The Observer was a newsletter / journal made available over the Internet. It was established as a result of an August 1992 discussion at the Dublin City University conference on 'Autopoiesis and Perception'. Francisco Varela (one of autopoietic theory's co-creators) was asked (1) if there was or had been a forum dedicated to autopoietic theory and (2) whether such a forum would be constructive for international researchers interested in this work. Varela indicated there had never been such a forum, and he approved of the idea to set one up. Randall Whitaker (then at Umeå Universitet in Sweden) volunteered to establish and manage The Observer as an email periodical. The inaugural issue was broadcast to 28 subscribers in February 1993. In two years, the subscriber population had grown to 15 times its initial size.
Effective with issue #13 (May 1997), The Observer shifted to the World Wide Web as its primary venue. This move was in accordance with subscribers' views in response to an autumn 1996 survey.
The Observer has been made obsolete by Webpages and discussion forums on the Internet.
This newsletter / journal has now been discontinued.
This site is maintained only for archival purposes.
Editorial Philosophy
The editorial philosophy had been aimed at accomplishing four goals:
To provide a vehicle for scholarly discussion focused on autopoietic theory and enactive cognitive science
To make this forum available to the widest international audience
To provide basic resources useful for scholars at all levels of familiarity with Maturana and Varela's work
To make this work useful for scholars in all the diverse fields where autopoiesis is invoked
The Observer had pursued these goals by providing a forum in which
relevant issues can be presented, background analyses offered, books reviewed,
and researchers introduced. In addition to the newsletter / journal, basic resource materials on autopoietic theory have been generated, compiled, and made available as ASCII text files. These resources supplement the forum by giving the global autopoiesis community tools facilitating their understanding and application of Maturana and Varela's work.
The Archive of Back Issues
This section affords you access to the archived issues of The Observer. You can access the issues directly through your Web browser, or you can download them to your computer from one or another FTP site.
To Browse Back Issues of The Observer:
The following links allow you to browse the back issues of The Observer, which are listed and indexed in chronological order.
There are two distinct segments of the archive:
Issues 1 - 12 (1993-1996)
The first 12 issues of The Observer originally existed only as ASCII text files. HTML versions of these initial releases were crafted by Kevin McGee to provide access to the newsletter for the proliferating audience of the World Wide Web.
Thanks, Kevin!
Issues 13 - ?? (1997-??)
Beginning with issue #13 (May 1997), HTML versions of The Observer are being archived here at The Observer Web.
To Download Back Issues of The Observer:
You can FTP the ASCII text back issues of The Observer from:
The Dublin City University FTP Site Thanks to Barry McMullin!
