The Column: exploring the world of creativity and aesthetics.

A New Chapter

This is my first column in a long time. I hoped to return sooner, however my creative work at EyeInvent and my commercial commitments with 2BrightSparks kept me from this place. It is therefore apt that a new chapter begins with my announcement to re-focus my not-for-profit work which seeks to encourage and support creativity.

AbleStable has provided a free directory of creative professionals and hundreds of free resources for over ten years. Over this time I have made many friends and been privileged in receiving contributions to the site from around the world. Millions of visitors have enjoyed the freeware on offer, articles, reviews, tools, exhibitions, and online creative activities. Thanks to all those who have traveled with me on this journey.

The Directory

The directory of creative professionals is at the heart of AbleStable, people have in the past arrived at the site either becuase they are searching for a creative professional (illustrators, copywriters, photographers etc.), or they wish to be listed as one on the directory. Once they're here they realize there's a lot more on offer than the directory, and they pass on their enthusiasm to their friends and colleagues.

I've always kept tight editorial control over the directory to ensure AbleStable's principle of being a family friendly site where honest and accurate information is maintained. Maintaining the directory manually has however been increasingly demanding, and yet if those listed on the directory received full control over what is published on their profile page, the degree of support and monitoring of the directory would hit the roof, and the descriptions of creative services and accomplishments would be less easily verified.

Over the last year I have found it increasingly difficult to maintain the directory as the abuse of online membership forms and Spam emails have resulted in an overwhelming demand on my time. For every valid member application there are twenty invalid applications, yet each application needs to be reviewed to sort the chaff from the wheat. When I opened my AbleStable inbox to find three and a half thousand emails I reluctantly decided the time had come to phase out the directory and take a long hard look at what I wanted to achieve.

Creative i World

The numerous resources that I and others have developed and share freely with the Internet community will be hosted on a new site "creative i world". The domain name far better sums up it's purpose for a long term future.

"creative i world" will be a destination of enrichment, and will maintain my approach in offering free resources that fosters the exploration of creative potential. In common with AbleStable, I will encourage those who wish to show their support for the site by providing a clear path for their donations to the charity Oxfam.

Over the coming weeks and months you will begin to see the gradual migration of resources from AbleStable to creative i world. As AbleStable is very well indexed on search engines, I will continue to host the site and redirect web pages individually to their new home. The change will therefore be gradual, and because of the high volume of resources, the completion of the migration will take some time.

I remain an irrepressible optimist, and my profound conviction continues to be that exploring our creativity is the world's best hope for peace, cooperation, and constructive communication. My hope is that creative i world will contribute to that goal.

Kind Regards,

Mike de Sousa
AbleStable


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