Subscribe Form

Newsletter Archives
Issue 12.0 (10/02)
Issue 11.0 (03/02)
Issue 10.0 (05/00)
Issue 9.0 (02/00)
Issue 8.0 (01/00)
Issue 7.0 (12/99)
Issue 6.0 (11/99)
Issue 5.0 (10/99)
Issue 4.0 (09/99)
Issue 3.0 (08/99)
Issue 2.0 (07/99)
Issue 1.0 (06/99)

Inside Web Lab
Issue 7.0  
Special Holiday Issue!
December 9, l999 

    Our Slogan of the Month:

       Web Lab: Making a list
       and checking it twice!

       http://www.WebLab.org

+  +  +  +

CONTENTS
NeedCom Holiday Buzz
Give (to us) and Receive!
Give (to others) and Receive!
Y2K-1 Wrap-up
Quick Note from the Editor
Happy Holidays!!

+  +  +  +

NeedCom Holiday Buzz

My sister told me about a boy in her 7th grade class
who was selling newspapers on Christmas.  A guy in
a pickup truck came by and gave him a $100 bill for
all his papers and told him to go on home.  The
season seems to bring it out in people.  But what
about panhandlers?  Do you suppose around this time
of the year anyone drops a $100 bill in the cup?

That's the question behind our current PR push  for
NeedCom.  A Web Lab project in association with
PBS ONLINE, NeedCom offers visitors an
experience with 'real' panhandlers and gives them the
chance to compare their responses to that of other
visitors to the site.

Presented as "Market Research for Panhandlers",
NeedCom provides a provocative, complex and
engaging experience which explores the personal
strategies we unconsciously employ in dealing with
panhandlers. 

Tell a friend about NeedCom today.  Better yet, tell a
reporter friend about NeedCom today!

Visit NeedCom:
http://www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/

Complete Press Information:
http://www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/press/

+  +  +  +

Give (to us) and Receive!

Web Lab would like to announce our first shameless
plug for donations!  In this e-commerce season (and
all year round) you can visit us online and make a
donation.  What a great (and tax deductible!) way to
support meaningful content on the Web.  

You can make a one time donation from your credit
card or checking account, or keep that good feeling
all year round by becoming a Web Lab sponsor and
authorizing a monthly charge to your credit card.

And if you're looking for that perfect gift, remember
that making a donation to Web Lab in someone else's
name is a great way to tell a loved one you're forward
thinking and community minded, and that you think
they are too!  (Choice of gift wrap and signature card
included.)

Donate online:
http://www.weblab.org/contribute.html

+  +  +  +

Give (to others) and Receive!

What have you done for the Web lately?  Many of
our newsletter subscribers are online developers and
producers who remember the spirit of '95, but who
find themselves today churning out e-commerce site
after e-commerce site.  

At the same time, Web Lab gets requests from people
and organizations all around the globe asking for
assistance with worthwhile projects, the kind of
projects that won't make any money, but that just
might make the Web a better place. 

So we thought we might try playing matchmaker. But
first, we'd like to do a little fact finding. We want to
know if there's anyone out there who'd actually
consider donating their time and talents to a worthy
cause.  We've set up a couple of pages where you can
express your interest, and even choose what kind of
cause is close to your heart. You don't have to
commit to anything, we're just trying to get a feel for
whether we can make this fly.

The matchmaker idea is a first tentative step in a
larger project centered around building a
"Community of Practice", a support system for
people interested in making the Web a better place.
We're still in the preliminary planning stages, so we're
counting on you to help us get headed in the right
direction.

Take a look and let us know what you think!
http://www.weblab.org/community.html

+  +  +  +

Y2K-1 Wrap-up

Y2K-1 is our clever shorthand for 1999.  We don't 
really expect it to catch on though, as we thought of
it a little late, but we had plenty of other  successes
this year. We bragged about them in our last
newsletter, so we won't get into it again here, but we
will catch you up:

We had our first Web Lab Advisory Board Meeting
on November 19th in New York City. We had some
great discussions about what Web Lab can become,
and we must say, it was inspiring!  We're also
continuing discussions with Community Wealth
Ventures and are beginning to identify some profit
making ventures that are still consistent with the Web
Lab mission, but that will give us a revenue boost so
that we can tackle even more ambitious projects in
the future.

At the head of our list is a consortium that would
provide an investment base for  a for-profit incubator
that would nurture new ideas and bring them to
market.  We've got a few more  opportunities on the
table, and we'll keep you updated as they start to take
shape.

+  +  +  +

|| Quick Note from the Editor ||

Hi, I'm Laura Kertz, associate producer here at Web
Lab.  I joined the 'bLab this summer, and after ghost
writing "Inside Web Lab" for a couple of months,
we're ready to call me the editor and to give you an
address where you can send comments, complaints,
suggestions, and honest to goodness letters to the
editor.  Here you go: lkertz@weblab.org

+  +  +  +

 Happy Holidays!!

Everyone at Web Lab wishes you and yours a very
happy holiday.  Whatever you're celebrating, we hope
it's fantastic, and we hope you're warm. 

We'll be out of the office December 27 to Jan 3, so
we'll have to postpone all of the Y2K "I told you
so's" until then. 

See ya next century! (Yeah, we know it doesn't start
until 2001, but hey, at least we didn't say
millennium!)

+  +  +  +