Web Critique: Creative Audio Archive, AREA Chicago

Creative Audio Archive (http://www.exsost.org/creative-audio-archive/)
The mission of the Creative Audio Archive is such a valuable one. The technology for recording and listening to sound has changed so much since the earliest recordings this organization has archived--from records to tapes to CDs to mp3s (with the eight-track making a brief appearance somewhere in there). By cataloging and preserving non-mainstream sound from the days before Garage Band and podcasts, they are rescuing sound that definitely would otherwise become lost forever.

But really, not a single audio file on their entire site? Am I missing something? Seconds after I went to their homepage, I plugged my headphones into the computer, expecting to hear lots of cool stuff. Obviously they have an enormous amount of sound archived, which can be accessed by appointment, so I don't expect their staff of five people to convert every single recording to mp3 format. But maybe one or two? I'm not very familiar with non-mainstream sound or experimental music, so I'm curious to just hear a sample. That might make me interested in making an appointment to hear their whole collection or even becoming a member. I wonder if the lack of audio files on their site is a conscious decision; are they anti-podcast? Are they clinging to the good old days of records only? Do they really, really, really want their collection to be available in person only so they can control the environment of people's listening experience?

This web critique would not be complete without acknowledging that their searchable archive seems impressive; that must have taken ages. I see that it's done with XML, which I sort of dabbled in at work (we published both textbooks and online courses, and it made the process of converting from one to the other as automated as possible), and it seems to be the magical key to searching/automation in general. Hmmm, can XML automatically write a thesis?

AREA Chicago (http://www.areachicago.org/)
After spending some time with this site, I still can't decide whether I like the noticeable lack of color. On the one hand, it conveys seriousness; on the other hand, it's awfully serious. Since its content is, in the end, pretty serious, I'm going to go ahead and say the black and white thing is OK with me.

I really appreciate they have several different ways to find your way to different articles. You can find them by issue, a list of topics, a list of contributors, or a good old-fashioned search box. Through testing out all of these options, I came across interesting articles I probably wouldn't have found using the other methods. The staff obviously put a lot of time into organizing and tagging their content, which further convinces me to not really mind that they didn't seem to focus too much on layout.

I just love the People's Atlas of Chicago! I really enjoyed looking through people's maps and now I'm thinking of all the different themes for maps I can make. I've always wanted to make a list/map of places in the Loop where you can use a restroom without buying anything*, but I was devasted to find out that someone did that already--my brother sent me a link to a site called freepee.com or something like that. I'd Google it now, but I'm in a public computer lab and I don't want to get any weird glares.

*E-mail me to benefit from my years of dedicated research.