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.

My own Web site is always the last to get attention but I finally found the time today to upgrade this site from Drupal 4.7 to Drupal 5 (it's only been on the list of things to do for about six months). This puts me over the magic mark of ten sites running Drupal 5 and with more planned!

I've been contributing to the documentation for Drupal's e-Commerce project. The tutorials will be available available both on the Drupal e-Commerce Web site and this one.