I hope Admin will admit that, on first viewing, it looks much better than this site's front page - basically because Sean has discovered Wordpress. It also helps that Sean really does know a thing or two about filming and editing. But in the past, Sean has also discovered other web software - for example something called SocialGo http://london-allotment-gardeners.socia ... /profile/1 with its promise that you can
.make money from your own social network
On his new site, it says at the bottom
but no link to explain what 'SE26' might be as a legal entity, or any terms for using material on the site - such as Admin does offer http://www.sydenham.org.uk/usage.htmlCopyright SE26. All rights reserved.
Sean is not the only one to have ideas about how there could be a better web site for Sydenham than Sydenham Town - I am one such, and if you ever see me and Admin deep in conversation in Sugahill cafe, there's a chance this is what we will be talking about. But for me, the oxygen for any such site has to be user driven content, such as we get on this forum. Given that there isn't that great a quantity of news in Sydenham, I suspect that a forum such as this has to be where we start.
Maybe the website for Sydenham just isn't going to happen - or at least none of us can predict how it will - so we might just as well look forward to the upgrade Admin has just announced here, and make the best of it we can.
Meanwhile quite a few other people are discovering how to set up Wordpress, and other web software. So we have Penelope Else with her own blog, and the Sydenham Got Talent site; there are Wordpress blogs for both Mayow Park and Home Park, and a nice professional looking Wordpress based site the Sydenham Lawn Tennis Club. I guess I should mention my own, now suspended efforts for the Sydenham Society, and the more active site for my allotments, which use the alternative content management system Joomla - which I chose because it makes shared editing easier - even though in practice it doesn't happen.
The technology is important, because it makes it easy for individuals to go off and do their own thing. Maybe one part of the future is just this - numerous more or less well designed, well focused and well maintained local sites and a forum with a number of active posters, and rather more just watching. It could work.
Apologies for the over long post. One reason is a GLA sponsored event I'm going to tomorrow on -
http://commorgandlocalonline.eventbrite.com/ so I'm thinking about it, and it makes sense to share this thinking with others on the Forum. Maybe those of us interested could meet up - the Dolphin - before too long? And a special invitation naturally to Sean!Community Organising: what contribution local online?