Girvan Online puts Advent Online

I went to meet some of the volunteers running Girvan Online yesterday to exchange ideas about community web sites. We got quite excited by the idea of blog clusters among other things. More on that next year. Meanwhile, I'm not much of an expert on Advent, but I really liked their project to involve local primary schools and parents by developing an Advent Calendar online. Googling Advent calendars reveals that like much else about Christmas celebration they were invented in the 19th century. Other examples of seasonal online engagement welcome....

Comments

[Paul Nelis]

Thank you David for visiting our community web site project before Christmas. Girvan is a small Scottish town in a rural community which has been using a website to communicate and share information amongst residents. The site is managed by volunteers and employs one part time web editor. In the run up to Christmas we worked with local children parents and businesses in the community to produce an online advent calendar which was also available in glossy printed format. The aim is to let residents know that Girvan online is alive and well, and active in the community, to make the leap from cyberspace to the printed format in an attempt to attract new users. As with all community sites (or any site for that matter!) we are constantly striving to stimulate interest in ‘www.girvan-online.net’ and to give the wider community a reason to access the site. We are continually looking at projects which will engage those familiar with the site and to attract new users. Our main problem is that we simply don’t know who currently accesses the site. In 2004, we ambitiously hope to address this issue and to align the web site with the broader aims of the community in terms of stimulating tourism, developing local businesses and building a community network which will develop local skills and effectively channel local information towards the site. Oh we hope to become increasingly sustainable. We expect to be busy in 2004.

Paul Nelis

[jenny]

i enjoy being here...