This afternoon was the first public training session on how to use the Grey Bruce Cultural Network Web site. Over 20 brave souls with various levels of computer (un)comfort learned how to add themselves and their events to the culture network. You too can add your regional culture group to the organization. As I said in the training today, "OMG! F'real!? That was EASY!" The 50-minute tour included instructions on how to create an account on the Web site and how to add:

• yourself, your organization and your venue to the Web site
• your events to the Web site
• PICTURES to your culture directory listing as well as your events in the culture calendar

We also discussed:

• Search engine ranking and how it's a giant big pyramid scheme / popularity contest--as well as how linking to the culture network will ultimately benefit the search engine visibility for your own Web site
• Creating an enticing description while still being sensitive to those who use dial-up Internet connections (approximately 40% of the culture network membership is limited to dial-up)
• The challenge of line of sight Internet connections when you live in the valley of a drumlin field
• The possibility of training students to use the Web site; and then having the students create profiles of local artisans/craftsmen/musicians/etc as credit for their community hours.

The slides are available on-line from slideshare.net at: GBCN Web site training.

A week or two ago we soft-launched the new Grey Bruce Cultural Network Web site. I am very pleased with how it's all coming together. Instead of waiting for the final design I've rolled out the site using a standard Drupal template. We've already had more than a few people submit their organization, venue, event and personal bios. It's fantastic to see everything coming together.

Very minor issues have included:

• Old versions of Safari do not work well with TinyMCE. I have disabled TinyMCE by default since it is unfair to ask dial-up Internet users to download a new Web browser.
• Adding an "event" for a show with multiple dates does not show the right time on each date. I have installed the Event Repeat module for play dates and other repeating events.

I'm looking forward to seeing how else the site will need to be tweaked. But for now it really does seem to be an intuitive and useful site as-is!

xtrinsic has just launched the start of a new web site for the Grey Bruce Cultural Network. What's especially exciting about this site is that it is being developed in the public eye. Instead of developing under a shroud of secrecy (which is normal and a little bit fun to boot) and then launching a site which tells the public how they will use the site, this site solicits feedback from the very beginning and throughout the development stages.