The organizers of the Electronic Valley are planning a meeting next month where they’ll talk about the future of the site.
John Joy of Oxford was one of the key players in getting the site off the ground.
He answered two Valley Indy questions via e‑mail.
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Valley Indy: Did you ever think the site would be around 14 years after the launch?
Back in those days, we weren’t even discussing a Web site, per se.
Then, the Electronic Valley was a Healthy Valley 2000 committee, and we were exploring whatever ways we could leverage new technology to enhance communication in the Valley.
Early on, several techniques were considered, but the site was the logical choice.
Given our charge, we concluded our job was to “goose” elements of the community into using the technology, and I think we’ve been successful, generally.
I don’t know if, fourteen years ago, I would have thought there would still be a website — I’m sure I hoped there would be something.
Valley Indy: Jack mentioned next month’s meeting will be, basically, a brainstorming session. Are the any ideas you have that you’d like to incorporate into the site, but can’t at the moment due to time constraints? Are there areas where you’d like to see volunteers pick up, such as using video or updating parts of the site?
There are lots, and lots of volunteer opportunities. We need to get the site ported to a content management system (and it’s a very big site); this will make management and updates (by all the various Valley entities — organizations, agencies, individuals, businesses) much easier.
The look-and-feel of the site is very dated (and I’ll readily admit that my graphic arts skills are extremely limited).
The site contains a lot of dated information — in fact, a local organization called some out-of-date stuff to my attention a couple of hours ago.
Another example: I’d love to bring back the local restaurants guide- – I had to take it down because it
became so out of date.
These things require time — it seems ironic in an age when people are divulging every nuance of their lives on Facebook et
al., but getting information for the site has always (for fourteen years now) been like pulling teeth.
Then again, to some degree it’s a “chicken-and-egg” problem: we have never done much in terms of promotion, and I suspect there are still many in the Valley community who don’t know we exist. With better promotion likely will come better utilization, more content, and better updating.
As for new features: I have some ideas, and have asked our current cadre of Electronic Valley volunteers to bring two or three of their own to the meeting next month.
Jack and I had bounced around a “game show” idea some time back (and, of course, he does the Derby quiz). I had also thought about an electronic debate for candidates in the next local election cycle. Actually, that may make a great Electronic Valley/Valley Independent cooperative venture!