SCN: Portal or Destination

[patrick]

Doug,

I think I should make some regular commentary on SCN, where it is,
what it is up to: Here on scn at scn.org.

It is important that people who care about and are concerned about
SCN and the online community should know where things stand.

This "forum" can be used as a place for people to explore topics of
the online world and how they relate to SCN. It's an opportunity to
work on vision, to speak about the "living" part of SCN and it's
impacts.

I'm not in the right frame of mind to write with any eloquence at
this moment, but I thought I'd speak out loud on this. I wanted to
respond in a broader sense to what you, Doug, had written about in
your message that I am now responding to.

I think we need to talk about these issues online and elsewhere.

Take care,
Patrick

--- Doug Schuler <douglas at scn.org> wrote:
> 
> Nice posting Patrick.
> 
> I want...
> 
> more support for community activities .. both online and off.
> 
> more collaborative proejcts with community groups inside and
> outside
> of seattle.
> 
> more involvement in local information and communication policy
> making.
> 
> more involvement in innovative projects that support our mission.
> 
> -- and -- 
> 
> put a pointer to our principles on the first page -- this has 
> been done sporadically.  I have NO idea why it is sometimes taken
> off...  http://www.scn.org/commnet/principles.html
> 
> BTW. here is my presentation on SCN that I just gave in Kyoto
> last week: http://www.scn.org/commnet/Presentations/kyoto-2001.html
> We ARE in the news!!!
> 
> -- Doug
> 
>   
> ******************************************************************
>    *     SHAPING THE NETWORK SOCIETY                               
> *
>    *          Patterns for Participation,Action, and Change        
> *
>    *                  http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02       
> *
>    * Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure       
> *
>    *   is being shaped today.                                      
> *
>    *                              But by whom and to what ends?    
> *
>   
> ******************************************************************
> 
> 
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, patrick wrote:
> 
> > The question is: Do we want to make SCN a portal or a
> destination, or
> > a little of both.
> > 
> > If we want to make it a portal, then why are we wasting so much
> time
> > and energy? Any moron can get a Geocities page and put a ton of
> local
> > links on it and write a piece here and there.
> > 
> > Do we want to be morons? No, we are better than that. We want
> people
> > to come to SCN for the community. We want SCN to come to SCN for
> SCN.
> > 
> > 
> > We want them to keep them coming. We want them to keep coming
> back.
> > We want their friends and family to come to SCN. And, of course,
> more
> > people means more donations and more servers and more services.
> And
> > more volunteers. And more chaos and arguing, of course - that's a
> > given, a requirement :^)
> > 
> > And how do we keep them coming back? Why should they come back?
> Do
> > they even have a reason to come to SCN itself, besides the
> wonderful
> > "What's New" page (which is the best web page that SCN has)?
> > 
> > We need to add services and original content. We need to allow
> people
> > to give feedback that does not go into a blackhole. We want
> people to
> > post their complaints, their feelings, their thoughts on our site
> for
> > them and everyone else to see. For lack of a better word, we need
> to
> > allow people to have mail and interactivity.
> > 
> > If you are like me, you don't care too much about a site that has
> all
> > the information going one way. That is why I want SCN to be the
> Yahoo
> > of the Seattle community area.
> > 
> > Yahoo used to be just a portal to be in the beginning. Now I
> don't
> > even think of it as a portal as it has become a destination for
> me.
> > That is what I feel we need to become. 
> > 
> > I want to see all local sites in our shadow. When people think of
> > Seattle's community online they should think "SCN."
> > 
> > I'm not asking for anyone's support. I'm sharing what vision I
> have.
> > SCN has a lot of great things today and a lot of great
> volunteers.
> > But we can build on it and make it much greater.
> > 
> > Patrick
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > =====
> > Patrick Fisher
> > Webmaster at scn.org
> > Seattle Community Network
> > http://www.scn.org
> > "Powering our communities with technology"
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
> > http://personals.yahoo.com
> > * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * *
> * * * *
> > .	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
> > majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
> > unsubscribe scn
> > ==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web
> at: ====
> > * * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * *
> * * * *
> > 
> 


=====
Patrick Fisher
Webmaster at scn.org
Seattle Community Network
http://www.scn.org
"Powering our communities with technology"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *