Artmobile

From BaltoCo

[edit] Artmobile

Artmobile — an anagram for Baltimore — is an e-mail discussion list on the arts in Baltimore. With nearly 300 subscribers as of August 2007, conversations are wide-ranging and sometimes lively, informative, amusing, thought-provoking, decorous, or maddening. It can vary.

A sister list — Artmobile-Events with about 200 subscribers — carries announcements of upcoming arts and cultural events.

[edit] History

Artmobile was launched as a majordomo discussion list on June 19, 1998, with an e-mail sent to about 30 subscribers. At that time, dial-up Internet connections reigned, and e-mail was viewed with suspicion among many in the arts community, or so it seemed. Within a few months, about 100 adventurers had scampered onto the Artmobile. By the time the Baltimore City Paper recognized Artmobile founder Richard Tryzno Ellsberry as an "Unsung Hero" in November 1999, there were more than 160 subscribers.

In its first 9 years, Artmobile moved to a few different platforms and hosting sites, including Yahoo! Groups. In May 2007, the discussion list moved to Google Groups with new co-administrators David Beaudouin and Rahne Alexander.

Artmobile would like to think that it was one of the first regional e-mail discussion lists on the arts in the U.S., but it's hard to gauge the accuracy of this belief. (If you know otherwise, please add a comment on the discussion tab above or edit this wiki page.)

[edit] Recognitions

In 2006, the Baltimore City Paper recognized Artmobile as one of its "2006 Arts and Entertainment Winners," honoring the mailing list as the city's "Best Waste of Bandwidth" in that particular year.

[edit] Subscribe

To subscribe to Artmobile or Artmobile-Events, visit Artmobile on Google Groups or Artmobile-Events on Google Groups.

[edit] The First Artmobile e-mail (June 1998)

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