Well, you're probably wondering so we'll just tell you - NOTE is an acronym. It stands for Naturally On the Edge. Why? Why not? Everyone in NOTE has found themselves on the cutting edge of technology at some point without realizing it, so we decided to legitimize what most of do as hobbies anyway and start an organization to make it feel really official. We will always think of NOTE as a temporary name, but since no one can think of anything better we just went ahead and designed a logo anyway. Backed with a mysterious acronym and a logo the rest pretty much comes out in the wash doesn't it?

We started this whole thing as a means to actively perpetuate our own laziness. Basically, we just wanted a few of the web services that most prestigious institutions have - online student directories, some course registration assistance, an online facebook, and hey, what about web-based e-mail? And revitalizing the Amherst newsgroups? Naïve as we were, we just kept thinking of ideas. So then we had to do something about it. We kicked an idea around about starting up a student organization that learned about and used technology to develop projects that would help Amherst in some way. We're didn't limit ourselves to web applications, either - If someone wanted to build robots to be butlers in the dorms we'd say, "go for it!" Our hope was that NOTE would provide a knowledge-base for students who wanted to experiment with new technology in any field they were interested in - from the guy who wants to learn HTML to the girl who wants to design a compiler for some language she developed herself.

Well, this idea intrigued someone, who introduced us to someone else, who knew this guy who maybe was into 'that sort of thing,' who referred us to this woman who pointed us in the direction of Stacey Schmeidel in the Public Affairs office. Stacey liked our idea and miraculously got us some money so that we could buy a computer and some books and the next thing we knew we had a full-fledged organization - with an acronym and a logo to boot.

Much to our surprise and delight there were actually a bunch of people at Amherst who had the same interests we did and had actually started working on some of the stuff we had talked about, but to us were just ideas on paper. So wouldn't you know it? Now we had student interest too. Another goal of NOTE is live longer than the founding members' tenure at Amherst. Our hope is that people will continue to come out of the woodwork to join NOTE to keep Amherst on the edge with us.

So, NOTE is kind of amorphous. It's anything and everything we want it to be; NOTE's only limits are creativity and time. By our standards, if you've ever had an idea - ever - you have creativity, so please come join us, or e-mail us expressing your interest in our organization. As for time, no one around here has any of that, so don't worry about it. We'll get you started and welcome you in. If you don't want to join us because you think we're crazy, you wouldn't be the first, but we hope you find our work useful. Feel free to e-mail us with any suggestions or ideas you might have. Pleased as always to serve you,

Baker and Seth, founders of NOTE