Forest BB

Hiya, on my travels I have been meeting with people who are running and/or working with similiar organisations.... These places have similiar values and programmes , and i was wondering whether it might be an idea to reorganise the link section so it became more prominent on the site, as well as allow people to more easily sumbmit suggestions for links.. obviously moderated before live post...

this would allow us to get more traffic from a relevant audience as well as allow us to begin the process of moving our artists around to different venues around the country, as well recieving more acts from similiar organisations...

In principal has anyone got any objections to this, and could any of the web workgroup suggest how we might move forward...

chakan

We have this thread which people use for linking to other cool Foresty organisations. Anyone can add something and it is low maintenance. I suppose it is hidden away a bit, if people are expecting a top level page devoted to similar places. But I would say that the Forest charm is in figuring things out for yourself, and confounding expectations (both good and bad).

How about using our wiki for this? Each place could take a page to describe themselves, add a photo, a link, whatever. They could also be categorised geographically, so when you are visiting somewhere you can easily find the best place to hang out in.

I Know what you mean swithun... however what i am thinking is not so much about the forest charm, but i am thinking more about making sure we get more traffic to the site... and then developing a system of cognitive navigation when users get here, specifically in regards to links and submissions... Im not suggesting a huge overhaul, not yet, but i do think by linking with more organisations initially online we will become more accessible within other communities that share similar values to us, creating not just opportunities for collaboration as an organisation but creating a larger shared platform for the many individuals at the forest that share their insights and content whether through the forest events, gallery or publications....

I think the forest values are becoming more evident in a myriad of places, and it would be great if other people or orgs doing what we are in different ways in different places can find a way of sharing, which means it may be necessary to reevaluate which values we pay attention to when creating information resources... i think sharing insight and content, and creating opportunities for individuals in a wider community is a good starting point... the questions i suppose your putting out there is how do we get there without affecting the integrity of what we are doing, however i dont think my suggestion negatively impacts on the forest values, do you?????

By the way i think the the general thrust of a wiki is a good idea, as it will allow people to post information in a comparatively easy way, however i do think its a good idea that its moderated before live post to stop certain types from placing content that does not share similar values... and i think its important that the link area is about a wider community not a completely open link exchange area if you get my drift...

I think it has always been our intention to forge better links with other similar orgs. And I agree that our current setup in terms of web links is not very effective. The bb post about other foresty orgs was always meant to be a temporary thing until we got a wiki up and functioning. Unfortunately, I ran into technical difficulties with the original wiki effort and never managed to get it off the ground. However, I am still willing to be involved in the admin work of getting another one going and maintaining it.

If everyone involved in the workgroup agrees... i can put one of my developers on it... including obviously integration... We are willing to work with anyone and use any technology so please lets have a think and then lets get it on...

For me, more links means the possibility of letting alot more people know what’s going on in the forest, which might mean the possibility of collaborative tours to and from the forest and other places... also it could be a great starting point for getting the CIA writers publication on other websites, which could be a very interesting turn of developments for all current and future publishing projects> written and music...

By creating links we can send some of our material to be published on other sites, this could create a catalyst for our site to be used as a information resource which means that everyone’s content at the forest reaches out, and the opportunities stemming from this are myriad... we know we have the talent and content, now we just need to get it out there, as well as opening the venue up more transparently to artists and audiences from around the country and possibly abroad...

thanks for the feedback so far....

There is a 'links' tab on the top menu.

Maybe we could combine what is on there and the 'other cool forest organisations' thread to create some kind of superpage....

_________________
the more you think, the more you stink

yes thats what i was thinking... we just need to have a rating system for the links, possibly allowing our users to rate the usefulness of the link, making sure we check abuse by repetitive ratings on the same ip, or not allowing a rating unless the user is logged in...

trouble is with these link pages is the best links always get lost... plus we should allow for an expanded description, prospectively with region information and a place for user comments on links e.g. if the link was useful, or if they have some experience of the content or venue.. which will allow people to get a sense of what they are looking at...

Information is only useful if people use it, so whatever we decide it needs to be easy to use and easy to find exactly what your looking for... which means the whole thing is expandable without the possibility of losing the users in a mountain of un-contextualised information... if you know what i mean