mindgraffiti

While playing with Google Wave I came across a neat little extension called the Word Network Gadget. It’s a text-only mind mapping gadget. The author has also created 7 other gadgets for Wave, as of October 20th. Pretty impressive.

Created by antimatter15

Take a look at some of the other work antimatter15 has done. Truly inspiring work!

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So far I have:

• taken Basecamp for a test drive on the PaT project
• tried out Dreamhost’s 1-click install for WordPress
• added the Ahimsa theme
• added a few pieces of content to the site for reference
• installed Google apps: docs, calendar, e-mail
• added Kayte and Marjorie (the PaT webmasters) to WordPress as admins
• assigned Kayte and Marjorie as the Sys Admins for the site
  (full access FTP accounts – Dreamhost’s control panel is awesome)
• tested/currently incorporating events calendar on the site
  (bugs need worked out)

There is still much to do, but I need to pause on development and meet again with Kayte and Marjorie. I haven’t added the content myself because I want to use that as real, hands on training for Kayte and Marjorie. That way they can see how to use the interface. I will know how well it’s going once I get some feedback from Kayte and Marjorie. Here’s hoping they like it so far.

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The Generation M Manifesto, from the Harvard Business blog.

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Sometimes you can find inspiration right in your own back yard. Local singer/songwriter Atley Black was introduced to me via her song Sailor. Her lyrics and voice gave me goosebumps!

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I find that rebuild projects often focus on the negative: what needs redone and what needs improvement. What I often fail to communicate is why I am excited about projects like this to begin with: because the site has a lot of potential! So before I discuss any more of the improvements I would like to see, here are a few things that the Parents as Teachers website does right:

1. Content is king. Every bit of information on the site is relevant, useful and kept up-to-date. Past events are posted to give new parents an idea of what to expect in the future, even if the future date of the event is unknown.
2. Information architecture by design. Instead of thrown-together content, the information is organized with a purpose. For example, on the landing page the featured events line the right side of the page and events categorized by age line the left side. The school district’s disclaimer is kept at the bottom, in a smaller text size – a normal text treatment used for secondary information and legalese.
3. Readability is excellent. A few splashes of color and a touch of informal fonts convey an open, friendly attitude without becoming distracting.
4. Acknowledges the visitor. That the site even exists means that someone, somewhere has acknowledged how nice it is to have this information available, at a busy parent’s convenience. Another way the visitor is recognized is in the tone of the writing. For topics like Kindergarten Registration, it addresses parents in a direct manner: “If you missed the Kindergarten Registration [...].” then gives a full set of instructions on the page, arming parents with the information they need to get stuff done.

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