Excerpt:
A 'virtual' journal in an academic world that has already rendered itself virtual? How appropriate!" That was how one colleague described our project—to publish a journal of history that uses hypertext and multimedia technologies to merge audio, video, graphics, and text into a form that can only be communicated on the World Wide Web (WWW) or on CD-ROM/DVD mediums. She missed the point. It was precisely because so much of what we were doing as professional historians seemed so isolating that we wanted to "get out on the Web," to reach not only academicians, but an entire universe of interested readers. We wanted to bring serious historical scholarship and pedagogy under the scrutiny of amateurs and professionals alike, to utilize the promise of digital technologies to expand history's boundaries, merge its forms, and promote and legitimate innovations in teaching and research that we saw emerging all around us. So it was gratifying to find our skeptics in the minority and many lauding our efforts. A number of administrators at the University at Albany generously supported our venture, providing us with critically needed start-up funds, and thus helping to give birth to The Journal for MultiMedia History (JMMH). Our own History Department was equally munificent. So we are here, and as difficult as it was to get this first issue out, we intend to stay.