The Virtualology Project aboutus -- "History is the Crystal Ball to the
Future" -- Stan Klos The Virtualology Project aboutus -- "History is the Crystal Ball to the
Future" -- Stan Klos
The Virtualology Project, founded in 1999,
designed its own search engine, Evisum.com [2] and coupled it with an online research model that
included over 7,500 unique URL addresses of notable individuals (GaiusJuliusCaesar.com),
events (BattleofYorktown.com), places (HimalayaMountains.com) and things (thedeclarationofindependence.org).
In 1999, this enabled visitors to merely type the researched name into any
browser, yielding a Virtualology ™ educational site. These educational sites
were organized into five virtual museums and one virtual library.
The distinctive twist was that each domain name became an exclusive
student-publishing web site. Student submissions were presented through their
teachers and routed directly to the individual sites either to the URLS' editing
sponsors or to Virtualology ™ Editors. Editing sponsors were comprised of
educators from a variety of educational institutions including museums,
libraries, foundations, universities, and historical societies who became
responsible for their URL’s content.
Virtualology created an environment where students published their work on
URLS named for the topic of their research. 13 months after Virtualology's
launch USA Today voted it as
one of its “Hot Sites”.[3] Klos wrote:
Instead of our children pointing to their initials on the top of some mall
video game; they can give their family and friends the URL address to their
published paper at gaiusjuliuscaesar.com or map sketch at ferdinandmagellan.com
or photo at himalayamountains.com or model at tyrannosaurusrex.org or oil
painting at michaelangelobuonarot.com celebrating their academic achievements.
Great student works would no longer be limited to the refrigerator door!
Editing sponsors reviewed, selected student works and Virtualology posted the
papers, photos, drawings, videos etc… to the appropriate domain URLS. The
concept, however, faltered with the collapse of internet advertising revenue in
2001. Additionally students and teachers in 1999-2001 were not internet savvy
and there was only a minor interest in the online student publishing
opportunities.
Virtualology Today
Virtualology was a Millennium dot.com survivor and continues with its mission
to “foster an understanding of humanity's great moments, exceptional minds,
remarkable talents, infamous actions, great events, natural history, scientific
discoveries, and the celebration of individuals.” The Virtualology project, in
addition to its founding content, placed Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American
Biography, online at www.famousamericans.net in 2002 to compliment the historic
domain names.
Many of the original domain names set aside for student publishing, were
donated to[4] libraries [5] foundations, [6]universities, and historical
societies [7] that participated in the early Virtualology
student publishing. Several organizations have continued with the Virtualology
student publishing model at their respective sites with some awarding college
scholarships to winning entries [8]
The Virtualology Project was relocated to New Orleans in 2011.
Unauthorized Site:
This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected,
associated with or authorized by the individual, family,
friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or
the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated
sites that are related to this subject will be hyper
linked below upon submission
and Evisum, Inc. review.
