Street under construction (Watch your head)

You will see . . there are a good number of things which need to be corrected, replaced, or fine-tuned in Streets as it reads thus far. Getting this right is going to require technical resources and competence that will have to come in from outside; so consider this not only an opportunity to add your complaints and suggestions to the following, but also as an invitation to anyone with the skills needed to join us to make this thing work as it should.


Tasks:

Here is a working short list of items needing attention, in no particular order:

1. A daily edition that can be handily sent to all subscribers, bringing together both all postings and comments for the day, with a 3-5 line opening excerpt and link to the full piece.

2. A working Table of Contents which we can have up top at left so it is the first thing that the reader sees- see www.autolibre.com for what I consider to be a good example

3. A clean and easy sign-in routine for first-time visitors.

4. A third column on the right - for things that we think the reader would like to see up top.

5. A calendar top right, in which people can click a date in order to see what articles appeared on that date

6. We would like to be able to insert a short citation or reference in its own box within any given posting, or alternatively once we have our third column at the top of the third column. A nice place for brief wisdom.

7. Improved ability to produce an attractive weekly version, with clickable table of contents and punchy 3 to 5 line text summaries.

8. Article by article printing (our present workaround is not bad but can be improved)

9. Possibly dumping the entire site contents into a (better?) blog site other than Blogger

10. Better (smoother, easier, faster) integration of video, sound, PowerPoint, PDF

11. Cleaner, easier links to machine translated language editions.

12. Integrate occasional group videoconference meetings on key topics.

13. Podcasts

Help Wanted (Technical support)

If you have spent some time with World Streets you will probably have noticed that it is a thoroughly collaborative operation, with friends and partners from many different places around the world contributing in many different ways. So far so good. But we also need other forms of help of a more specific kind, so the purpose of this entry is to let you know about some of the kinds of skills and support needed if we are to make World Streets into a truly effective instrument in support of the sustainable transport agenda worldwide

At this point let us just list the main areas in which help is going to be most useful, and invite you to work your way down this list -- and if you see an area in which you have the skills and the desire to pitch in, please do get in touch so that we can discuss how this might work.

Before you dig in however let me point out that while this is a great and exciting series of challenges, the only reward for doing them will be your satisfaction. It is a great and challenging job, but there is no pay and no obligations really, other than to pitch in where your skills and time permit. But we can promise that you will be in great company.

Now on to the areas in which help is needed:

Content

* Eyes on the Street Sentinels
* Reporters
* Reviewers
* Editors
* Translators
* Speakers Bureau, organization of

Media skills:

* Illustrators
* Photographers
* Videographers
* Streetscape models
* Scenario writers
* Podcasting
* Editors
* Producers

Technical support (Web):

* Webmasters and blog experts
* Map maintenance
* Eyes on the Street program maintenance
* Blog liaison

Partners for new language/country editions

* See Italian version, Nuova Mobilità here (Under construction)

Fundraising

* Through web
* Direct representations
* Viral fundraising

Project partners (for joint projects, editions)
Ideas, suggestions for us? You know how to get in touch. I hope we shall be hearing from you. Team work.

Eric Britton, Editor

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