I received a delightful email from Trevar Mazza, our head of media production, just after midnight. We surpassed a million monthly pageviews for the first time, minutes before the clock turned midnight on the final day of the month, and year. “What a fantastic way to ring in 2009, the year of the FORA. Happy New Year!”
Whether the world recognizes 2009 as the year of the FORA is to be seen, but the raw enthusiasm of the team as we exchanged text messages and emails round midnight was a joy, and a portent of things to come.
What can you expect from us in 2009?
Well, judging from recent activity, there will be many more of you. We brought video from the world’s great public forums (FORA = the plural of forum) to lots more people in recent months, growing at a rate exceeding 50% per month. With a half million people enjoying the site, we are reaching a million FORA-lovers across our growing platforms from YouTube to iTunes to Amazon and satellite TV. Our new chief marketing officer Val Landi innovates daily, and has a slate of social network programs rolling out in January that will bust through new audience records.
Expect an eye popping new design and interface in early February from senior director of product development Sarah Kennon, who amazes daily with big ideas and smart thinking. Everything will be more fun and easier to access, new information architecture and new ways to customize, share and self-publish. Allan Claghorn, our first employee who single-handedly built the FORA platform in 2006, is leading the engineering effort, alongside Colin Fein.
The content will just keep on getting deeper and better, building on our library of thousands of thought leaders. New conferences like the just completed EG: the Entertainment Gathering, more international events, innovative partnerships with universities and content creators. And new editorial presentation, reflecting the leadership of FORA’s new president and CEO Blaise Zerega.
Amongst the flurry of messages last night was Stuart Schulzke, our director of content development, mentioning how much he was enjoying re-discovering the wealth of favorites in our library over the holidays. I have been doing the same. So, I wish you and our growing, million strong cadre of intellectually curious FORA viewers a happy new year with these gifts:
Forgot to get spiritually inspired over the holidays? Your antidote is Karen Armstrong, former nun and now spiritual provocateur, found speaking at City Arts & Lectures, Books Inc, the National Press Club via C-SPAN, and the fabulous Chautauqua, where Karen spoke daily during last year’s opening week in the Hall of Philosophy.
Hot new author Andrew Sean Greer speaks with other hot Bay Area author Michael Chabon at City Arts & Lectures. When you check out the extraordinary new Brad Pitt film ‘Benjamin Button,’ also buy a copy of Greer’s “The Confessions of Max Tivoli,” a variation on the theme of reverse aging. I talked to Andrew backstage about his new book, “The Story of a Marriage,” and the author conceit of speaking in the first person of a character of a different gender, race and time after the CA&L; video (chapter 4).
There are too many highlights from EG, but it’s hard to beat this from the New York Times’ David Pogue, replete with Broadway style techno-showtunes.
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Thank you for keeping an eye on us.