We’re proud to be involved in the prototype augmented-reality cell phone application for phillyhistory.org, the online database of historic photographs and maps from the City Archives, the Water Department, the Office of the City Representative, the Free Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, originally built by Azavea Inc. The app is available at no cost for both iPhone and Android smart phones. The Encyclopedia’s editors participated as advisers to the project and coordinated text for a group of photographs, with Doreen Skala researching and writing the text.
Blog Category: Blog
“City of Brotherly Love” at the FringeArts Festival
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia will play a small role in this year’s FringeArts Festival with publication of our “City of Brotherly Love” theme essay, by Chris Satullo, in a commemorative booklet for the production 100% Philadelphia. As described by FringeArts:
Join us at the 2014 Fringe Festival for an unforgettable experience that’s part-theater, part-data analysis — and 100 percent Philadelphia. Developed in collaboration with FringeArts, German artist collective Rimini Protokoll’s 100% Philadelphia will bring 100 carefully selected Philadelphia citizens (non-actors) onstage to represent the city’s population of 1.5 million and our unique demographic imprint: More than 40 cast members will be African-American, half will be women, approximately 20 will be children — and that’s just the beginning. At times funny, uplifting and strikingly dramatic, 100% Philadelphia is always enlightening, a mirror of ourselves that will forever change the way we see our friends, neighbors, and strangers on the street.
For more information about the production and to buy tickets, visit the event website at Fringe Arts.
“City of Scholarly Love”
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project appears in the Works in Progress section of the Autumn 2011 issue of The American Scholar, the magazine published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Writer Chloe Taft calls attention to our project’s widespread public participation and to our web site as a growing gateway to the region’s digital resources.
“Cradle of Liberty” Program Featured on C-SPAN
This spring more than 400 people in the Philadelphia area participated in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, our series of public programs to help shape The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. The Encyclopedia team and our partners at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania organized this year-long series of programs focusing on major themes in Philadelphia’s history. With funding from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, each program is preceded by an essay published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and on the web site of WHYY’s Newsworks.org. The June 23 program on the theme “Cradle of Liberty,” held at the National Constitution Center, was taped by C-Span and is now available for viewing online in the C-SPAN Video Library.
“William Penn’s Vision for Philadelphia”
When we first announced plans for an educators’ workshop, little did we know that it would fill up with 30 teachers in less than two days, with a sizable waiting list besides! We have now expanded the “Penn’s Vision” workshop on June 23 to accommodate 10 more educators from the waiting list, and we encourage others to consider attending the evening program, “Cradle of Liberty,” that same evening at the National Constitution Center. The evening program also offers 1.5 hours of Act 48 credit for teachers. For information and to register for “Cradle of Liberty,” visit our events page, or register with the National Constitution Center.
Additional educators’ workshops will be organized, and one way to be sure you receive information promptly is to sign up for our list-serv. Thanks to our partners in this effort, including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia History Museum at Atwater Kent, the National Archives in Philadelphia, the National Constitution Center, and Independence National Historical Park.
@Backgrounders in Action: Girard College
This week’s news presented an ideal opportunity to connect history with the news, using our Backgrounders feed on Twitter to reach journalists and other interested readers. When WHYY posted its report that Autumn Adkins Graves, the president of Girard College, will step down at the end of the school year, we added background with our Girard College essay as well as a link to Temple University’s outstanding “Civil Rights in a Northern City” project. These resources, combined with the news account, call attention to the significance of the service of President Graves as the first female and African American head of this landmark Philadelphia institution.
2016 Democratic Party Platform: Related Essays
During the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia created a list of published essays related to the 2016 Democratic Party Platform to help provide journalists, delegates, and visitors with local angles and background history.
Continue reading “2016 Democratic Party Platform: Related Essays”
A Full Slate of Fall Events
We began the fall with a full house at the “Athens of America” roundtable at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Please join us also for the following events:
This Saturday, October 1, we are a co-sponsor for the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides’ second annual “Great Twelve-Hour Tour” of Philadelphia. It’s a River to River, Pine to Vine, Rain or Shine event, and it’s free – join any segment or spend the day. For more information, go to: http://www.phillyguides.org/great-tour-2011.aspx .
Registration is open now for the next two programs of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable discussion series:
- “Workshop of the World” on Wednesday, October 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Tacony branch of the Free Library.
- “Corrupt and Contented” on Tuesday, November 15, 6:30-8 p.m. at Philadelphia Media Network Headquarters (the Inquirer Building, 400 N. Broad Street).
For information and advance registration – strongly advised! – go to: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events
Teachers, an additional educators’ workshop will be offered on the theme of “Workshop of the World” on Tuesday, November 9, 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. To sign up for this free workshop, go to: http://www.hsp.org/node/2311
We are so pleased by your interest and participation in creating The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Thank you!
A New Milestone: 350 Topics Online
We are pleased to share the news that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has reached a new milestone: 350 topics online. Thanks to the many people who are making this project possible: authors, editors, reviewers, fact-checkers and page-builders, and the archival partners who provide illustrations. Our current phase of expansion is made possible by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust.
Topic #350 is Surveying (Colonial), by Michael Pospishil. Stay tuned for more this summer!
A New Resource for Teachers
In partnership with the National Archives at Philadelphia, we’re pleased to announce a new guide for teachers and students, “Comparing Primary and Secondary Sources,” which is newly published on the website for National History Day Philadelphia. Created to help students with their research for National History Day projects, the guide was prepared by Melissa Callahan, an experienced social studies teacher who is the education outreach coordinator for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and a graduate student in history at Rutgers-Camden. This work was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH), which produces The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
A Strong Finish: City of Neighborhoods
We had another full house this week to conclude the current series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable. If you missed it, you can read JoAnn Greco’s coverage in PlanPhilly, and we will soon post a written summary and audio recording of the discussion. Our thanks to everyone who supported and participated in our year-long series of explorations of Philadelphia’s famous phrases, from the City of Brotherly Love to City of Neighborhoods. Watch for announcements of future programs.
Added Features for This Week’s Roundtable, “Workshop of the World”
We’re looking forward to our next program in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable series — “Workshop of the World,” coming up this Wednesday, October 19, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Tacony branch of the Free Library. Registration is open on our events page, and our new essay on this theme, written by Walter Licht of the University of Pennsylvania, is now published on our web site.
For those who are attending Wednesday, we are pleased to let you know of a couple of added features for the event. First, light refreshments will be available prior to the program, so feel free to arrive anytime after 6 p.m. and enjoy some food and informal conversation prior to the program. Also, we will conclude the evening with the short film about Tacony, “Bridging Yesterday with Tomorrow,” which was produced as part of Scribe Video Center’s Precious Places Community History Project. Looking forward to another informative, enlightening, and enjoyable discussion of Philadelphia’s history and experience!
An Invitation: Support Scholarship,
Build Community, Create a Legacy
Wednesday, March 21 is Giving Day. Join a community of scholars, students, and history lovers, and make a gift to support The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
We need your help! The Encyclopedia is a digital resource produced by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. It offers the most comprehensive, authoritative reference source ever created for the Philadelphia region, and with your help it will continue to grow.
Your donation of any amount will be used to employ the students who help to make The Encyclopedia possible! The first $200 donated on March 21 will be matched by a generous supporter. Act early, and help us continue to move the project toward completion.
● $15 employs one student for one hour of research assistance or digital publishing.
● $30 pays for fact-checking one new essay.
● $90 pays for building one new topic page.
● $150 employs one student for one ten-hour work week.
● $2,100 employs one student for one semester.
Donate on March 21 and help us to continue producing original scholarship and supporting the history practitioners of the future. Thank you!
How to Give:
● Visit GivingDay.rutgers.edu on March 21 to make a tax-deductible donation.
When you donate, select Research, Institutes & Cultural Programs and then MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities) from the drop-down menu.
● Or, call 732-839-GIVE (4483) and direct your gift to MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities) today!
Spread the word on social media with #RUGivingDay and @MARCHRuCamden
An Invitation: Support Scholarship,
Build Community, Create a Legacy
Thank you, everyone who supported our successful one-day fund-raiser on Rutgers Giving Day. Your support will enable us to continue to employ students as fact-checkers and digital publishing assistants, so that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia can continue to grow.
If you missed the opportunity or wish to encourage others to give, please link here to add your support: Make a gift today.
● $15 employs one student for one hour of research assistance or digital publishing.
● $30 pays for fact-checking one new essay.
● $90 pays for building one new topic page.
● $150 employs one student for one ten-hour work week.
● $2,100 employs one student for one semester.
Additional anticipated needs include a temporary expansion of professional staff during 2020 (estimated $10,000 to $15,000) and website repair and redesign (estimated $50,000 to $100,000).
Thank you for helping us continue producing original scholarship and supporting the history practitioners of the future.
Anchors of Civic Life?
Shopping Centers Not All They Could Have been
The regional shopping mall is so much a part of modern American culture it is easy enough to forget how much more was expected of it with its introduction in the 1950s than simply being an “engine of commerce.” Taken together with David Sullivan’s entry on department stores, Matthew Smalarz’s essay on shopping centers suggests some of what has been lost in the geographic shift of retail activity over the past half century.
Regional shopping centers cropped up precisely at that point when the dispersion of metropolitan population introduced the phenomenon of suburban sprawl. The idealists behind the regional centers hoped their structures would help anchor new communities and give shape to ex-urban land use. As a writer for the Department Store Economist proclaimed in1954, “…no construction is more dynamic than the shopping center or as likely to influence a reform of the usual urban and suburban hodgepodge….A new generation of department store men and women…are showing the same high responsibility to the communities that their grandfathers showed when they helped to create the great downtowns which we know today in hundreds of cities.”
In their early days, suburban malls hosted fashion shows, opportunities for children’s play, high school proms, and even classical music concerts. If food courts lacked the grandeur of the tea rooms that female shoppers once gathered in downtown department stores, they nonetheless offered opportunities for sociability among women beyond the privacy of their homes, where so much of their attention was otherwise directed if they did not hold down fulltime jobs. For years the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey served as the gathering point for a number of former Camden residents whose dispersion outside the city in the 1950s and 1960s left them hungry for familiar faces and an opportunity to reminisce about their former lives.
Over time, these facilities became increasingly privatized, as community-oriented events aimed at generating a sense of loyalty to place as well as the crowds to animate them gave way to simply enticing paying customers. Shortly after her important book, A Consumer’s Republic appeared in 2003, I invited author and Harvard University professor Lizabeth Cohen to do a talk and sought to locate it in the courtyard of the Cherry Hill Mall, which received a good deal of attention in her book.The managers of the property said she could do so, but only after paying a $5,000 fee to gain access to the mall’s customers. As an alternative, they suggested the mall’s only bookstore, which we rejected after the manager failed to recognize the name of the publisher: Knopf.
The great irony of the commercial redevelopment of the Garden State Race Track nearby was the argument that it would fulfill Cherry Hill’s need for a town center. Apparently no one remembered, let alone imagined the mall once had been touted for serving just that function. As the site developed into an amalgam of different pods—for big box stores and clusters of housing—it served less of a model of “new urbanism” and more of an illustration of the basic problem critics point to in suburbs: physically induced social isolation.
Given the chance to create better communities on relatively open land in suburbs in place of urban centers that had evolved over time, developers fell well short of creating communities that integrated effectively the needs that enable thriving communities. We all have our favorite shopping destinations, but it’s hard to think of them today as the civic investments they were originally intended to be.
Art Museum Joins Civic Advisory Board
We are pleased to welcome the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Encyclopedia’s Civic Advisory Board. Staff members from the Museum’s Center for American Art participated in the Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop that launched the project, and we look forward to working with them next year on a public program to explore Philadelphia’s reputation as “Athens of America.”
Bibliographic Survey Expanded
Our survey of recently published works about Philadelphia now covers books, articles, and dissertations since 1982. To find the most up-to-date research on numerous topics, link to the survey on our Bibliographic Survey page.
Bibliographic Survey Expanded
Looking for the latest word on Philadelphia? We are pleased to offer a newly expanded bibliographic survey of scholarship, public history work, and public policy studies about Philadelphia published since 1982. The survey is approximately one-third larger than the previous survey, with a significant expansion in entries related to public policy as well as updated coverage of scholarship published during 2009 and early 2010. Our thanks to bibliographer Hillary S. Kativa for her work on the survey and to the University of Pennsylvania Press for making this project possible.
Call for Authors, Editors, and Advisers:
Winter-Spring 2018
With nearly 600 topics already online, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is seeking authors to help complete priority subject categories. To view available assignments, link here for the list of topics.
To join more than 400 leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics and choice of deadline from January through May 2018. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware.
To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the project editorial assistant, Mikaela Maria, mikaelamaria3@gmail.com. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.
Call for Associate Editors and Advisers
We also invite expressions of interest from scholars or experienced editors interested in becoming associate editors for our next phase of expansion or supporting the project in other ways. These voluntary professional service roles might include any of the following:
- Reviewing subject categories, recruiting authors to fill gaps, and editing submissions.
- Preparing proposals for thematic books incorporating existing content.
- Reviewing submissions.
- Developing public events with community partners.
- Fund-raising.
- Improving the project’s WordPress website (programming knowledge required).
To express interest in becoming an editor or adviser, write to editor-in-chief Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu.
♦♦♦♦
Guidelines for writers and editors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/
Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/
Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/
Call for Authors, Summer 2021
We are approaching an exciting juncture for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project as we make plans to publish books derived from this digital platform. Scholars and other topic experts, you can help! Please review our list of most-needed topics so that we may fill gaps in our coverage. Your peer-reviewed essay will add to recognition of your expertise in your chosen field.
We seek to make assignments with firm deadlines of late summer or early fall, and modest compensation is available.
Call for Authors: 2016-17
The editors of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seek to make 50 additional assignments to complete our current phase of expansion. Now is the time to add your expertise to a resource used daily by teachers and students, journalists, scholars, and general readers.
To view the list of available assignments, link here:
To join more than 350 leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics. Authors will have the opportunity to select feasible deadlines between January and March 2017 and will have the option of volunteering or receiving modest stipends. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the editor-in-chief, Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia’s expansion is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia, and Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust. The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware.
Guidelines for writers:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/
Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/
Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/
Call for Authors: 2019-20
During 2019-20, our goal is to complete the remaining priority topics for the The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, which is nearly 600 topics strong and growing. Writing for The Encyclopedia adds to an unparalleled public information source for the region and establishes authors as the go-to authorities on their subjects. This year’s assignments will help to complete important subject categories.
To view available assignments, link here for the list of topics.
To join more than 350 leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics and choice of deadline from summer through early fall. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware.
To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to co-editor Howard Gillette, email hfg@scarletmail.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.
♦♦♦♦
Guidelines for writers and editors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/
Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/
Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/
Call for Authors: Summer-Fall 2017
As The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia surpasses 500 topics online, the editors seek to make additional assignments to help complete important content areas. To view the list of available assignments, link here:
To join more than 325 leading and emerging scholars who have already contributed to this peer-reviewed, digital-first project, let us know your choice of topics and choice of deadline from the end of August through December 2017. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware.
To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the editor-in-chief, Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.
Guidelines for writers:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/
Roster of authors:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/category/authors/
Editors and staff:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/editors/
Call for Contributors: Summer 2014
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks authors for its next phase of expansion. A wide range of topics is available, including subtopics related to communications, transportation, business and industry, the built environment, civil rights, literary works, holiday traditions, and key events in the region’s history. The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware.
Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. Authors will have the option of volunteering or receiving modest stipends, and all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Deadlines will be set in consultation with authors; it is expected that most will range from end of summer to the end of 2014. To express interest, please send an email describing your qualifications and specifying topics of interest to the editor-in-chief, Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu. No attachments, please. Graduate students, please include the name and email address of an academic reference.
Guidelines for writers are available online:
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/about/guidelines-for-writers/
(Readers on the Encyclopedia blog, click here to see the list of topics.)
Call for Proposals: Community Voices Gallery
Building on the widespread interest in our recent “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes” program at the Philadelphia History Museum, we’re pleased to call the following opportunity to your attention:
The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent has reopened with a new exhibition concept, a community history gallery featuring exhibitions designed and curated by neighborhood organizations about the work they do and the contributions they have made to the fabric of life in the city. One goal of this new exhibition gallery concept is to give Philadelphians an active voice in presenting the city’s history based upon historical, social, cultural, intellectual, or political concepts. The Philadelphia Voices Gallery will present three compelling exhibitions each year that give voice to the ways that Philadelphia’s community and neighborhood based organizations address issues including hunger, violence, homelessness, discrimination, housing, education, immigration, health, environment, and work.
For information on how to participate in this exciting opportunity, visit this web page:
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/communityhistorygallery
Call for Volunteer Authors – Summer 2012
Help us grow! During the summer of 2012, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks volunteer authors to contribute essays related to the themes of City of Neighborhoods, the Cradle of Liberty, and the Workshop of the World. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research. For further information, visit our list of available topics.
Call for Volunteer Authors, Spring-Summer 2013
We are grateful to all of our volunteer authors and editors who are making The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia possible. Every day we receive hundreds of page views from information seekers, including teachers, students, and interested readers not just locally but also across the country and around the world. Our authors include the most prominent historians of Philadelphia as well as young scholars making their marks with new research and other subject experts.
For our next expansion, we seek volunteer authors to contribute essays related to the built and natural environment and regional events and traditions. We also seek volunteer authors to write about counties in the region, and some topics remain available to continue expansion of the themes of City of Neighborhoods, the Cradle of Liberty, and the Workshop of the World. For more information and to see a list of available topics, click here.
Calling All Teachers: Your Chance to Explore the “Workshop of the World”
Please help us spread the word about this opportunity: On Wednesday, November 9, starting at 3:30 p.m., the Historical Society of Pennsylvania will host an Act 48 Professional Development workshop, “Workshop of the World.” Building upon the newest essay in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, this workshop is free and offers 3 hours of Act 48 credits. Learn more about Philadelphia’s industries and the people who worked in them, and consider new ways to introduce the topics to students. The program will include an opportunity to get up close with rarely exhibited artifacts and documents and to discuss with peers creative and relevant means of including industrialization in your curriculum. Co-sponsored with The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia in partnership with the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, National Constitution Center, National Archives at Philadelphia, and Independence National Historical Park. Advance registration is required – go to http://www.hsp.org/node/2311 .
Check Us Out on “City’s Best”
AOL’s City’s Best captures the essence of our project in a post this week by Gerry Johnson:
Sure, it’s an encyclopedia, but don’t confuse this with an outdated dinosaur like Britannica, the relic from the ’80s that took up an entire wall in your grandfather’s living room. This project includes an online volume, making it relevant and accessible in today’s digital world and giving readers a voice in the content.
Johnson takes note of the energetic participation in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable discussions, which are helping to shape the Encyclopedia’s contents. Next up is a discussion of Philadelphia as a “Holy Experiment,” on Thursday, April 14, at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street. To sign up, visit our Events page — and watch for the essay “Holy Experiment” on Sunday, April 10, in the Currents section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, on this web site, and on Newsworks.org.
Comment period extended for the Knight News Challenge – you can help
Thanks to everyone who has added comments, questions, and suggestions to our proposal in the Knight News Challenge. The competition closes this Saturday, March 17, [update: Thursday, March 29], so please continue to participate – you may also reply to others who have posted their comments. Here’s the link:
http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/18812768763/backgrounder-blasts-from-the-past-for-busy-reporters
As you have seen from previous announcements, our proposal would expand the Encyclopedia project with news-related content and provide historical backgrounders to journalists, via Twitter. We think this will also interest teachers, policy makers, and everyone who seeks connections between the past and the present. Over the last couple of weeks, we have been experimenting with the Twitter feed, which is available to follow here:
https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders
Thank you for your participation – as always!