The adage that begins "be careful what you ask for..." just might
apply in this situation, so first let me give a big thank you to Chris
Weiler & Seth Seeger, who do such a wonderful job maintaining the
SharedWeight web site and mailing lists, for stepping up and creating
this new "web content" forum.
They've asked that I help coordinate and oversee this new group since
the idea was originally mine. Of course I will, but I'm hoping that
little oversight will be necessary. I also make no claims of
ownership, other than to help get/keep the ball rolling.
My original thinking (see original email below) was about a forum for
content creators and managers, with discussion being mostly about form
and function, usability, and, for lack a better word, "freshness".
However, some of the initial responses also indicate a desire to talk
about tools as well, including layout and editing, online
registration, payment, and survey packages, web hosting and CMS
systems. All those topics and more are welcome.
I'm hoping this forum will be welcoming and useful to anyone who
creates, manages, designs, or is simply interested in the "cyber" side
of contra dance, including dance series or festival web sites,
facebook groups, meetup groups, YouTube video creators & sharers,
podcasters, etc. Callers, choreographers, sound engineers, and
musicians/bands with a web presence are also welcome, of course.
I'd like to encourage all participants to share ideas, give links to
sites or pages we are working on, and ask for and provide constructive
feedback. One goal is to help each other make our online presence as
useful, vibrant, current, informative, accessible, and welcoming as
possible.
I'm well aware that the best way to get someone new to try contra
dancing is to take them to a dance!, but some people want to be more
informed and prepared before they (are convinced to) go, while others
may find a dance web site, video or event invite through serendipitous
web surfing, and the right kind of information and presentation may be
all they need to give dancing a try.
Since we are a diverse and distributed community, I'd like to suggest
that we all sign our postings with real names and locations. Also, if
you are so inclined, I encourage each participant to post a short
intro/bio about yourself as it might pertain to this forum (e.g., if
you maintain a web site, are on the web committee of some dance group,
etc.). Also, please feel free to spread the word about this group to
other people or forums where you think there would be interest!
This message is now far too long. I'll post my own bio in a separate thread.
Looking forward to wherever this group leads.
Andy Shore
Ft Lauderdale FL
Subscription info at http://sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/webcontent
It looks like this list will be archived at
http://sharedweight.net/pipermail/webcontent/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andy Shore <square.a.shore(a)gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 1:44 PM
Subject: contra dance webmasters unite! (?)
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
I've been wondering if there would be enough interest (and traffic) to
form an email list for contra dance website webmasters and other
content creators (e.g., people posting videos to youtube) and people
maintaining contra dance related "pages" on Facebook to discuss some
of the issues and ideas and share links, etc.
I created the website http://southfloridacontradance.com/ and I'm
always looking for good videos to share (see the "Announcements" page)
and links about contra dancing (see the "What is Contra Dance?" and
"Dance Links" pages). I also help maintain the "South Florida
Contradance" page on Facebook.
In particular, I think that finding, generating, and sharing fresh
content is the kind of thing that will keep our web sites looking
current and vibrant and will spark interest. I also think it's
important to design for both the current dancer (when and where is
tonight's dance or next month's festival?) and be informative and
welcoming to the uninitiated. Sharing relevant, high quality links
will also help make sure that search results yield the best
information about our beloved activity.
As for folks posting to YouTube... as a caller, I often want to know
the name and author of the dance being done!
Respond to this thread and if there's enough interest, perhaps we can
convince the kind folks who run SharedWeight.net to start a new
mailing list for this.
Let me know what you think!
/Andy Shore
http://andyshore.com/http://facebook.com/AndyShore.Caller << like me on Facebook!
7 years ago, I sent out the first invitation e-mails asking people to
join a new discussion group called SharedWeight. Since then, the site
has become about much more than helping new callers. We've added lists
dedicated to helping organizers and musicians. And yesterday we added
the WebContent list that already has 40 members in the last 26 hours.
Seth and I are beyond pleased that so many of you have found the lists
to be valuable resources and have built a supportive community dedicated
to sharing information. Thank you all for your participation (even if
it's just lurking!).
So, Happy Birthday to all of us! With many more to come.
Chris Weiler and Seth Seeger
SharedWeight admins
