Many regular readers of the Militant read articles and editorials on-line as soon as they are posted, which means they don't have to wait for the paper to arrive through the mail. The Militant on-line has also become an important resource for socialist workers and youth who can search issues back to 1995 for information on world political developments.
"Many people tend to assume that some sort of specialized computer expertise is necessary" for preparing the web edition, said Peter Link, the current web administrator. "That's not so," he said. For the past eight years Link has been part of transforming the Internet edition from a posting of individual articles on a gopher site to a fully-fledged and attractive web site. Volunteer Pat Smith has also been instrumental in designing the current themilitant.com as well as the web site of Perspectiva Mundial.
"It's certainly helpful to know a little about HTML files, which are really a text file with simple formatting instructions that are visible. But there's nothing that can't be learned pretty quickly by someone who's comfortable working at a computer and can use word-processing software and an Internet browser."
Step one of the web administrator's job involves taking a text file of each article, and preparing it for the web. In step two, he or she posts the article to its own page on themilitant.com. A small selection of photos is also posted. Some half-dozen or so hours, sometimes spread over two nights, is required from start to finish. The work can be done from virtually anywhere in the world, so long as there is a phone connection.
If you are interested in volunteering to be the paper's web administrator, or would like to help out on a weekly basis, contact Patrick O'Neill at the Militant at (212) 243-6392, or themilitant@compuserve.com.