Union — were among the original partners of the WEB Project. Each of these districts worked with their broader communities to establish local standards, linked to their curriculum and assessment systems. While the curriculum pieces were being put together, lead teachers from each of these districts explored the possible uses of multimedia in the curriculum and as a student performance assessment tool. Nine additional schools were added over the next four years: North Country Union Junior High, Whitingham School, Edmunds Middle School, Brattleboro Union High School, Cabot School, Lamoille Union High School, BFA Fairfax, Walden School and North Country Union High School.

Several state and community organizations joined the WEB Project to form statewide networks of teachers whose work in the arts and humanities could be strengthened by online communication. Early organizations included: the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education, the Vermont Center for the Book, and the Vermont Historical Society. The result is a growing collaboration of online activity that focuses on discussions of student work, literature, and information exchange. From these networks, two new organizations have formed: the Vermont MIDI Project and Art Responding Through Technology. Other statewide support has come from the Vermont Department of Education and the Vermont Institute of Science, Math, and Technology.

Higher education also joined to strengthen ties and share expertise. St. Michael's College offered faculty support for the first two years. The University of Vermont gave office space and covered the phone, provided graduate/undergraduate courses, and linked WEB Project processes with some of the university's activities through Academic Computing and the College of Education and Social Services. Castleton State and Johnson State College have offered courses as well. In response to a high demand for music composition, Johnson State now has a MIDI lab. Finally, Champlain College in Burlington, VT offers an inspiration to us all. Eager to co-sponsor a celebratory conference entitled "Dynamic Landscapes" in Spring of 2000, their efforts brought together the worlds of creative expression and educational technology. Champlain College serves as an incubator for new technology businesses in Vermont and their facilities are the best our state has to offer. We are thankful that they are so willing to share them with us.

Many thanks go to the large and small funders of the WEB Project. Most of our $5 million in match to the $2.5 million in federal innovation funds for our first 5 years of operations (1995-2000) came from donated labor and local support of our educational innovations. In addition, funds have been provided through our partners by Bell Atlantic, AOL Foundation, Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation, IBM, and AAUW. Fred Bay, especially, took a large risk by funding the prototype that led to what is now The WEB Project.

Small business owners in Vermont supported our start-up with "beyond the
call of duty" programming, design, training, and moral support. Daniel
Hoviss and Albert Bupp of Dosolutions in Putney, VT along with Beth Hughes of Blue Heron Design designed and programmed our original site. Its subsequent iterations were completed under the loving care of Lia Roozendaal and Kato Jaworski of Jagwiredesign and Michael Knapp of Green River. Michael Hanish, Scott Chesnut, Ann DeMarle, Tom Pollak, Kathy Migliozzi, and Matthew Winston gave professional technology guidance at a time when folks in Vermont had barely heard of Photoshop or multimedia production. SoVerNet provided our connectivity and hosts our current server.The original staff of the WEB Project: Creating a WEB of Evidence included co-directors Fern Tavalin and David Gibson, project manager Penny Nolte, technology specialist Michelle Smyth, and MIDI coordinator Sandi MacLeod. Conceivers and writers of the original grant included: Fern Tavalin, David Gibson, Marilyn Grunewald, Sandra Vaillancourt, and Dana Jewett.