Long time readers of this website know that it is my – admittedly irregular – commitment to report to readers  on what’s been happening with the project.

It’s even possible that you would like to see it continue to do what it’s been doing on this website since 2014, which is expanding on the technology reporting I’ve been doing since 1995.

It’s now been six months since our main source of revenue fees for first run publication of the writing that appears here from NewsdayTT abruptly disappeared. This is, therefore, a typically roundabout, unnecessarily long request for you to donate (you can skip the rest and donate here) to help keep things going.

But first, this is what’s been happening since Newsday went away.

The end of that professional relationship also ended any of the constraints that newspaper publication imposed on the site so changes have been bleeding into the reporting approach.

Attentive readers might have noticed that the column that appeared here was often longer than the one that appeared in Newsday (Fun fact. Id write the column then cut it down to 750 words every week). There are no word limits here, nor, for that matter, are there deadlines. The stories are now as long as they need to be.

You won’t be seeing any 200 word columns, but the weekly BitDepth column now routinely flexes out at between 1,200 and 2,200 words since January. No, I don’t use AI to write. My HI is just fine.

Because I send a newsletter to readers listing the new stories for the week on a Tuesday morning (yes, you should subscribe, there’s form you can use at the end of this post), I am committed to ensuring that a column gets done by Monday night.

The weekly column might appear anywhere from the Friday before to a minute before midnight on the Monday. Both things have happened and are likely to continue to happen.

The site was recently refreshed, improving some features like search and the single post page, reducing the reliance on plug-ins for basic code and making the mobile site more accessible generally to readers.

Having spent some time with my analytics, two things are clear. As many readers start their journey on the home page as those who begin on a particular story. Some of those stories have very long tails on the internet, pulling in numbers years after their first publication. Some of those changes are meant to improve discovery of related stories.

But wait, you might be asking, why not do another first-run deal with one of the two remaining newspapers? Fair question, since both the TTExpress and TTGuardian have published the column and related reporting in the past. Unfortunately, neither paper has any interest in it today. Yes, I’ve asked.

The late Keith Smith put the column on the Express OpEd pages. Lennox Grant brought it to the Guardian. Judy Raymond picked it up at Newsday. Keith has passed on, and Lenny and Judy are largely out of the business.

The occasional paid story placements (all from the metropoles) have largely dried up, because I don’t accept stories that link to gambling, drinking, smoking or pornography, no matter how well-written they might turn out to be.

I have no personal objection to people who find their pleasures in any or all those pursuits, but I don’t think that’s top of mind when someone shows up here.

So I turn to you, the reader to ask for support. If you can, it would be great.

I do plan to reach out to local businesses to pitch a new way to reach the TechNewsTT audience in a respectful, mutually rewarding way, but that’s still being shaped. Look out for Insights as a new category of stories here.

Increasingly, the business of providing primary source reporting is starting to look more like a public good than a viable commercial proposition, so I’m turning to the audience, the readers of this work, you, to pass the tip jar.

There is no brinksmanship to this request, nor is there a recommended contribution.
The site’s focus is so niche that a paywall would be absurd.

I am considering some sort of digital gift to people who contribute meaningfully or indeed, at all, but that’s only going to happen at some point down the road when I can rationalise the expenses that accompany the practical matters of the project’s upkeep.

For now, I plan to continue what I’ve been doing, at a level I can reasonably sustain, because the reason I started writing about technology 31 years ago is even more important and relevant today.

I remain committed to crafting an online experience that addresses the evolving landscape of technology in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region in a respectful, if sometimes challenging way, reflecting all the perspectives and opinions that should be considered in our national and personal development.
If you can support, great.

If you can’t, also great. Just keep reading, I appreciate your presence.