A lot of my time over the past month or so has been eaten up by the task of putting my students’ newspaper online (Kwantlen Chronicle Online). The site is about halfway toward where I want it to be, but even at this stage, I realize I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to a lot of folks.
The first group is all those people out there how are creating great bits of software and then giving it away. So far, with the exception of a component or two, I’ve been able to put the site together using bits and piece of free stuff tacked on to the Joomla CMS, which is also free. It’s astonishing. (And, yes, although it’s free, I have contributed to tip jars a couple of times.)
The second group that deserves much thanks is all those journalists, coders and visionaries that have defined what is possible — and good — about publishing online. Their experiments and experiences point the way to what a newspaper site can (and perhaps, should) be. There may still be a lot of darkness and confusion about where newspapers are going in the online world, but some strong light has been beamed down some valuable paths.
So thanks, folks. Building a newspaper website still presents challenges but they are many,many fewer than they were.
TAGS: NEWSPAPERS, ONLINE, RETHINKING MEDIA
