Flags of the World
Flags of the World ( FOTW ) is an international association of vexillologists on the Internet. There is an online mailing list and website with the largest collection of flag customer information and images on the internet. The mailing list and website use English as their language. The FOTW mailing list was founded in September 1993 by the Italian Giuseppe Bottasini with a few dozen members, and the website has existed since 1994. FOTW joined the Fédération internationale des associations vexillologiques FIAV ( International Federation of Vexillological Associations ) in 2001 . The director of FOTW and successor to Bottasini has been the Canadian Rob Raeside since June 1998 .
Website
The FOTW website flagspot.net consists of more than 65,000 pages with more than 129,000 flag images (as of October 2017). This also includes an extensive vexillology dictionary.
In addition to Rob Raeside, the graphic editor, 35 other editors from around the world work on the website on a voluntary basis. It is usually supplemented and updated with new material on a weekly basis, but some of the 22 mirror pages in eight countries are only updated monthly. Due to the large amount of data, not all information is up-to-date, and some mirrors are no longer updated.
AP Burgers , in its 2008 The South African flag book, names the FOTW website as undoubtedly the most comprehensive website on flags. It is the main engine behind the global increase in interest in and collection of data on flags. According to Peter J. Orenski in 2003, all other flag projects ever undertaken are dwarfs compared to FOTW.
According to his own statement, the quality of the information published on the website is very variable: It not only contains known flags, but also drawings based solely on rumors, which are documented accordingly. The published articles are expressly declared as private opinions. FOTW declines any responsibility for the truthfulness and correctness of the information published.
Mailing list
The main source for the data on the FOTW website are the contributions of the 1125 members (as of February 2013) of the FOTW mailing list. A group of editors made up of unpaid volunteers manage and process the information. Another source of data are submissions to FOTW from around the world. There are no unchecked entries at FOTW. The management of the mailing list is carried out by a List Master whose post is filled by the members.
The first host of the mailing list was CESI . In July 1997 they moved to the University of California at Berkeley , a year later to QNET.com, in 2000 to eGroups.com and - after an increase in spam - 2001 to YahooGroups.com. When the Yahoo Groups were discontinued, they changed again, now to groups.io.
List Master was from 1997 the American Josh Fruhlinger and from 1998 the American Edward Mooney. In August 2000, the Dane Ole Andersen took over , followed by the American Steve Kramer in 2002 and, after his resignation for health reasons at the end of 2003, the Portuguese António Martins-Tuválkin. André Coutanche from Great Britain followed in 2005 and Jonathan Dixon from 2007 to 2009. From 2009, the French Ivan Ding held the post and from 2011 to 2013 Nathan Lamm was the new List Master. The current List Master is Dirk Schönberger.
flag
The organization's flag is an asymmetrically vertically divided, white and blue flag with five different colored stars pointing upwards that form a circle around a black star. The design is by Mark Sensen and was selected from ten candidates by voting on the mailing list. The flag was officially adopted on March 8, 1996. March 8 is the official flag day of FOTW.
Sensen explains the symbolism as follows:
- White stands for peace, blue for progress. The six colors of the stars are the most common colors used in flags. Together the many stars form the circle as a larger symbol. The connection that the stars form is the Internet.
The flag is mostly used online. But it also exists as a real flag, which is used, for example, at vexillology congresses.
Social media
With "Flags of the World (FOTW)" there is an official branch on Facebook . It was founded in 2010 by Edward Mooney Jr. and currently has 13,000 members (as of August 2020).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ FIAV current members , accessed on February 9, 2016.
- ↑ fiav.org: Current Members
- ↑ Flags of the World - start page ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 23, 2017.
- ^ AP Burgers: The South African flag book: the history of South African flags from Dias to Mandela. Protea Book House, 2008, ISBN 978-1-86919-112-2 , p. 34; Quote: “There are numerous websites on the Internet dealing with different aspects of flags. The most all-encompassing of these is without a doubt the website Flags of the World (FOTW). "
- ↑ AP Burgers, p. 35: "It would appear that the FOTW website has become a primary engine driving the expansion worldwide of the interest in and collection of data on and about flags."
- ↑ Peter J. Orenski: Quo Vadimus - An Essay on the State and Future of Vexillology ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 595 kB). P. 18: Cybervexillology: Flags of the World (FOTW): "FOTW dwarfs in scale any project ever undertaken in vexillology."
- ↑ Disclaimer ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of Flags of the World (English)
- ^ Flags of the World mailing list , accessed February 24, 2013.
- ↑ FOTW group on Facebook
