Monday, September 27, 2010

Stampopedia

According to a write-up on Britain's Sunday Times website,  the Stampopedia website, "is developed around a somewhat unique premise – that stamps reflect the morals, values and concerns of a country – and that they can be used to study not only moments of historical significance, but to explore the shifting kaleidoscope of values and concerns that inspired their creation."

The site was created by Christie Alwis, a telecommunications engineer at Sri Lanka Telecom and Imtiaz Muhsin,the former principal of Crescent Schools International.

Reporter Smriti Daniel pens, "Together, the two have envisioned an interactive site that provides a space for stamp collectors and general knowledge buffs...With a collection of 1,500 exclusively Sri Lankan stamps, the site is still in its infancy, but the information that accompanies each stamp is detailed...As for the exploring the stamps themselves, you have several options. You could try by date of issue, by category or even in alphabetic order. Here, it’s the category mode that most justifies the concept of stampopedia as an encyclopaedia. A fourth option, that of the timeline mode can produce fascinating results."

Mushin is quoted as saying there’s room for everyone and a lot of room to expand. He welcomes developers as volunteers.

The article goes on to say, "He’d like to make the space a collaborative one and is open to design input and suggestions for additional features. (Use the ‘contact’ option on the site to tell him your ideas.) As for the less technically inclined, he invites you to add your collection of stamps, take responsibility for maintaining updates for a country or a topic and submit articles and essays."

To read the enitre piece, click here.
Bookmark and Share
posted by Don Schilling at 12:01 AM