Roger-Wilco – One year down the road

Back in spring 2009 I knew that a lot of us had a lot to say about air traffic management, its future, present and past. What I was not quite sure of was where to say it. Speakers’ Corner in London was not an option and I suspected the official sites of the big ATM organizations would not be exactly happy with some of the things we would want to say.
When the idea of an ATM blog was first floated inside the company, I was reluctant. A lot of people perceive blogs as the trumpet of disgruntled people where they can air their gripes with relative impunity… But then there are other types of blogs also that deliver quality and useful insights… Weighing the possibilities, the decision was made to go for a blog and to make it into this second kind.
In terms of the actual format we decided early on that we did not want to be a discussion forum (plenty of those around) and we did not want to be a news portal either (lots and lots of those also). I was most attracted to something akin to an electronic magazine with full length, informative articles, news items that would not go stale within a day or so, commentary on actual developments and a section on books (both printed and electronic) that we would recommend. In other words, Roger-Wilco had to be something apart, something that befits the first ATM blog ever.

I was also keen on ensuring that we treated our subject matter from viewpoints that were not aligned with any official position as such. We would call a spade a spade and if we saw a problem, we would not brush it under the carpet. But we would also wholeheartedly cheer when cheering was called for.
Roger-Wilco launched on 23 July 2009. The number of visitors has been growing steadily ever since and the graph is still heading North. I believe the formula we have chosen is probably the right one. Analysis of the site shows that readers do find us, spend a lot of time on the site and our page-view count is also going up. At the same time, we get relatively few comments. This is a situation similar to what happens with paper magazines… you read it but few readers actually write to the editors. We do welcome comments of course but having people read our stuff is what Roger-Wilco is all about.
Of course we have gotten to where we are with the enthusiastic help of our contributors whom I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart! Without their varied and colorful submissions, Roger-Wilco would be a far less interesting place. I would also like to thank BluSky’s multimedia folks who have created not only the original design but have labored ever since to iron out the quirks we encountered along the way. A big, big thank you to everyone!
Roger-Wilco publishes a new item every week-day (except in the Summer holiday period where we use a more realxed publishing cycle) and this schedule will continue into the second year of our life. There is still plenty to talk about so I am sure we will not run out of material to share. But if you do feel like contributing yourself, your stuff is also very welcome. Just read the Contribute item to learn how to do it.
Happy reading of the first ATM blog!