The Beginning of the Long Haul

Well,

A blog about building a website as a beginner isn't as photo friendly as a blog about renovating Stupas! (see http://astupasuccess.blogspot.com to understand where I am coming from).

But, what can happen is folks who are interested can share resources! So here's a link to a site that Asbhy turned us onto:

http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/reduce-reuse-recycle.cfm

This is just one page from an extensive site on designing for usability. If there is anything we hope to accomplish with this website it is achieving a site where the user is so comfortable with the interface that they can totally focus on the content.

We webcast a class for more seasoned students last night (hence it was password protected)and utilized the chat feature on ustream. It worked well, allowing distant students to feel they could truly participate. One thing that resulted was that a couple of our monks in Arizona had a conversation with a woman who works for a video production company. They sent her contact info on to us and we're going to see if she'll open a dialog with us. The webcasting seems to really help not only deliver our message (the teachings) but also helps those receiving them feel more like they are part of a larger community, rather than just browsing isolated movies on the web.

I'll post all kinds of links here as we go on, from learning resources to equipment resources.

For now, though it sounds like a bunch of tech speak to most of my associates, I know I'm just a baby geek. And all this effort is worth it only if I am able to translate it into something that can help others connect with the precious Dharma!