikipedia, each new entry or edit undergoes at least two levels of editorial review, to help ensure accuracy and stylistic consistency.

The History Commons has received praise from a number of respected independent journalists, such as Glenn Greenwald, Craig Unger, Philip Shenon, James Ridgeway and Peter Lance.

If you’re unfamiliar with historycommons.org, or are mainly familiar with the Complete 9/11 Timeline that it has primarily become known for, please explore the site. In the last several years, the 9/11 coverage has been improved and expanded, and the site has grown to include more than 30 timelines covering a diverse range of topics, including health care, climate change, elections, foreign interventions and civil liberties: http://www.historycommons.org/timelines.jsp. Many more have been proposed: http://www.iraqtimeline.com/hctopics/index.html.

This website, first as cooperativeresearch.org, and then as historycommons.org, has existed continuously since 2002, but it is now in dire need of financial assistance; if funding does not significantly increase, the site may go offline by the end of this summer. The History Commons does not accept advertising and has never received funding from government, corporations or foundations. It has relied on the support of the grassroots, and needs to in order to remain independent. More information, including links for donating, is available here: https://hcgroups.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/fundraising-alert-2/

If you can’t offer financial support but do believe in the work the History Commons is doing, you can still help by letting others know about historycommons.org. And if you’d like to contribute research, writing or editing on any timeline topic, that would be welcomed. Also, any feedback or ideas you have would also be appreciated.

Erik Larson aka paxvector
Volunteer History Commons admin, editor, contributor

Fundraising Alert #2

This is the second of a small number of fundraising alerts. The History Commons needs your financial support like never before.

“Your timeline has been invaluable to me over the years.” — New York Times reporter, and 9/11 researcher and author Philip Shenon

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The History Commons is facing a financial emergency and we need your financial support like never before. While we have been working to upgrade the Web site and web application, we have been struggling financially with the costs to keep the site up and running. Without a strong influx of support, the History Commons may disappear from the Internet entirely before the end of the summer. That would be a tragedy, as the History Commons and its predecessor, CooperativeResearch.org, has been providing well-researched and timely information for citizen researchers, academics, and investigators for eleven years.

HistoryCommons.org receives thousands of visitors per month, but receives a relatively small amount of contributions. The History Commons and its parent organization, the Center for Grassroots Oversight, does not receive money from foundations, corporations, or governments. We accept no advertising whatsoever. We are 100% grassroots-supported.

Our initial target goal for donations is $10,000. That will allow us to keep the History Commons alive on the Internet, continue to post new material, and perform critical maintenance on the current application. Currently we are making regular and frequent additions to the Complete 9/11 Timeline (including the Day of 9/11, which is about to receive a large number of new entries), Civil Liberties, Domestic Propaganda, Domestic Terrorism, and the 2012 Elections projects, to name a few. We anticipate beginning an LGBT civil liberties project in the very near future, and we dearly want to expand our coverage of other issues, such as the global economic and environmental crises.

In the long(er) term, we have set a target goal of $100,000 in donations. That will allow us to begin the critical process of upgrading the application and the Web site, a goal we have worked towards for years but have continually lacked the funds to implement.

We have received some donations already. To those contributors, we would like to extend our thanks. The money helps to keep the History Commons functioning, and demonstrates a tangible interest in and concern for this project. Unfortunately, our financial need continues to be great, and our situation continues to be precarious.

Please make your tax-deductible donation today and help us remain a viable informational resource for the 21st century. We would also ask that you repost this request or a link to it on Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, or in emails to your contacts. Thank you for what you do to make the History Commons a viable resource for information and citizen activism.

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Thank you so much for your support!

“For serious research, it’s hard to think of a more valuable resource than the timelines assembled by History Commons. The material they provide is a welcome antidote to the misinformation and disinformation that has been coming out of Washington in recent years and they are essential tools in assembling a counter-narrative that more honestly addresses the crises we face.” — author Craig Unger

The History Commons provides “a richly documented summary of [the Watergate] events.” — Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald

“Any researcher, reporter or scholar with an interest in the war on terror would consider the [History Commons] timelines a bonanza of open source information.” — Peter Lance

“The [History Commons] researchers are in many ways similar to the team Scott Armstrong, the former Washington Post reporter, recruited in the mid-1980s to uncover the roots of Reagan’s secret Iran-Contra deals.” — columnist James Ridgway

“The History Commons is one of the most important and technologically advanced projects of civil journalism there is today.” — Daniel Erlacher, founder of Austria’s Elevate Festival

“Endlessly informative.” — reporter Steve Perry

New Project at the History Commons

Hi all,

Recently we added something quite different to the History Commons, a project titled European Football and Politics. It doesn’t attempt to cover results, won-lost records, and so forth, but examines the economics, politics and maneuvering behind the scenes of the sport. It’s a creation of site admin Kevin, who’s been writing entries for months and placing them in Miscellaneous, where many users couldn’t get to them. The other day we decided to go for it and create a separate project for it. We announced it in an emailer. I’ve been curious as to what, if any, response we might get.

History Commons Is Changing its Updates….

Hi, Commons community,

You haven’t seen an email update from us in a while. That’s because there haven’t been any. I won’t go into they whys, except they center mostly around personal and family issues that have precluded the admins (i.e. me) from getting them done. And they’re not coming back! (Okay, yes they are, but not in the way they have been. Keep reading to find out more.)

Instead, we’re using Twitter, Facebook, and our History Commons Groups blog to inform you of new updates, initiatives, and outreach. We’ll post irregular, but frequent, updates as to what new material is being posted, what new things are coming up, and how you can get involved.

I can tell you that something potentially big is brewing with HC. I can’t tell you what, because that would a) spoil the fun and more importantly, b) nothing’s firm yet. I don’t want to jump the gun and tell you all about something that may not, in fact, take place. As with all new and exciting changes, they cost resources. If you can, please donate to the cause. We are entirely user-supported, and everything you donate goes directly into keeping History Commons up, running, and expanding its knowledge base.

Here are some very important, and semi-permanent, links for you. They’ve all been shortened, so tweet, Facebook, Stumble, Digg, what have you, at will to spread the word.

History Commons Groups Blog: http://is.gd/AYjCzX
History Commons on Twitter: @historycommons and http://is.gd/VOWKG1
Supporters of History Commons at Facebook: http://is.gd/ZXeN6I
How to Volunteer at HC: http://is.gd/D33rOc
How to Donate to HC: http://is.gd/K9drCP

Email updates are not entirely a thing of the past. On an irregular basis, specific updates will come via email, particularly from the 9/11 Timeline admins. So if you’re used to getting emails on that topic, don’t smack your monitor in frustration, they are still going to hit your inbox. But not as often! So make a point of bookmarking the blog, following HC on Twitter and Facebook, and most important, get involved! Write for HC. Donate. Share the site with friends, journalists, scholars, professors, your family, anyone. We pride ourselves on having a factually accurate, expansive and ever-growing repository of information on subjects that we all care about. (And if you don’t see HC covering a topic you’re interested in, that’s where you come in — you can cover it, and we will help!)

We value your involvement, and we appreciate your support, whether you’re sending a donation, writing an entry, sending a link to someone, or reading and using HC material. Thank you, and make sure you drop us a note via Twitter, Facebook, the blog, or, yes, an email, to let us know what you think.

Max

New Feature: ‘Sit Rep’

On all those military/criminal justice shows like NCIS (a favorite in the Max household, and I’m fully aware of the ironies involved in being fond of such a show), people are always demanding “sit reps,” or “situation reports.” It sounds like a good idea for us, too, though in a less military, “drop and give me twenty” sense. So here goes.

I thought that every month or so, I’d write a “sit rep” post inviting all the major contributors, including the grant recipients, to check in and let everyone know what they’ve got in the works for the next few weeks. I don’t envision anything binding, and no one will get stern e-mails holding anything over your heads because of something you post. It’s more of a way for us to keep each other posted on what we’re currently working on, and if the occasion warrants, work in tandem on a particular item or subject. Again, no one’s keeping score, and no one’s going to blurt out, “Hey, she’s doing more than he is!” We all contribute at our own pace, within our own parameters, inclinations, and time restrictions.

It’s also a good way for our community of readers and users to have a general idea of what they can look forward to in upcoming entries, and a way that the community can let us know what they’d like to see included.

I’ll lead off in the first comment. Follow up, if you would.