~ Early Web Links ~

Maintained by Melody Orfei, this page serves as a comprehensive directory of Massachusetts Special Education Parent Advisory Councils (SPED PACs) that have an online presence, organized alphabetically by town. Each entry notes the year the PAC went online, site size, hosting platform, and available features like email lists and Facebook groups, making it an invaluable resource for parents navigating special education advocacy across the state.

Georgia Tech professor Amy Bruckman's academic papers archive covers her research on online communities, constructionist learning, MUDs, virtual worlds, and identity in cyberspace. Papers span topics from gender-swapping on the internet to educational uses of text-based virtual reality environments like MOOSE Crossing, making it a rich snapshot of early internet social research.

Early Modern Texts offers freely accessible, reader-friendly editions of major philosophical works from the early modern period, spanning thinkers like Descartes, Hume, Kant, Locke, and Spinoza through the 19th century. Prepared by the late philosopher Jonathan Bennett, the texts were carefully modernized for clarity while preserving the original arguments, and the site also includes audio book versions and e-book downloads.

Cyndi's List, maintained by Cyndi Ingle since 1996, is one of the web's most comprehensive genealogy link directories, organizing over 317,000 curated links across hundreds of categories including surnames, DNA projects, family associations, and newsletters. This particular section focuses on surname research, offering alphabetically sorted links to family-specific sites, social networking resources, surname mapping tools, and DNA studies for researchers tracing their family history.

Hack Education is Audrey Watters' long-running independent publication covering the history and critical analysis of education technology, free from advertising and investor influence. With over a decade of archives, essays, and talks, it offers a sharp, skeptical perspective on ed-tech trends, behavioral psychology in learning, and the implications of technology in education.

Lexilogos, created by Xavier Nègre, is a comprehensive reference portal aggregating dictionaries and lexicons for Old and Middle French from the 9th through the 16th centuries, including the renowned Godefroy dictionary and the DMF. Researchers and language enthusiasts will find an impressive collection of searchable historical dictionaries, travel narrative corpora, and scholarly lexicographic resources covering medieval French dialects and Romance languages.

NATHHAN (National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network) is a Christian organization supporting families who homeschool children with special needs and disabilities, including autism, Down syndrome, ADD, and ADHD. The site offers downloadable newsletters, classified ads, book reviews, articles by subject, support group listings, and resources for parents navigating the unique challenges of special needs homeschooling.

R. Chris Fraley, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, presents a thorough overview of adult attachment theory and research, tracing its origins from John Bowlby's work through modern empirical findings on intimate relationships. Visitors can also take online quizzes to assess their own attachment styles and explore links to self-report measures like the ECR-R and ECR-RS.

nimi.li is a comprehensive, interactive dictionary for Toki Pona, a constructed minimalist language with just over 130 core words. Visitors can browse all vocabulary sorted by frequency of use, writing system, and rarity, with detailed definitions and particle usage notes for each entry.

Cyndi's List is a massive genealogy link directory maintained by Cyndi Ingle, featuring over 317,000 categorized and cross-referenced links to genealogy resources worldwide. This particular section focuses on personal research pages, organizing individual family trees, blogs, wikis, and shared ancestry publications alphabetically for easy browsing.