Dear all,

Please see below for details of how TRACEY - the site for drawing and visualisation research has evolved:

INTRODUCING TRACEY
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TRACEY: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/tracey/

TRACEY has evolved.  TRACEY was and is the site for drawing and visualisation research. We aim to stimulate, host and publish diverse perspectives on drawing and visualisation to/for a community of researchers, practitioners, educators and students. We advocate the value of drawing and visualisation in professional and educational contexts.
We encourage participation and collaboration.
Our aims are facilitated through three central activities: as host for the Drawing Research Network (DRN), as an open access online journal, and as a project space.

DRN: http://www.drawing-research-network.org.uk/tag/drn/

DRN is...
An international community of researchers/artists/designers/educators
A place where people can engage in debate about all aspects of drawing practice (theory, philosophy, education, methodology)
DRN does...
Moderate an email based forum (jiscmail) that supports the easy exchange of ideas and reference
Provide a website that provides information of events and related drawing activities
Host a blog for individual observations on drawing research
Facilitate and coordinates a regular conference with collaborating host institutions
Hold occasional meetings, symposia and seminars to discuss drawing research

TRACEY | journal: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/tracey/journal/index.html

TRACEY | journal is...
An electronic open access journal dedicated to the discussion of contemporary drawing and visualisation
Interested in the nature of visualisation - physically, cognitively, creatively
A place where people can engage in debate
TRACEY | journal does...
Publish drawing and visualisation research (visual, audio and textual)
Introduce a diverse range of material to practitioners, educators, students and researchers
Represent many perspectives on visualisation
Advocate the value of drawing in professional and educational contexts
Encourage participation and collaboration

TRACEY | project space: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/tracey/space/index.html

TRACEY | project space is...
An international academic research environment
A coherent critical context in which to facilitate and develop a project
An opportunity to collaborate
A space to host and develop dialogue
A showcase to prepare for publication
TRACEY | project space does...
Offer a specialist drawing and visualisation research context
Invite researchers to create new or add to existing drawing and visualisation projects
Nurture projects in an intellectual space to enable them to realise their aims
Review all project proposals
Facilitate and anticipate projects publishing in the TRACEY Journal
Please check the relevant pages above and their respective call for contributions if you would like to submit something to TRACEY for publication.
If you wish to contact us the please email [log in to unmask]

DRN WEBSITE
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For those of you who are members of the DRN primarily through the jiscmail system you may or may not be aware of the DRN website.

http://www.drawing-research-network.org.uk/

We're glad to say that the site is going from strength to strength.  We have recently introduced "invite only" system to avoid the increasing problem of spam on the site.  Now that has been successfully implemented we are able to focus upon providing the best Drawing Research sites on the web! We will be updating our guidelines for using the site soon based upon the activities of the DRN and feedback received. If you have any specific questions you would like to see answered then please email [log in to unmask] with your suggestions.

ACTIVITY
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You will see there are a few minor changes to the homepage on the DRN site. One of them is the addition of the "Update Your Status or Activity" button on the right hand side. This replaces the PONDER button but links to the same place - the ACTIVITY page. We are keen to encourage users to use the activity page in the same way they would use Twitter but with updates in their drawing activity and simple notices about forthcoming events. "Why don't you have a DRN Twitter page or even a Facebook page?" I hear you say? Well, these are things to consider but the reality is that they all require significant attention to make them useful to the community so we would rather keep the DRN activity focussed and part of the same website.
HELP US IMPROVE THE DRN
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We have now tidied up the site and there are 220 happily drawing DRNers making their mark. I won't labour the point, but as mentioned in the previous email if you could login to your account using the link below then add a photo of yourself or your work and update your biography with your interests in drawing and other relevant details this will help generate a richer source of information for the community to use:
http://www.drawing-research-network.org.uk/wp-admin/
DRN GALLERY
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There have been the occasional users who have uploaded an image to the DRN system expecting it to appear in the GALLERY. This is not how the gallery page works as it is linked to Flickr. We are updating our guidelines soon and will let you know in more detail how to get your work featured.