The Writer's Center 2.0

Hello, everyone

Starting today, I'm going to be writing a series of intermittent status reports on our future Web site.

As many of you know, as we've announced previously, The Writer's Center is working toward establishing a new (& vastly improved) web presence. Right now we're looking at, we hope, an April launch date. So mark your calendars! But do note that's a hoped for date, which could still slide, depending on certain factors out of our control. We're busily preparing the site now, and we're truly, truly excited to see its arrival.

I'm eager to get started in bringing more and better content to your Writer's Center web experience. Among the new features you will find First Person Plural (it will be embedded in); a "threaded" discussion forum allowing you to respond to to workshop participants posts (for those in workshops); and easy access with log-in and log-out features. Signing up for workshops and events will be easier too, much easier, and you can choose to get a hard copy of The Carousel or simply view the pdf online (incidentally, the new Carousel will soon be mailed). I could run down a longer list, but I'm going to stop there. (But you can view the full list here.) Instead, I'll talk briefly about the site and some of the more dynamic functions we hope to provide.
 
We'll certainly have a new look, and that look will be all Writer's Center. Just WHAT that look will be, you'll just have to wait and see. Needless to say, it's exciting going through this process. Since we have so many events and workshops at The Writer's Center, we will take advantage of new web technology to finally integrate new tools: video, audio, iconography, color. All that, and the site will be user friendly too. Already, we've created a site map that we believe represents a stronger approach: In creating it we considered not what we thought the site should do for us, but rather what the site should do for you, our members and community.
 
Because that's just it. We ARE a community, and we want to offer an improved version of that community to you, one that merges the physical (here at the Center) and the virtual. In short, you'll be able to do far, far more cool stuff on the new site, including take more online workshops. Everything seems possible right now.
 
I'll be back periodically with more specifics as we develop the site.
 
Kyle