1993 was the year of the last issue of our good old paper-printed version of
Friends of the Algae Newsletter (FotAN). Today, January 21, 2003 (ten years
later) marks its renaissance.

http://www.ku.edu/~ifaa/fotan-12.html

The original FotAN was an informal publication of scientists working with,
or just interested in, fossil algae and cyanobacteria. It consisted of the
names and addresses, research interests and publications of the subscribers.
The Newsletter was begun in the mid-1970's by, among others, Don Toomey and
John Wray (if you can add to this story, please let us know!). It was
produced over the years under the editorship of Don Toomey, John Wray, John
Cys (whom we thank for much of this history), Corinne Danielli, and Andy
Torres, among others. Its production was interrupted in 1993 because the
editors (Corinne Danielli and Andy Torres, at the time) ran out of money for
typing, printing and shipping via snail mail - especially the latter!

But now the WWW and related tools (browsers, e-mail) allow these production
and distribution costs to be significantly cut. Corinne Danielli and Bruno
Granier are very pleased to bring you this electronic version of FotAN.
Bruno Granier has created the website for the IFAA, hosted by the server of
the University of Kansas thanks to Andrew Torres and colleagues. FotAN pages
in HTML will be hosted by the same server (more thanks to Andrew Torres and
colleagues). In addition, FotAN pages in PDF will be hosted by the server of
the University of Western Cape (thanks to Derek Keats and colleagues).

The IFAA, i.e. the International " Fossil Algae " Association, is a
non-profit organisation - there are NO fees or dues - for the study of
fossil algae: taxonomy, morphology, biology, biostratigraphy, palaeoecology,
mineralization, etc. Its website address is:
http://www.ku.edu/~ifaa/index.html. The IFAA page was launched on April
28th, 2000; see the News page for updates. The site includes parts where you
can load information: entertainment pages (including a quiz page), a poll
page, a message board, publication news, etc. Have you some feedback for us?
If so, sign the Guestbook! This is - in addition to the CALCALGA list - the
easiest way to communicate with us. A sidebar panel "Affiliate Ring" calls
up a ring of websites called Fossil and Modern Algae that brings together a
set of pages dealing with benthic algae and/or bacteria.

We'd like the new FotAN to cover both fossil and modern algae for the
benefit of everybody (biologists, ecologists, palaeontologists,
stratigraphers, sedimentologists). Pages are planned with announcements for
meetings, conferences, and other events. Accordingly, we are currently
looking for a specialist in modern (including calcifying or mineralising)
algae/Cyanobacteria to join us in organising the modern alga stuff. If you
are interested, or if you know anyone who might be, do let us know! There
may be enough work for two such individuals!

B.G.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: To visit the IFAA site at its best [
http://www.ku.edu/~ifaa/index.html ] it is recommended that you should use
the latest version of any of the following browsers:

Windows
Mozilla (+++) http://www.mozilla.org/
Internet Explorer Microsoft (++) http://www.microsoft.com/
Netscape 7.0 Netscape http://www.netscape.com

MacOS
Mozilla (+++) http://www.mozilla.org/
Internet Explorer 5.2.2 Microsoft (++) http://www.microsoft.com/mac/ie
Netscape Netscape (++) http://www.netscape.com