test JTM web site

[Steve Hanson]

There is now a development version of the new JTM Drupal web site. You
can access it at

http://journalismthatmatters.com

Please feel free to sign up for an account - you'll find that it won't
do much for you till after your account permissions are approved, but go
ahead and go through the registration process. At some time in the
future there'll be a more formal invitation process - but I wanted to go
ahead and make the initial beta available to people on the list.

Some of the features aren't fully functional yet, but after you're
approved as a JTM member you'll be able to add in web sites to the
database. More later.

[Steve Hanson]

So -
I've heard back remarkably little re: the test site --- it seems
there's been very little activity around it --
You'll note that I HAVE at least gotten around to putting in a feed of
this mailing list on the site - probably there should be some tighter
integration at some point, but we'll have to have a discussion about
what that would actually mean at some point. I'd love to get this
group ripped out of Yahoo's clutches at some point.

[Barry Parr]

Is there a way to get a notification or copy of the post when someone
posts something new on the site?

bp



On Nov 8, 3:16 pm, Steve Hanson <shan...@cruiskeenconsulting.com>
wrote:

[Steve Hanson]

There's no way to get auto notifications at the moment - but there
probably will be some time next week.

[borges]

Not to pick on anyone here...really because I think many on this list
feel as bp does...but can we move beyond email? More precisely how can
we as a group (of all people) move away from email as the mechanism for
engagement?

I think I was the only one who voiced some dismay at our need for a
google email list. I seem to be one of the few that travels over to
discussions on the various websites to post comments, and those mostly
die on the vine.

We all offer websites where we want more engagement and activity. Why
is it that within this rather elite group we rely on email to rattle our
cages? Personally I hate email and the various lists I need to tap into
in an effort to keep informed, but I am a minority voice in all the
communities (local, topical) that command my attention and time.

On the specifics of the website Steve put together, I think the launch
was a bit hasty. I had thought a small group was going to discuss what
this site needed to do and be somewhat deliberate in the build and then
target users to fill in the blanks. Perhaps it would be good to revisit
this as a small work group and set out tasks that will meet the needs of
admins on this list and possibly be useful beyond the group.

But then it comes down to will anyone show up if it is built, since we
still seemed chained to email. How can we build it so it will be used
and maintained, and serve as the hub of our communication?

Lynn

[Steve Hanson]

borges wrote:
> Not to pick on anyone here...really because I think many on this list
> feel as bp does...but can we move beyond email? More precisely how can
> we as a group (of all people) move away from email as the mechanism for
> engagement?
>

Ah well, that's usually (as you note) a losing battle. What I'd REALLY
like to see is to make it impossible to POST via email to any of this
stuff, but to let people optionally be NOTIFIED about posts in email.

> I think I was the only one who voiced some dismay at our need for a
> google email list. I seem to be one of the few that travels over to
> discussions on the various websites to post comments, and those mostly
> die on the vine.
>

Yeah, I'd like eventually to run a post through the heart of the email
group myself for a number of reasons.

> We all offer websites where we want more engagement and activity. Why
> is it that within this rather elite group we rely on email to rattle our
> cages? Personally I hate email and the various lists I need to tap into
> in an effort to keep informed, but I am a minority voice in all the
> communities (local, topical) that command my attention and time.
>
> On the specifics of the website Steve put together, I think the launch
> was a bit hasty. I had thought a small group was going to discuss what
> this site needed to do and be somewhat deliberate in the build and then
> target users to fill in the blanks. Perhaps it would be good to revisit
> this as a small work group and set out tasks that will meet the needs of
> admins on this list and possibly be useful beyond the group.
>

Probably hasty, but I hoped that having SOMETHING there would start to
promote ideas and prompt some discussion - that hasn't happened, so yes,
I think it would be good if there was a web working group. Volunteers?

[Barry Parr]

My thinking was that if the website could send notices to the email list, we'd have a better shot at moving some of the conversation to the site.  I agree that it would be a good idea to stop using the mailing list as a forum and focus all JTM discussion on the site.

Having said that, I also know there is a risk that we're going to lose some of the casual queries and replies that characterize email lists.

I'd be willing to assist with getting the website going.  Probably the best thing we can do to get it rolling would be for folks to commit to posting some provocative entries on the site and replying to the posts of others. That would not only jumpstart the discussion, but would help with debugging.

My big concern is that we have some big focus on features, rather than content and community-building.

bp

--
Barry Parr

http://coastsider.com
http://twitter.com/barryparr

650.523.4929 phone
815.572.0794 fax
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