Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

[Sam Stephens <sam AT postmoderncore.com>]

Danyl Strype wrote:
> * software - there are a number of options here. The simplest is just  
> to put together a set of static html pages (maybe with CSS for  
> styles). However if we want to have a range of people with limited  
> tech skills updating and adding to the site we will probably want to  
> use some kind of Content Management System (CMS) like Drupal,  
> PHP-Nuke, CMSimple etc Choice of software depends a lot on...
>
> * features - what do we want on the site? what do we want it to do? do  
> we want blogs? a wiki? integration with VideoBomb/ DemocracyPlayer  
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_%28video_platform%29)?

I think that the website should be open for any suitable participant. 
Technological knowledge shouldn't be a barrier of entry. So I don't like 
static pages, unless it was designed with really good CSS so that 
altering the page was dead easy. (I think CSS is vital for modern web 
design, these days).

Maybe if you had css so, for example, you could make a new news entry with

<div class="newsheadline">The Headline</div>
<div class="newsdate">1st January 2006</div>
<div class="newsbody>
<p>Some content</p>
<p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>

for example.

But I don't think this is the way forward. I think it's fitting with the 
whole CC philosophy to build on top of the hard work of others. Meaning 
either a CMS, or a blog/wiki setup.

I reckon a blog and a wiki would be an ideal beginning. Blog for news, 
and Wiki for discussion. Then as things grow, add more sophisticated 
offerings such as VideoBomb (which looks awesome, by the way), if and 
when the demand is there. Or a fully blown CMS.

Django is worth looking at in this kinda area.
http://www2.jeffcroft.com/2006/may/02/django-non-programmers/

The thing that would be a shame, is if someone put in a lot of effort 
building sophisticated features, that no one actually ended up using. 
Based on traffic on this list, the CCNZ community is currently 
reasonably small. Having said that, a good website that will help inform 
and excite creative New Zealanders is definitely a good thing.