William S. Wilson, author of the story collection, Why I Don't Write Like Franz Kafka, audited the discussions on the new ebr Interface and posted a series of letters (backchannel), under the header, Why I Don't End Construction. His reasons have to do with audience building.

Elisabeth Joyce, co-editor of ebr3, Writing (Post) Feminism, entered the discussion on the new interface after the initiating posts by ebr design editor Anne Burdick, publisher Mark Amerika, editor Joseph Tabbi, and barker Rob Wittig. Joyce's post drew our very first gloss - by ebr contributing editor Steve Tomasula.

Responding to the potential for having "all of ebr current" and even viewable on a single screen, Brigham wonders if it might not be better to kill off content. Brigham's model is the Blair Witch project.

Steve Tomasula, who co-edited the two "image + narrative" issues of ebr in 1997, came in at the tailend of the discussions, when we stopped talking and began the three-year-long process of buiding the database/interface.

Brian Lennon, who at the time of the discussions was reviewing a book on experimental poetry and poetics, joined the END CONSTRUCTION discussion as its first phase was winding down.

Rob Wittig, since composing this response, has been serving as the "street barker" who announces the appearance of new ebr content.

Joseph Tabbi responds to posts from the journal design editor and publisher, using terms derived from an essay he was editing at the time. The audience database mentioned here was implemented for ebr11, wEBaRts, and further developed for the launch of End Construction! (Feb 2002)

Publisher Mark Amerika's reaction to Burdick's proposal for ebr3.0...

A note on the origins and development of ebr version 3.0, End Construction!

In the fall of 1997, with the launch of ebr version 2.0, ebr editors Anne Burdick and Joseph Tabbi introduced a weaving metaphor to describe the journal interface. Three years later, Burdick sent in the following proposal for ebr 3.0, an entirely new version that enacts the metaphor using database technology.

Joseph Tabbi reviews the essay collection Simulacrum America.

Gene Kannenberg, Jr. finds the most well-publicized comic by one of America's most significant cartoonists to be technically accomplished, challenging as narrative but finally all too true to its title: the characters and situations in David Boring are in fact boring.

Following Katherine Hayles, Matthew Kirschenbaum agrees that materiality matters.

Mark Hansen responds to Linda Brigham's review of Embodying Technesis: Technology Beyond Writing.

In her Sonic Spectrum survey, Elise Kermani invited readers to locate sounds on the spectrum from noise to sound to music. Here, Skip LaPlante responds with an autobiography in music, sound, and noise.