Explore the TOC Web Site

Where can you get a thoroughly knowledgeable student of Objectivism to answer your question about the philosophy? Where can you spread the word about an event that your Objectivist club is putting on? Where can you turn your book purchases into support for TOC?

The answer, in each case, is: at the TOC Web site—www.objectivistcenter.org. Anyone with a browser can use the TOC Web site, and every month the site registers 100,000 user-sessions. Yet some TOC members may not be among those visitors simply because they are unaware of how much is available there.

The Home Page

On first looking into TOC's Web site, the visitor will notice "Report from the Front," a brief comment written every week or so by the center's Washington director, Ed Hudgins. Typically, it analyzes with humor and outrage some political or cultural event that has caught his eye. Most recently, Hudgins wrote "Racist Cookies," commenting on Southern Methodist University's hysterical response to an "affirmative action bake sale" that conservatives staged to call attention to the injustice of racial quotas.

Adjacent to Hudgins's Report is a column of TOC news. This is the first place that the center announces forthcoming events, and members should check it regularly. Yes, the center sends out snail-mail announcements, but they can get lost in the crush of letters out of the mailbox or they may arrive after one has made plans for the day in question. Also in the news section are recent op-eds by TOC writers, reports on public advocacy conducted by TOC's staff, updates on the making of the Atlas Shrugged movie, and much more.

The most recent issue of Navigator is always displayed prominently on the home page, with links to every story in it. To the right are additional links to books chosen by the editors for their relevance to the current issue's cover story.

There is also a home-page link to the Objectivism Store (the center's mail-order division), which features a monthly sale item. On every page of the Objectivism Store there are links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Laissez Faire Books. Using these links to buy books or other items will bring a contribution to TOC.

Another section, "On Objectivism," sets forth a succinct description of the Objectivist philosophy, and then answers several Frequently Asked Questions.

Below the Navigator display on the home page are sections dealing with two of the largest issues of the day: the war for civilization that began on 9/11/01; and the corporate scandals that are being used to tarnish capitalism as a politico-economic system. Each of these sections features numerous commentaries written by The Objectivist Center's staff, as well as links to a host of other insightful essays.

TOC's Divisions

Another way to explore the contents of TOC's Web site is through a listing of the center's main divisions in the upper-right corner of the home page. "The Objectivism Store" takes one to a listing of the store's offerings, the on-line equivalent of the center's thirty -page catalogue. "Navigator" calls up the complete back contents of the magazine going back to 1997, plus much of the material published in its predecessor, The IOS Journal, going back an additional six years to 1991. Clicking on "The Atlas Society" takes a visitor to an entirely separate Web page run by TOC, having many sections of its own, but all devoted to the celebration and discussion of Ayn Rand's fiction by fans old and new. "The Objectivist Studies" section offers resources to students and scholars interested in exploring the philosophy of Objectivism, including the complete text of the so-called "beta" version of The Logical Structure of Objectivism—a complete 270-page book. The "Media Center" offers comparable resources for journalists, while "TOC en Español" provides a Spanish-language introduction to Objectivism, as well as essays in Spanish.

Above these listing, one will find a search engine for the site, pages for contacting TOC and contributing to TOC, and a page on which one can ask to receive e-mails from the center. These include a monthly e-mail listing updates at the Web, and a more frequent e-mail that brings Hudgins's "Report from the Front," as well as news from TOC. Email Updates

Inside the Site

A bar running horizontally across the top of the home page provides a convenient means for the visitor to jump to still other parts of the Web site.

"About the Center" explains TOC's mission and major departments, as well as providing information about staff members and instructions on how to become a center member. People looking for guidance on planned giving or making stock contributions will find their answers here.

"About Objectivism" provides an introduction to Ayn Rand and her philosophy, points the way to introductory readings, and provides links to other Objectivist-oriented Web sites. It also includes answers to frequently asked questions about Objectivism, an archive of answers to questions that have been posed to TOC-affiliated scholars (now approaching one hundred entries), and a means by which the user can pose his own question.

"Ideas and Issues" provides highly organized access to more than six hundred articles that The Objectivist Center has published since its launch in 1990. Read David Kelley's guide to studying epistemology, and David Ross's guide to the philosophy of mathematics.

"Events" offers information about forthcoming TOC events and detailed descriptions of previous ones.

"TOC Community" lists local Objectivist clubs and provides them with a calendar for announcing events. It also offers a directory through which Objectivist scholars can find one another.

On-line Ongoing

Obviously, the TOC Web site will always be a work in progress. Each week a new "Report from the Front" goes up; each month a new Navigator. Information about the summer seminar begins the autumn before and is continually updated.

But beyond the center's efforts to maintain timeliness are its efforts to improve its Web site, and this is yet another reason for members to use it. The Web site performs one of the most important parts of the center's mission: communicating Objectivist ideas to the world at large. Members who use the site can contribute greatly to that mission by discovering what works well and what does not; what the site needs more of and perhaps even what it needs less of. Every comment is welcome and will be given full consideration. Send comments to webmaster@objectivistcenter.org.