The href="" [hypertext reference] attribute of a link contains the 'destination', where the link should forward bots and people to.
<a href="http://href-zine.net">href zine website</a>
The href="" attribute is one fundamental element of the internet's infrastructures. It enables links to other virtual locations, to be embedded in compiled lists of combined hrefs and descriptive names.
Usually used in a context of digital media as an internet-constructing element, this referencing method can be adapted in a research process and can be implemted not only online, but also in non-digital environments.
The following includes a rough procedure and their href zine examples, that you can follow to implement your own infrastructure, to enable the digital to move towards a non-digital space.
Procedure
Setting up a research blog
Researching contributors
Linking href zine ⟷ contributors ⟷ theorists
Uploading / printing an open call
Talking and writing to contributors
Compiling a list of contributors
Linking contributors ⟷ contributors
Linking public ⟷ href zine ⟷ contributors
Setting up a research blog
A research blog [http://cybfem.href-zine.net] can be set up on any preferred platform and in any preferred format.
Recommended platform: Custom blog (PHP/MySQL)
Other platforms: Ello, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit
It might be helpful for you to structure your research with a form, that you use when adding new entries to your research.
Researching artists, publishers, theorists, journalists, bloggers,
...
Contributors can be found in any preferred way. IRL and URL.
For href zine - xyber*feminism issue we connected with people from our art school, as well with people we knew from Tumblr or Instagram, but mostly people we then would have just discovered through our research on social media platforms.
Now that you have this list of potential contributors on your radar, an important next step would be to send your proposal to them.
Here you can find an e-mail template that you can use for your project to contact someone you find interesting regarding your research topic(s).
Open Call
In parallel to the direct contacting of people, we would highly recommend to publish an open call for entries. Everyone who reads this open call, would then to be able to reach out to you. This way you can assure to get entered works, that you wouldn't have expected, as well as it is a good way to give more people access to propose a work for contribution.
Find an open call for entries template here.
Compiling a list of contributors
After the people you have contacted, got back to you, you can start summarizing, who will contribute to your upcoming non-virtual project.
This list should contain at least a "name" for each contributor and a link to their work(s), which they entered. This list of course doesn't have be static. You can also start with a blank list immediately after you've contacted people and add them contributor by contributor. This could also be one way to order the entries in list.
Linking contributors ⟷ contributors
Now that you placed the contributors in a list in regards to your project, people will interprete the names of the contributors and their works as related to each other.
This way you also produce a link between each contributor.
Linking location <-> href zine <-> contributors
As you have your research and people who contribute to this research, you can now start to compile the different pieces to an physical format, that can be accessed in a certain location.
In this process, it might happen that you have to edit the works in collaboration with the people who have contributed this work, to make it function in a physical environment.
