Dear reader,
.
Strange Maps is moving. From July 20, this weblog will be hosted by
Big Think, a brain-tickling cornucopia of opinion and information, covering a broad church of topics. Those topics will henceforth include, via this blog, the fascinating field of cartographic curiosa.
.
We at Strange Maps (*) are thrilled, and not half humbled to be associated with a content provider of such depth and breadth. That’s not to say this was an easy decision. After all, for almost four years since its inception, this blog has been able to be as unfocused, irreverent and just plain wrong as it couldn’t help itself to be…
.
… and so it shall continue to be. Strange Maps will retain total editorial independence (**). The strange maps on Strange Maps will still be selected and presented by the same, sole blogger. The criteria will remain the same: maps must be visually arresting, tell a good story, and be generally too weird, obsolete or otherwise irregular to merit inclusion in a ‘normal’ atlas. Your submissions and your comments remain most welcome.
.
So if we keep the menu, why change the venue? Cooperating with Big Think will allow this blog to access an interesting, and hopefully interested new audience (and vice versa, which is what’s in it for them). It will give this one-man operation access to the knowledge and experience of an entire team of online-savvy creative minds. And it entails a commitment on the blog’s part to post more regularly than has been the case until now.
.
The result should be a blog that’s even more fun to make, and to read.
.
One final thing: don’t worry about changing addresses in your bookmarks or feed aggregator: you will be automatically taken from this place to our new little corner of Big Think.
.
See you there tomorrow!
.
– Frank
.
UPDATE 20 July 2010:
.
* Meanwhile, the folks at Big Think are still working on implementing that automatic redirect mentioned above. It should be in place before the week is out. It’s still early days, and I’m sure other glitches will also need to be resolved, but I look forward to an (even) better and more exciting end result…
.
——
.
(*) Editorial we. I at Strange Maps doesn’t quite sound right, though.
(**) and, how else to put this, corporate independence. This temporal agreement that may be cancelled or renewed at either party’s behest.