Clockwise from top left, Cary Tennis, Willa Paskin, Mary Elizabeth Williams and Natasha Lennard
The name of this website provides insight into the intentions of its founders. From the beginning-the way back in the early Internet culture in 1995-the idea is that Salon.com will serve as a virtual version of the old fairy tale salon Although the word “salon” is often preceded by “hair” in modern times, our goal has always been to invoke the concept of eclectic, freewheeling intellectual meetings.
With the advent of Web 2.0 and social media, the idea of a website that provides a hub for conversation is no longer unique, but we at Salon still saw this as part of our mission. You may have seen a growing number of banners on our site lately to promote webcast. This schedule is developed is part of an effort to provide an opportunity for the reader to connect with Salon writers and each other.
For those of you who haven’t joined one yet, this webcast format is simple: they are basically video chat in which participants can submit questions and comments to “host” — the author — in real time, and there is also a live-chat window embedded into the webcast so that the audience can interact with each other throughout the event.
So far, they’ve been a lot of fun. For a taste of the experience, you can check out a short highlight reel from a webcast we did with Joan Walsh and Steve Kornacki around Florida GOP primary here.
