The Galapagos Times
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The Galapagos Times
an email newsletter
SPU-Darwin, LEGO A/S, Planet Earth
Dateline Thursday, May 14, 1998
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Header for issue 26 | |
| Editor | Laura Kusumoto |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Format | |
| First issue | August 20, 1997 |
| Final issue Number | May 14, 1998 26 |
| Company | SPU-Darwin |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | English |
| Website | spu-darwin |
The Galapagos Times is an email newsletter that was distributed to employees of SPU-Darwin. Twenty-six issues were published on a weekly schedule between August 1997 and May 1998. It was edited and published by Laura Kusumoto, who was the Director of Operations at SPU-Darwin.
History
The newsletter is named after the Galápagos Islands,[1] which Charles Darwin visited in 1835 during his five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle; his studies of the archipelago's endemic species helped inspire his theory of evolution by natural selection. According to former Darwin member Julian Gómez, Galapagos here referred to the "virtual space" being explored by SPU-Darwin's work, with the goal being the "evolution" of LEGO products from physical to digital.[2] The office space that SPU-Darwin operated out of was internally referred to as the HMS Beagle.[3][4]
The first issue of The Galapagos Times was published on 20 August 1997.[note 1] Kusumoto started the newsletter to report news gathered from weekly manager meetings and keep "Darwinites" updated on events, policies, and projects.[1] Starting in issue 3, Kusumoto credited each week's contributors.[5]
Publication ceased during the Christmas season, as most of the LEGO Group's internal operations ceased from 23 December until early January.[6] After the 3 March issue, the newsletter went on hiatus for two months due to budget planning, which took up all computers in the office for several weeks until an accountant was hired,[7] followed by editor Kusumoto going on holiday.[8] Publication resumed in May, though only two more issues are known to exist.
Issues
The table below lists and describes all known issues of The Galapagos Times, based on the issues listed in Julian Gómez's archive on spu-darwin.org.[2] The issue references has been simplified to "number"; the original issues are labelled with a volume (which is the same for all issues) and a "Ren" (eg. "Vol 1 Ren 5"), apparently short for "Rendering".
| No. | Date | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 August 1997 | Introducing the newsletter, focusing on infrastructure, new mailing addresses, new calendar software |
| 2 | 27 August 1997 | Introducing the Fast-Fill project, awards for "LEGO Underwater Base" and Build a Duck, migrating offices for Darwin and lego.com web team, Darwin 6 Seminar |
| 3 | 3 September 1997 | Yoda version 1.0 announcement, Darwin 6 announcement, AUF representative request, Fast-Fill bug |
| 4 | 10 September 1997 | Klik Chix/Scala CD-ROM development started, Rubber Duck version 1.1, ATG move plans, TeleDenmark's flaky internet service |
| 5 | 17 September 1997 | K.I.D.S. group's presentation for the Input meeting at LEGO Futura, Darwin 6 seminar aftermath, Yoda preview demo |
| 6 | 24 September 1997 | Redesigning LEGO.com for 1998, Darwin 6 documentation, ATG move date, ventilation system cost for the LMX building, improved invoice process |
| 7 | 1 October 1997 | |
| 8 | 8 October 1997 | |
| 9 | 15 October 1997 | |
| 10 | 22 October 1997 | |
| 11 | 29 October 1997 | |
| 12 | 5 November 1997 | |
| 13 | 12 November 1997 | |
| 14 | 17 November 1997 | |
| 15 | 3 December 1997 | |
| 16 | 12 December 1997 | |
| 17 | 17 December 1997 | |
| 18 | 9 January 1998 | |
| 19 | 15 January 1998 | |
| 20 | 22 January 1998 | |
| 21 | 3 February 1998 | |
| 22 | 14 February 1998 | |
| 23 | 23 February 1998 | |
| 24 | 3 March 1998 | |
| 25 | 6 May 1998 | |
| 26 | 14 May 1998 |
Notes
- ↑ The first issue is dated 19 August 1997 in its header, but was sent out the next day. Furthermore, its header lists the day as Wednesday, which 20 August fell on in 1997.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (19 August 1997). The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gómez, Julian (11 June 2008). "The Galapagos Times Archive". SPU-Darwin. Archived from the original on 20 May 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (22 October 1997). "H.M.S. Beagle". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 10.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (15 January 1998). "Ship-shape on the HMS Beagle". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 19.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (3 September 1997). "Fine print". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 3.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (19 November 1997). "Networking through the holidays". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 14.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (14 May 1998). "Financial health at Darwin". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 26.
- ↑ Kusumoto, Laura, ed. (6 May 1998). "The Galapagos Times is back". The Galapagos Times. Vol. 1, no. 25.
