The Inductive: Volume II

Here we are one year after launching The Inductive.  If you go down to the archives at the bottom of the right column, you'll see that entries start in July of last year but this was at the old Wordpress blog, which we imported to The Inductive last November.  Our Google Analytics account for this site dates from November 19th, so that is how we shall mark our anniversary.  

What We've Accomplished:

(1.) 207 published posts in Specific Facts, totaling approximately 165,000 words, which puts our one-year blog output about halfway between Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code.  

(2.) twenty-four published, full-length articles in General Principles, totaling about 72,000 words, the approximate length of Michael Crichton's classic The Andromeda Strain. 

(3.) seventy-two published entries in Dispatches From the Wild Wild East - about 50,000 words - close to the length of E.L. Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times.  

(4.) nine reviews of classic or topical films and albums in the Art of Leisure - 13,000 words - the length of two full New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, or Atlantic articles.

(5.) The grand total word output for the Inductive thus far is approximately 300,000 words spread across 312 entries, which means at this pace, we'll eclipse War and Peace sometime early next summer.

(6.) We've had somewhere between 60,000 and 90,000 pageviews in the last year, and somewhere between 23,000 and 30,000 unique visitors during that same period.  This makes about 250 pageviews and 90 visitors per entry, but there is a wide range.  Most posts for Dispatches from the Wild Wild East attract few readers, while our reviews seem to be very popular.

(7.) While today is only November 22nd, this month is already the best so far for the Inductive in terms of hits and visitors.  The blogosphere and Google have been kind to us.  The numbers showcased in (6.) should continue to increase steadily in 2011.    

(8.) Six authors from disparate backgrounds contributed to the Inductive in our first year.

What's Changed:

Josh has disappeared into the African bush, and Joe has been busy with grad school work, so I have been the dominant voice of the blog for the last few months.  Since the Inductive started, the focus of my blogging has moved from specific policy issues to more esoteric political philosophy and cultural critique.  I have narrowed the focus of my articles to the effects of the attacks of September 11th on American culture and policy.  My work on Japan for Dispatches from the Wild Wild East has taken on a more scholarly bent.  

Ideologically, Joe's pragmatic liberalism profoundly influenced my philosophical and consequentialist libertarianism, although we clashed repeatedly on economics and Rand Paul.  In many respects I have moved even further towards traditionalist anarchist thought since starting to write for the Inductive.

Goals for Volume II:

(1.) Between now and the New Year, I'd like to increase my blogging output in Specific Facts, without sacrificing quality and while continuing to publish at outside electronic and print venues.

(2.) We'd like to get more and more diverse voices involved with the Inductive on a regular basis.  And we'd like more comments and conversations.  We'd like to increase our readership and develop more of a community of regular readers.    

(3.) For Volume II, I'd like to refine existing concepts explored in posts for Specific Facts and mold these ideas into more polished articles for General Principles with strong - even ideologically aggressive -conclusions.

(4.) Both Dispatches From the Wild Wild East and Five-Tweet Reviews are ongoing projects that should continue in their current forms until at least next summer.  

Anyways, thanks to everyone for reading!