I get it though, and I'm of several different minds about where this should go.

As someone who doesn't design websites for a living, this is a challenge. But it's a fun project to chip away at.

• First goal — it's gotta be a site where neighborhood readers and writers can easily find their way and do their thing. So for that alone, the front page has to change.

I'm beginning to see that the front page just can't be this busy. We'll probably have an "everything page" like this, but it could be tucked behind a calmer front page.

Each of the textboxes are modules, which means they're pretty easy to arrange and switch out for something else. So anyone could mix and match to create their own custom homepage.

• The other goals are background, but they're important too
  • Better information streams, so we can flexibly show neighbors' input in new ways.
  • Better outreach to neighborhood users.
  • Better search engine optimization, so googlers find us faster.

Back to the wiki-workshop. It's great to have feedback, and if you get the urge, you're welcome to join in the tinkering.

I think the new site is too busy, and as someone who develops websites for organizations, here's my two cents.

I think the most user-friendly thing you can do is lay out a "home" page that offers fewer choices so people can get to where they want to go faster. Having too many choices means slowing down to read and digest them all. And it's a good idea to only have 3 - 4 different typeface sizes and styles to help with visual clutter, and instead focus on grouping information into boxes or areas.

It's nice to have what's happening on a particular day appear, but at the same time I don't mind (personally) clicking one link to get to the calendar. It takes up a fair amount of screen real estate.

Maybe you've seen these already, but I did a Google search for "community wiki" and found these:
http://daviswiki.org/
http://wiki.netbsd.se/Main_Page (I like the icons - easy to see what's offered at a glance)
http://wiki.maemo.org/Main_Page (a clean layout)
http://community.jboss.org/en/wiki (more like a traditional website with tabs)

And just to play devil's advocate, I think the layout you've got works just fine. Enough people are discovering it on an ongoing basis, why make us learn something new? If it 'aint broke, why fix it? Just gotta ask …

Thanks for all you do!

Joanne

I looked at www.cnn.com just now to compare. What I noticed they have which your test site does not are:

• tinier thumbnail pictures
• more links to subcategories in the main nav bar across the top
• smaller font sizes in general
• ads: don't strive for this one! ;-)

It's all in flux. Other ideas please!

I'm convinced there are great things on the wiki, but I never read them because the layout drives me crazy.

What's happening this week? What are people talking about? Where's the latest weekly digest? How can I be a part of all this?

I'm hoping the new site will make all that much clearer. There's been a lot of under-the-hood tinkering, some breakage, occasional cursing — and a bunch of new ideas for how our site can come back stronger, easier, and more interesting.

There's a mockup on the test site — very drafty, but it gives the basic idea. Take a look. Weigh in.

Here are some great ways to make sure you stay connected.

Are you on facebook? We've got a facebook group of about 600 neighbors. It's a great way to get emailed reminders for Columbia City's iconic events, or to check in occasionally to see what neighbors have posted.
Columbia Citizens also have a facebook page. Fan that, and you'll see the beginning of new threads from our discussion board, mixed right in with your facebook newsfeed.
Are you on Twitter? This has been a fun new experiment of the past few months. Columbia Citizens tweet new threads from our discussion board, and we also relay tweets from around the neighborhood. Follow us here.
Do you use a feed reader? Have the internet come to you! It's easy to set up a feed reader to view updates. Feeds arrive as bulleted items for easy browsing. If something piques your interest, you can check out its linked content, or you can tag it to read later. Otherwise you can wipe the reader slate clean and move on. Columbia Citizens offer a variety of feeds. You can track one discussion or several. You can get WikLi alerts. If you want, you can track each and every site edit. Or you can customize a feed to track something more specific. More details are here.
Do you want a daily email digest? You can also get a summary of the day's discussion, straight to your email inbox, with direct links to each post to make it easier to join in. If you'd like more immediate updates, you can arrange for that when you sign up.

This week's Wikli will mark a milestone. This is #100. That's one hundred weeks of Columbia Citizen news, alerts, commentary, and images — all shared by neighbors, for neighbors.

As our collaborative weekly newsletter, the Wikli highlights all that Citizens have shared on the site over the past week. It helps to mark a rhythm for neighbors' regular check-ins. It draws in readers and writers, and it seems to make this complicated wiki a little less so.

And in celebration of this momentous occasion… it feels like a good time to kick off a Wikli sabbatical.

It's time to step off the weekly treadmill, and to focus with neighbors' help to make the site even more accessible, more engaging, more inclusive, and more compelling.

So here are two challenges: how to improve the site in the long term, and how to keep things humming in the short term, while the Wikli's away?

• This space could use better attention to site design, organization, and outreach. So if CSS, UI, and SEO mean anything to you, we'd surely love some of your TLC.
• In the meantime, there's no rest for the wiki. The calendar, the discussion board, the photo gallery, and all the pages will still be up and running, available for you to pitch in with what you know and care about.

Can we aim to get this done by springtime? Your thoughts on all this are vital, as always.

Now add facebook to the mix. In the Columbia City group, Citizens can share links, start discussions, and post bulletins to the group's wall. Group members receive occasional invites to neighborhood events, like BeatWalk.

The wiki's also on facebook. The Columbia Citizens page draws directly from our discussion board. It features Wikli alerts and the first post to any new discussion thread. If you're a "fan", you'll see occasional items posted by Citizen moderators in your regular news feed. This should be a casual way to share new and interesting stuff that neighbors have tucked into the site.

Wherever you log on — from a Columbia City coffee shop, from work, or from the comfort of home — let's use these facebook tools to help us connect in that original local-living medium: face-time.

Truth be told, this Citizen has resisted the siren song of social media, suspecting facebook, myspace and their ilk might turn out to be just so many more online obsessions. And they are. But the lure of the neighborhood's internet-work is strong, and there's a rush of new interest in Columbia City connecting.

Christo de Klerk kicked off a Columbia City group awhile back, and this week it's breezed past 200 members. If you're a facebook member in the "Seattle, WA" network, you can join and invite your neighbors.

This seems to be another good way for Citizens to self-identify and share information. Facebook isn't a wiki, so it won't replace what we're doing here. But facebook might make it easier to connect with the friends of our friends — a useful tool in this neighborhood. So let's see if this helps with the community building we do here — check it out.

Over the past year, many people have participated in this experiment in community building, the wiki. It's time for a wider discussion to share ideas and impressions.

Let's get together and talk about the future of the wiki.

Where: The Alehouse
When: Monday, August 18, 7pm

n.b. laptops and libations don't mix. Leave yours at home.

There are so many angles, so let's make this a free-form discussion. Here are a few questions to think about beforehand.

• What do you want to do with Columbia Citizens?
• What's working? What could work better?
• What's motivated you to participate so far?
  • What would make the experience more fun?
  • What might motivate other neighbors?

In the meantime, here are some numbers.

• ~4000 monthly visits
• ~12 000 monthly pageviews
• ~30 comments per week
• ~270 total pages
• ~440 subscribers to Wikli alerts
• ~75 Citizen members

If you have ideas or questions you'd like to share, please use this comment thread. If this conversation is something folks enjoy, then maybe we can have it more regularly.

We're a wiki about a small neighborhood and not about art per se, though Columbia City is graced with many arts and artists. Columbia Citizens features an art gallery and many, many references to local arts events. Some of them happen at the Columbia City Gallery, and SEEDarts does a lot to inject life and art into the community. As neighbors here, we're certainly fortunate in that respect.

Thanks for asking.

S.

regards :-)
Bruno

www.brunomenei.com
www.wikidot.com

It took awhile to make it happen, but here's an example for the St Gobain project.

I haven't heard much about HAL's progress on the Columbia Plaza site. If there are other development proposals in the pipeline, we can build similar pages for them.

Would there be a prize? Just bragging rights? A coveted spot in the Wikli? A real spot on the wall at the, say, Alehouse or at Lola?

Would vendors in the 'hood provide small prizes?

Would this be lame?