Community Building Blocks
by Pete Wetmore
Two papers recently took different paths to reach the same destination-putting community groups on the World Wide Web.In Tidewater Virginia, HamptonRoads.com was launched July 31 after months of development by the interactive-
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HamptonRoads.com chose to "play the role of integrator," according to Interactive Media General Manager Michael Alston, because it wanted a seamless portal for the area's nine cities and "what we wanted didn't exist."
Six people contributed slices of time and expertise to the 10-month task of getting a set of Web-publishing tools "stitched together" to make it possible for a user to find information readily without having "to enter the name of a community five times," Alston says.
Users aren't aware that the same screen of information may include data drawn from servers at Pilot Online, the newspaper's 5-year-old Web gateway; InfiNet, the Norfolk-based, newspaper-oriented Internet service provider; and Zip2 Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., a key industry online-technology supplier.
Community-organization leaders use Zip2's form-based tools and templates to create and maintain their own Web pages. Knowledge of HTML isn't necessary, although savvy surfers can use Zip2's HTML tools, Alston says.
Zip2 powers the site's entertainment guide while threaded discussions devoted to specific community groups and interests are handled by software called Web Crossing, developed by Lundeen & Associates of Alameda, Calif. Calendar software is yet to debut.
Alston likened the outcome to a local Yahoo!, the popular portal for navigating the Web. "If we have accomplished anything," he says, "we have knitted some tools together into what we hope is an effective virtual community."
For Philip Calvert, the manager of Maine Communities Online, the primary concern was ease of use for both "the technically inclined citizens of Maine and first-time users." The state is an official sponsor of the Guy Gannett project, hosted by Koz Inc. of Durham, N.C.
Koz won the contract because users don't have to download special software. Also, the company can transparently add servers as the community grows and listened to suggestions for enhancements. "The software is easy to use-very intuitive, both in terms of building a site and managing a site," Calvert says.
"Most of the technical work is handled by Koz," Calvert says, so his team-two full-time staffers helped by a designer, marketer and salesperson-focused on setting up templates with the appropriate look and feel for "the gateway to Maine."
One prized feature is a calendar-with built-in maps-listing each group's events. The service also aggregates events of similar communities.
To encourage groups to join the 300-plus already online, Maine Communities Online is sponsoring training sessions across the state. "If you've been trained," Calvert says, "you can create a new page in 30 seconds."
Pete Wetmore is an Urbana, Ill., free-lance editor and writer. E-mail, pw@colegroup.com; phone, (217) 367-6521; fax, (217) 367-5047.