Commence Rainy Season

Autumn has turned from a shockingly bright, crisp, leafy delight into a bluish-gray, waterlogged, baked potato gloomfest. Growing up in the NW, I learned to force myself to like this time of year. Attentions turn towards staying home and assembling puzzles, reading anything within reach, and trying to do all the things I said would get done when the rain finally came.

Fortunately for business, without sunny distractions, its easier to find the diligence required of a more ambitious workload. For a change, I am looking closer to home for new projects. The past 18 months of building Gridwork involved working primarily with clients scattered across the country. Meetings are always conference calls, collaborations always online. Normal human contact comes from working at a coffeeshop or cruising Fred Meyer (although Halloween provided an adorable respite).

Fortunately, a couple small local projects are currently underway that involve real people within driving distance. One is still in the design phase so there’s no link to share, with a prototype in development. The other venture is also, still early in development, but I have high hopes. The name is still unofficial, but the Tacoma Independent could possibly be a forthcoming progressive news and community site. The group behind the concept is in the planning stages of looking at what it would take to form an organization devoted to publishing a variety of media in Pierce County (including radio, public access TV, and a newspaper) with a left-of-center point-of-view. The prototype site currently includes a functional calendar/meeting planner, discussion forum, and membership features.

Elsewhere on our map, we’ve recently rolled out tagging features and a new link directory over at In These Times. And while there isn’t a public link or demo, rolling out a group communication system for Global Explorers was a tremendous learning opportunity. Their internal system allows dynamic groups of students and teachers to share educational materials, photos, fundraising ideas, and begin to form a social group months before they embark on an international, traveling workshop.

Posted by Seamus Holman on November 3, 2006