“What are you doing online?” was the question asked of ISU students by the director of a growing, cutting-edge Web site.

Devin Johnson, director of electronic commerce development for BlackVoices.com, spoke to about 250 ISU students and faculty during an interactive presentation Wednesday evening in the Memorial Union.

Originally scheduled to speak was Barry Cooper, founder and CEO of BlackVoices.com and one of the top 20 leaders in the United States involved in leading the development of interactive media, according to Advertising Age.

Cooper was unable to speak because he was called to the White House late Tuesday afternoon. Johnson spoke in his place.

Johnson spoke about the development of BlackVoices.com, the largest online forum for African Americans, with more than 1.5 million visitors each month.

The site began in 1995 as a small button on the Orlando Sentinel Web site, and it soon drew as much traffic as the newspaper. Currently, the Chicago Tribune backs the site with an investment of $5 million.

Now BlackVoices.com is compared to sites such as America Online, Yahoo and its new competitor, BET.com. Johnson said the key to the site’s popularity was return visitors and a feeling of community.

“You have to have a certain amount of ‘stickiness.’ You have to keep them coming back,” he said. “We try to become relevant to everyone’s life.”

Johnson attributed the site’s success to Cooper. “[It was] one person’s effort to make a difference,” he said.

A member of the audience asked what made Cooper think that creating BlackVoices.com was viable when most statistics said blacks weren’t going online.

“I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I think he would say that he was black and he was online,” Johnson said. “We have to believe that black people will be coming online in massive numbers.”

Johnson also commented on the competition BlackVoices.com has with the newer and highly publicized BET.com (Black Entertainment Television).

“We see them leave the money on the table, and we pick it up. That’s what we do because we’re ‘the little guy,'” he said.

Some students who attended the speech said they found it informative but were disappointed by the lack of publicity around campus.

“I’ve never been to BlackVoices.com, but I’m going to visit it,” said P’Angela Haynes, freshman in journalism and mass communication. “I encourage both white and black people to visit this site because it has things for all races.”