"EMAIL TO THE JOURNAL" IS HERE

By Donald Michael Kraig
Editor, The Llewellyn Journal

As the thousands of people who have read our articles have seen, at the end of each article we have asked for your feedback by emailing us at TLJletters@llewellyn.com. We have received hundreds of emails and have finally decided on a way to post the best ones so you can read them.

We are also making it easier for you to email us about any article. From now on, at the end of each article, there will be a link which reads "We want to hear from you." You can click on this link to email us about an article. There will also be a link that will allow you to read what others have had to say about the article as well as a link on our home page that will let you read all of the Email to the Journal.

We are interested in what you think! We encourage you to email us with your ideas, comments, and questions. We cannot print all of the email we receive, nor will we be able to reply individually. However, we want to read what you have to say.

When you email us, consider the following:

1. If you send an email to “Email to the Journal,” you do so under the expectation that it will be posted. Do not send anything you would not want published! Llewellyn reserves the right to publish it in other formats.
2. If we post your email, unless you tell us otherwise we will include your name and email address. We can also post your letter and withhold your name if you so request. Otherwise, by sending an email to “Email to the Journal” you acknowledge and understand that this information will be published.
3. Your email will be edited but we will not change your intent.
4. Please keep your email brief and to a single point.
5. Emails that are insulting, defamatory, sexist, racist, “bash” individuals or organizations, etc. will not be posted.
6. Neither Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., nor The Llewellyn Journal will be responsible for the actions of the readers of The Llewellyn Journal or the Public at Large when we post your email.
7. The decision as to which emails will be published is entirely at the discretion of the editors of The Llewellyn Journal.

So why are we doing this?

The Llewellyn Journal currently exists exclusively on the internet. Some people think of the internet as being nothing more than an extension of the past. They see it as a place where they can do "business as usual." But it's not. The internet changes everything.

It used to be that people would keep their diaries secret, a place where they could record their inner thoughts. Now people are posting their diaries (called blogs, short for "web logs") so that anyone can see it. Suddenly, the private feelings and opinions are no longer private and the nature of diaries changes from private to public.

Another example concerns methods by which people can access music. You can go to a store and get a blank CD-R for pennies. But if you buy it with music on it the cost often skyrockets to $16.00 or more. Today, there are so many new music CDs available, you have no way of knowing if a band's CD is something you would like. Paying that much money for a CD becomes a "crap shoot," with you hoping you're going to like what's there.

This problem was resolved, temporarily, via the internet. People would take music they liked, digitize it into a compressed format known as MP3, and make it available to others. Unfortunately, this resulted not in people just trying to find music they liked, but in large-scale piracy. As a result, record companies and some of the more famous musicians demanded that something be done (notable exceptions include Courtney Love and Janis Ian). In a short time, much of the theft was stopped.

But the internet is still there. Record companies and some of the larger bands have failed to use it to its potential because they are still thinking about distribution of music as it was done before the internet became ubiquitous. The enormous potential of allowing people to hear music and decide what they might like to buy with the help of the internet is largely untapped. Until new concepts and new ways of thinking about this develop, the marketing and availability of music will remain limited.

Before the popularity of the internet, the transmission of information (with the exception of schools, workshops, and classes) was primarily in one direction. From a book to you. From a newspaper to you. In most instances, if you wanted to respond, you had to write a letter, mail it, wait until it arrived at its destination, and hope that somebody would read it.

The internet changes everything. You can read something and immediately post a response. The immediacy of this form of interactivity is one of the things which makes the internet special, and to not recognize it and work with it ignores the amazing potential of this new medium.

That is why we want you to email us with your comments. As we move into this new phase of The Llewellyn Journal, we want this site to be more than just a place where you read about the experiences of others. We hope that you will become an active participant. We hope that you will see The Llewellyn Journal as being the cyberspace where a community can meet to share their ideas and experiences. We hope you will take full advantage of the interactivity that is an inherent part of the internet. We want to hear what you have to say, and we want to share it with thousands of our readers. So click on the "We want to hear from you" link below and send us some email with your thoughts and ideas today.