Brown’s Mart Online 2001, Phase 1
Friday, March 9th, 2001from bramilo.weblogs.com
This document outlines the main activities that will be put in place as the initial part of Brown’s Mart’s Community-based Multimedia Program for 2001. These activities are part of a first phase — March to September — of fostering community-based multimedia and online community cultural development. More activities will be developed in the coming months.
These activities will be overseen by Christian Ramilo, Brown’s Mart Board member, as part of his Community Cultural Development Fund Fellowship.
www.brownsmart.org
Brown’s Mart’s existing web site is at http://www1.octa4.net.au/brownsmart. This address is not easy to remember and somewhat brown’s mart’s unique net presence by having brown’s mart’s actual domain tagged on to the end of another domain name.
This site can be Brown’s Mart’s “glossy brochure” on the web and should be easy to navigate to. Thus Brown’s Mart needs to get our own domain name: www.brownsmart.org. The “org” in the name denotes a not-for-profit organisation (24HrArt also has this suffix in their domain name). Registering and using this name will cost us around $100 a year (or less if we shop around). Brown’s Mart can ask Octa4 to register, administer, and host the name and the site (pages). The actual space for the web site can remain at Octa4 (the “host”) and they can organise to redirect traffic to the site. Brown’s Mart can also go to another host if better deals can be found (we may need to move the pages to the new host’s servers).
Brown’s Mart will also get around five email addresses in the deal, with “…@brownsmart.org” in all of them, rather than the single brownsmart@octa4.net.au. Brown’s Mart can thus have addresses like info@brownsmart.org and kenconway@brownsmart.org.
This site can contain static content (e.g. Brown’s Mart’s charter) as well as dynamic content (e.g. a gig guide). It will also, at least for the moment, host members’ pages.
brownsmart.weblogger.com
To complement Brown’s Mart’s current “glossy” web site, an online intercreative newsletter will be set up. This newsletter will contain mainly news and opinion from Brown’s Mart members, and will be edited and produced by them (using “blog” technology). The Brown’s Mart online newsletter (or blog) will be at http://brownsmart.weblogger.com.
The blog will be available as a web site to the general web/Internet audience. What makes a blog different is that it is editable and extensible through the normal browser interface through editing forms and other facilities. Say a someone visits the blog and reads the various pages as one would on a usual web site), then the reader comes to a page of the blog and decides to comment on a page or to contribute stories, the reader merely joins the site and is given commenting rights more or less immediately.
Members also have email notification facilities in addition (i.e they receive notification of changes to the site via email). They also receive bulletins via email.
Background on Blogging
Blogs are web logs, or web-based publications that can be setup and edited using a web browser. Blogs also feature inbuilt discussion facilities. Blogs can be setup and hosted for free through service providers such as blogger.com and manilasites.com. Blogging is described as “push-button publishing” by blogger.com, and as a simple “content management system” by manilasites.com.
Blogs are intercreative in the sense that members of a blog can collaborate with each other in creating content dynamically; the term intercreative was coined by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, to describe his vision for the web: an environment where ideas are generated and grown through free interchange. His original web software was a browser and editor in one to facilitate reading as well as publishing in an integrated enviroment; the editor portion was dropped by Netscape and other major browser developers subsequently. Blogs, however, feature editing and publishing facilities in the one environment, available through any web browser, and thus can be considered an implementation of the original idea of the web as intercreative space and web software as intercreative tools.
Blog Management and Membership
The Managing Editors are currently Jane Tonkin and Bong Ramilo; more Managing Editors can be selected later. Contributing Editors can also be appointed. Others interested in contributing through commenting or discussing stories can join as members.
Joining the blog is easy: a hyperlink is on every page and persons wishing to join need only to provide their name and a valid email address. We can filter members through “blocking” and “unblocking” in case we get nuisances joining up. Members are allowed to comment on stories and to add discussion topics. Should they want to post stories as well, they need to become an editor — we need agreement on criteria for approving editorship, but my inclination is to accept any member wishing to contribute (as contributing editor) while limiting the number of managing editors (who have a lot more responsiblities and privileges) to make management manageable.
Editorial Policy
The blog will feature news about Brown’s Mart, its members, and other events or happenings that are of interest to Brown’s Mart and its members.
The blog can be read by anyone visiting the blog but only editors (managing and contributing) can post stories, and only members can post comments or discuss stories.
Content will be updated frequently and regularly. The look and feel or “form” will initially be based on the Cool Blue theme provided by weblogger.com; some customisation will be done to adjust the basic theme to our needs, while a change of theme can be considered after the first few issues.
Brown’s Mart Palace
The Palace is a visual chat program. It is an Internet chat system that provides a series of rooms with graphical elements (backgrounds, links, props, etc) and where chatters are visually represented by avatars. Palace sites run on their own server software (that is free) that runs on Windows as well as MacOS platforms. Running a Palace server allows you to build rooms using simple commands or through scripting.
A basic server can be set up in an hour or two. I set up a server based at the Digital Media Centre NTU (IP address 138.80.45.71) in cooperation with digital media students last year, and worked with Trevor Van Weeren to set up one for QANTM. Brown’s Mart can have its own Palace as well with a couple of hours setting up time.
The Brown’s Mart Palace will initially feature spaces or rooms based on Brown’s Mart’s actual physical set-up — I did this with the Digital Media Centre’s Palace, setting up a virtual tour of the School of Art and Design using photos of the building and its various spaces. Visitors can then chat in any of the spaces initially on offer. Should there be interest among members/users, we can eventually train some “wizards” or “operators” who can co-build rooms and script the palace (as the digital media students did with me last year).
Some issues
The Palace is a popular chat environment, formerly supported and managed by www.communities.com (which reportedly had around 250,000 Palace users by end of 2000). Communities.com, however, does not support The Palace anymore but there are still hundreds existing Palace sites (servers) operating currently. The software to enter Palace sites (the client software) is still available from several web sites. These client programs are easily installed and provide basic facilities to Palace chatters (e.g. smiley avatars, chat privileges). To avail of the advanced user facilities such as drawing, wearing props, making rooms, and writing scripts, the client software must be registered. Communities.com used to provide free registration numbers in the past bit have stopped; registration numbers are still available for free, nonetheless, from some Palace afficionados’ sites.
Another issue is about operating hours. The Brown’s Mart Palace operating hours will be determined on where we will run it from — if we can find a host computer that is connected 24/7 , the the Brown’s Mart Palace can run 24/7 (the Digital Media Centre Palace, for instance, runs 24/7 on my old Mac 7200 at NTU). Alternatively, we can have fixed operating hours, say a few hours a day when we turn on the computer and get connected to the net for those fixed hours.
I’d prefer to have the Palace running 24/7 and it may be possible to request Octa4 run one for us, or if Brown’s Mart gets a permanent net connection (as is being considered at the moment), we can run the Palace on a machine that is connected to the Brown’s Mart LAN /shared internet connection. Initially, though, we can run the Palace at fixed hours just to set a routine so that members can get used to using the Palace and have people to chat with while they use it — 24/7 Palaces are good if there is continuous use, but I doubt if we’ll that situation in the first few months of operation.
We need to promote the Palace among members before it gets any use. We also need to distribute software (or the URLs for where to download the software), then we may need to do workshops on how to use the Palace.
At the minimum, the Brown’s Mart Palace can be like a virtual Brown’s Mart where visitors can have a look around, with or without anyone else around to chat with.
Gigcasting
It is possible to webcast events live for free — up to four hours of streaming time a month — through Spotlife.com. All you need is a webcam and a PC connected by phone to the internet, and an account with Spotlife.com (which is free). You can also post photos captured at time intervals by a webcam on Spotlife.
I suggest Brown’s Mart gigs be webcast through Spotlife, initially on a monthly basis (with a webcats lasting between one to four hours), which I can undertake or coordinate with some volunteers. We can have more webcasts depending on demand, and availability of operators. Webcasting through Spotlife.com is not difficult and volunteers — maybe even performers — can be briefed or trained in the procedure in an hour or two (if they’re familiar with computers and using basic net facilities, add another hour or two for people who are not familiar with computers or the net).
As more people get interested in web casting, we can facilitate setting up their own accounts and their equipment (if they want to use their own) so that they can webcast anywhere they wish. For webcasts using Brown’s Mart’s equipment and internet time, I suggest we exercise some control (and maybe even charge for teh use of gear and internet time).
Promoting the Program
As with most other community arts projects, we will need to promote these projects to members for a few weeks or months before we see a significant take up of the activities and services. We should do the promotion through the newsletter and other traditional media but also campaign using email and other online means.
I suggest we produce a brochure or info sheet about the Community-based Multimedia Program and the activities/programs for Phase 1, reproduce the info in the newsletter (maybe have little ads running for a few issues), and position the info/ads prominently on the web site and blog prominently. We should also do an email mailout to drum up interest and support.
It would also be good to start building a corps (maybe a small team) of interested volunteers who can assist with the programs.
A budget also needs to be drawn up to support these activities.
Bong Ramilo 9 March 2001
