Occupy Toronto
04 January 2012
by Michael Holloway
I think we want to create something I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else — essentially we want a Blog, a Forum and a Wiki — all in one place.
At the last web development meeting on January 3, 2012, we agreed to fire up the new BuddyPress software that will enable many of the functionalities I talked about in my last post on this (29/Dec/11- http://occupyto.org/2011/12/whats-up-at-the-web-development-team/).
By the weekend (07/Jan/12) Committee ‘Group Pages’ should be up for the General Assembly and 16 active Committees the WebDEV team is aware of. Each Group page in the new BuddyPress layout has it’s own Forum and Blog space. The front page of the OccupyTO website will be a listing of most recent posts and comments from all 17 group pages.
We’ve decided, as a starting place, to mirror the www.nycga.net site – but soon, many features not on the the New York City General Assembly site will be rolled out here – stay tuned…
We’ve also decided that instead of playing god developer – we would ask YOU, the users what YOU want out of the new site!
Bev Leroux has some ideas…
( Comment from Bev Leroux, 16 December 2011 on the occupyto.org post “Welcome Back! Please Excuse the mess…” http://occupyto.org/2011/12/hello-world/#comment-5 )
“I really hope this site is going to be interactive and user friendly. Where one can comment on posts and post ideas, opinions and announcements.
“I hope it will gather all of the various committees and working groups, activities and future plans, announcements and requests for assistance–all under one big umbrella.
“Please let it be the go-to place for all Occupy Toronto needs and activities.
“Right now, most of the communication takes place on Facebook and I have heard a lot of people say they don’t even follow Occupy on Facebook. So what does that mean for communication? It means there’s a huge information gap and a great deal of mis- and dis-information floating around.
“Let’s get a central virtual online hub for all activity. That’s doable even if we are failing, so far, to find a long-term physical home.
“Let me know if there is any way I can help to make this happen.
“Love you all… in solidarity
Bev“PS: From my own experience, the chat portion of Livestream is a very sad place and definitely unqualified as a communication tool.”
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Thanks Bev. Nicely said.
“Mari” said,
‘Love the new site so far! I wish I could make technology work instead or just posting things on it! lol…Keep up the good work.’
Thanks Mari. Bang-on in my opinion. The www is a 2 way conversation, an interactive collaboration space, and an old school broadcast portal.
Please leave more feed back in comments … and please remember, this is Day 1 of the New BuddyPress layout — we’re just learning all the in’s and out’s too! :]
mh