RSSAlthough no policy decisions about the site are taken without the brooding, fretful, dangerous, Bond-like presence of the man with his name in its title, the twin tasks of keeping the decisions rational and of carrying them out devolve mainly on Cécile Menon, this website's copy-editor, art director, administrator and webmaster. In addition to English as precisely good as her French, Cécile is in possession of a third language which remains to me almost a complete mystery: she knows how to converse with my computer. Since the computer contains the very complex platform of the website, this skill is invaluable. (I've just been told that the platform is not actually in the computer at all, but somewhere else in cyberspace. You see what she is up against when dealing with me.) For the benefit of journalists who might very understandably be looking for a human angle when assigned to write about this fumbling hobby of my dotage, here is a brief biography of my CEO, girl assistant, Webmeisterin, amanuensis, organizer, gatekeeper, wardress, minder, junior soulmate, guide dog, proofreader and personal trainer.
Cécile Menon was born in France in 1972 and has been living in London since 1998. She also works as a freelance translator and is studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Westminster on the French author Robert Pinget. In late 2004 she set up as a freelance web consultant, mainly for me.
(In the photograph, Cécile is captured relaxing in the "Rive Gauche" recreation area of this website's command vessel, holding geostationary orbit somewhere above Mexico City.)
A vital development in the short history of the website was the commissioning in late 2006 of a CMS (content management system) so that material could be uploaded to the site directly from Cécile's keyboard and even, when she allowed me to touch it, from mine. (This latter consideration was no bagatelle, because there were several times, while the hideously complicated test site was running, that I could have fired the whole lot off to oblivion at the touch of a button.) Before the arrival of the CMS, everything depended on access to the already overcommitted time of the original constructor, so there were frustrating delays. The CMS has solved them.
Born in 1965, John Bryan has been a freelance IT consultant for 14 years as ALT2 Limited, researching and developing website technologies suitable for business and community portals, and providing, he says, specialist skills to large corporate businesses as well as commercial websites for creative, if masochistic, fun. Having been tinkering with computers since the birth of the home-computer in the early 80's, our programmer refuses to believe that he no longer qualifies as a whiz kid – give him a screwdriver and he will take anything apart. (It will probably even work again afterwards although there are usually a few parts left over.) John confesses to spending too much time playing with computer technology to ever make any money at it. His work for this website since August 2007 is no exception to the rule, but his expertise and dedication have made him an essential contributor to its development and maintenance. Click here to read his engaging account of how the site is built.
Nicholas Watts, chief technical officer to Simon Larcey at the firm which is now called In London, (www.inlondon.com) built the website's platform when both it and the parent organization were called Welcome Stranger. The relevant section of the company is now called Welcome Stranger Publishing Limited.
Simon Larcey, on behalf of In London's web services arm (Welcome Stranger Publishing Limited), is ready to field any enquiries from individuals or organizations looking to build a structure similar to that of this site or any other pattern. He can be contacted personally at simon [at] inlondon.com.
Dominic Cellier was the original designer of this website, and, despite many modifications since, the basic look that he devised has been gratefully retained.
I should say on behalf of the above three people that it was my fuddy-duddy insistence which ensured that no fold-out menus or pop-up features were included in the layout, which is rigidly square — first press this and then press that — because of my conviction that there will always be born, in any generation, a majority of people who, like me, couldn't connect the transformer to the tracks of a Hornby Dublo train set if their lives depended on it.