Simon’s Blog (the official one)

It’s all coming together for the ruralnet|uk conference tomorrow. Everyone can join in online for the (FREE) online version of the event unfolding here: futurechoices.ruralnet.org.uk. This is a real attempt at inclusion and people engaging online will get some material that it won’t be possible to cover at the face to face event in Skipton (1-2/10/08). This includes an interview with Matthew Taylor talking to me about his recent report to the Prime Minister on rural issues. The site also supports interaction and networking - Matthew Taylor himself is in there poised to answer your questions!

We are also quietly launching ruralnet|online 2.0 which many of the people reading this will have helped us co-design at the beginnging of the year (see ruralnetonline.org.uk). As you’d expect from the brain power applied to the design, ruralnet|online 2.0, is a bit special. It takes a new and completely different approach to online networking. It is a true attempt to build an online network from the bottom up. Enabling people to operate online AND pulling together all the good stuff already going on.

In summary, if you are working for the good of rural people and places we will give you free webspace and support to help you operate effectively online and complement the other threads of your work. So we empower you to do what you want to do. While you are doing this, we automatically pull in the new activity into the ‘ruralnet|online dashboard‘ (pictured). The dashboard is a bit like the homepage of any online network EXCEPT that the content is nearly all dynamic and represents the activities of the network. If you click on the screenshot you will be taken to an annotated version of the dashboard image explaining this in more detail.

But, I hear you cry, things like Drupal and Ning do this already. Well they nearly do but in contrast with these systems, ruralnet|online users are free to control all aspects of their independent webspaces and we can even pull relevant content from non-ruralnet|online sites into the ‘ruralnet|online dashboard‘. So, you don’t even have to be using ruralnet|online webspace to be part of the ruralnet|online network.

Please take a look at the pilot websites already in place here - there are a range: a classic website; two websites supporting events; a service (RuSource); a blog (this one).

Any questions? Take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions.

Thanks again to everyone inside and outside ruralnet|uk who helped us pull this off.