Black Culture on the Net
McKissack, Fredrick Jr.
ON THE LINE Black Culture on the Net San Francisco Which on-line service first featured a question-and-answer session with a sitting head of state? If you guessed it was f CompuServe hosting a...
...In April, NetNoir, Inc., was chosen by America Online from a pool of more than 1,700 applicants to participate in the AOL Greenhouse program...
...It was a black culture that was the first to do this," he said...
...America Online is a minority shareholder in NetNoir...
...If you want to debate affirmative action, I want you to be here...
...Content providers to NetNoir include VIBE magazine, Perspective Records, Motown Records, AmeriCares, and Blue Marlin, a specialty athletic apparel company based in San Francisco that is providing information on the Negro Baseball Leagues...
...The company also has a site on the worldwide web (http://www...
...Brown & Son, says America Online itself was founded on the idea of serving many diverse interests...
...Log on and find out...
...Ellington, a Los Angeles-based lawyer with a background in international law as well as multimedia/new technology law, remembers a board meeting where he said he wanted to do something memorable and imaginative during the first few days NetNoir was being used by America Online members...
...NetNoir, Ellington said, is dedicated to digitizing, archiving, and distributing global Afrocentric content in cyberspace...
...To achieve this, some parts of the service will be in French and Spanish...
...If you guessed it was f CompuServe hosting a "town meeting" with President Bill Clinton, you'd be wrong...
...NetNoir was formed in January 1995, by Ellington and Malcolm CasSelle, a former director of digital publishing at Blast Publishing, who serves as the company's chief technology officer...
...I said, 'OK, you do that.'" Ellington is still excited about the historic event...
...Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who's a member of our advisory board, said, 'Why don't I call the [Haitian presidential] palace,' " Ellington recalls...
...NetNoir can be accessed on AOL by using the keyword function and typing in "NetNoir...
...netnoir.com...
...He calls the service "a win-win venture...
...These visits have on occasion caused quite a stir among some of the service's black users, whom Ellington thinks are misguided in wanting to limit the board to the brothers and sisters...
...Afrocentric cybernauts: (from left) Greg Mays, E. David Ellington, Malcolm CasSelle, and Marcelino Ford-Livene...
...Gregory Mays, a former distribution manager for Columbia Pictures, and Marcelino FordLivene, a lawyer and former financial analyst, were hired as vice president of business affairs and chief financial officer, respectively...
...NetNoir debuted for America Online's three million subscribers on June 19 or June-teenth, the oldest African-American holiday...
...There will be a total of eighteen departments added within the next year and a half, including film, health, women's issues, politics, religion, and comics...
...If your interests are genuine, and you want to support and celebrate Afrocentric culture, then come on in here...
...A few non-blacks visit the board from time to time...
...Fredrick McKissack Jr...
...It is positioning itself to be a "crossover" service...
...The service was launched with four departments: music, sports, education, and business...
...Net-Noir, the new Afrocentric address on America Online, had Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide over for a chat with computer users on July 5. Surprised...
...NetNoir has tremendous opportunity to capture a portion of the on-line community," he says...
...But Steven Eskenazi, an analyst with the investment banking firm Alex...
...There is some question about NetNoir's viability, given that only 14 percent of black households in America own a personal computer...
...From time to time I have to go on-line and say, 'Hey, ya'll cool out for a while,'" Ellington said...
...So was the company's president and CEO, E. David Ellington...
...Greenhouse assists newcomers in the creation of on-line content and interactive services for America Online and the Internet...
...If that's not forward-thinking, I don't know what is...
Vol. 59 • September 1995 • No. 9
