Hello
(I sent you a version of this last night, but checked my facts so here's
the new improved response shared with the group.)
If you like I can post this question on the Museums Computer Group list
where you will get a techie's response. But for my pennysworth, I would
avoid My Space like the plague. It is being redesigned but it is still
likely to have the worse functionality and interface of any social site.
Also, if you want to make it public, My Space is too much of a market
niche offputting to people outside a certain age range. You could use
Yahoo Groups or Google Groups, but they are not compelling nice-looking
spaces for public consumption.
Blogs are much better, especially if you want to keep a daily diary and
feed in photos from Flickr (where, note, you can now upload 90 second
video clips) etc.
I would suggest that you use Edublogs http://edublogs.org/
It is free to use (although there is something different called Edublogs
Campus which you pay for - multiple sites for schools and colleges)
They are well set up for security and privacy controls and are geared
towards use by young people. You can give editing rights to loads of
contributors.
It is built on Wordpress, which is a good alternative for you to use,
especially if you are creating a site that might be edited by non-youth
users in the future.
But Edublogs is better because it makes it really explicit how you feed
in all kinds of services such as Flickr, You Tube, Slideshare, Twitter,
Platial maps and a really exciting tool called Voicethread.
I wouldn't think there are any better solutions...I've tried a few
(Ning, Nexo, Facebook, Google Groups, Flickr on its own etc)
I'm not a techie but it really didn't take me long to learn to use
Wordpress, only a couple of evenings. Rather than pay a developer, as
you haven't got that budget, you need to see if there is anyone in the
group who has used Wordpress or Edublogs, or similar, and would be able
to train the rest of the group to be editors.
Best wishes
Bridget McKenzie
www.flowassociates.com
Lisa Kerley wrote:
> Hi GEM,
>
> We have a very exciting programme of excavation happening at our site
> in August. I won't bore you with all the details, but we have a group
> of young people working on a project to record everything that's
> happening - photographing, filming, interviewing the archaeologists,
> keeping a daily diary of what's coming up (out of the ground that is!)
> etc.....
>
> I want to know what the best way of making this information available
> to the public is? We are a small charity and I have no budget as
> such! It is costly for us to make changes and additions to our
> website. Could a myspace page work?
>
> I really have no idea about this kind of technology and how it works,
> so any advice would be much appreciated. I know the young people
> themselves may have ideas of how we can do it, but I just wanted to
> sound you all out first, so I don't appear like a complete idiot when
> I meet them next week!
>
> Oh and if anyone wants to come to the Isle of Wight to see it all
> happening in August, have a look at our website for more details
> www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk <http://www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk> !!
>
> Many many thanks,
>
> Lisa Kerley
> Education Officer,
> Brading Roman Villa.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Get fish-slapping on Messenger! Play Now
> <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/101719805/direct/01/>
|