A few months ago I decided to look into creating an online magazine. This was to be a place where forensics professionals (and aspiring professionals) could contribute and learn together. Sadly the time wasn’t right and life through up a few complications. However I am now ready to pursue this idea more doggedly.
I have decided to create the Forensic 4cast Magazine. This will be a quarterly digital-only magazine that discusses various topics from the fields of digital forensics and incident response. The magazine will be completely free for anyone to read/download on several different platforms including iOS and Android. I also hope to make it a good mix of text and video, with a bit of interactivity thrown in.
My aim is to get the first issue published no later then June but, in order to meet that target, I’m going to need your help. Obviously I can not write all of the content for a magazine by myself so I’m asking for assistance from you. If you have something to say, I want to hear it. At this point I have not ruled out anything (except for the suggestion of  a “Lee” photoshopping section). I have a few suggestions but please feel free to add your own:
- Case Studies
- Research
- Events
- Book Reviews
- Software Reviews
- Hardware Reviews
- Interviews
- Interesting Artifacts
- Hints and Tips
- News
These are just a few of my own suggestions, but you are going to be reading this publication. You tell me what things you’d like to see.
If you’re interested in submitting an article, a calendar event, some news, a suggestion, or something else of interest please contact me at lee@forensic4cast.com. Please note that I’m happy to have either new submissions or maybe something that may have been published elsewhere. As long as you retain the copyright, I’m happy to consider it for the magazine.
Just to give you a taster of how the magazine will look I’ve included some demo screens:
6 responses to “Forensic 4cast Magazine”
Further, this is not a journal. It is a magazine. This means that articles can have an element of humor – but not too much as it is I who is the Ricky Gervais of digital forensics.
This sounds to be very similar to the “Into the Boxes” e-zine that Don was putting together a while ago, and recently decided to revisit.
Experience has shown that there is a dearth of folks willing to author stuff…maybe there’s a way to join forces rather than split access to authors and content.
I already made the commitment to be an author who regularly commitments original technical content for a community supported DFIR magazine. I even recently completed my first article for ITB. I mention this to show my perspective is coming from as an author. I have to agree with Harlan about trying to join the ITB and 4cast magazine projects together. Both projects have similar goals (as outlined on both blogs) and both will have similar content.
I see value in the community having a free DFIR magazine and I’m more than willing to do what I can to support it (aka provide content). As an author it would be easier to get behind and support one DFIR community supported magazine instead of trying to split my time between projects or having to choose one over the other.
Just my 2 cents
A couple of people have suggested this and I’ve given it some thought. I’m happy to throw my support behind ITB but this is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. Our field is full of people who are ready and willing to contribute. I know this because I see the number of blogs, podcasts, and magazines that are appearing. Without such support I could never have made Forensic 4cast the success it was. All the people that either appeared on the show or participated in some other way have helped to make it what it has become. I sincerely believe that there are enough willing contributors in the field to keep the articles flowing for ITB, 4cast, DFMag, and so on.
The best part about contributing to the various media is that we aren’t contracted to a single brand and competition is good 😉
Sounds like a great idea. How about an “Ask the expert” section, where questions from Twitter, LinkedIn, etc can get a full response (see the “Ask Klaus” section in Linux Magazine).
On the light-hearted side, I’m sure @girlunallocated can be persuaded to supply a few comics for the magazine… 🙂
Lee,
How’s it going with the ezine? I’m not sure that the ITB is getting enough support from the community to really be viable, so I was wondering where you were with your efforts.
Thanks.