Bicicle Beginner Blog. . .and new BW site are live

Happy first day of Bike Winter, everyone.

I am thrilled (and a little nervous) to announce that last night we "flipped the switch" and moved to a new format for the Bike Winter website which includes Holly's Bicicle Beginner Blog. http://bikewinter.org/blog

I hope you read her first post and comment away. Go, Holly, go--with your bike wintering and your writing.

The website itself (www.bikewinter.org) is a work in progress; not all the content from the original site has
been revised and moved, we will be adding many more pics and graphics, the main page is stilling being worked on in terms of layout, there's all kinds of stuff to keep us busy in the long nights ahead. BUT, all that aside. . . .

We are finally pulling the website into this century. Yee-ha! In the last ten years, so many people have poured creativity, love and time into the website, both the old and new version. I still remember sitting with Jim Redd in his little home
office on Hoyne street, working with Michael and maybe others--it seems so long ago--on the text for the original site.
We had no idea how the project would grow. I am sure I am missing acknowledgments due to being a little bleary eyed. Please fill in.

Todd kept the site going for years, adding content and then nudging me and others to update it. Huzza to the Bike Geeks!
Howard took the calendar and event organizing to new levels and cities and has provided encouragement and assistance to keep the web update moving forward.
Jessica provided information architecture expertise and many hours of labor during round one of the redo
Willow kept the chainlink and BW calendars consistent last year (oh--what a job!)
Lisa and Michael have helped with content revision and editing and not divorcing their spouses (Todd and me) while we are stuck in front of our computers.
Andrew has been working on graphics and calendar solutions
Steven has also been thinking about ways to display information, such as our bike winter stats, in a more graphically interesting way and . . ..
most recently Holly came up with the blog idea AND connected us to Annemarie Neff, who in the last few weeks not only created a new mast design, using art from Alex and Garth, but also set up the whole new site with
the understanding that more work and many changes lie ahead in the next six months. Please join me in profuse thanks to Annemarie who did not blink when she saw how much needed to be done and our ambitious
deadline.

Thanks also to this year's co-chairs, Julie and Lowell, and everyone else who does such a great job getting the word and stickers out about BW. . .providing even more incentive to update the site.

What's next?
I am creating a discussion group on The Chainlink devoted to web scheming and feedback. That space might be a better forum for detailed back and forth. We will have periodic updates/calls for feedback on this forum too.

The idea is that the first of every month this season, we will officially launch new content and features. However, that does not mean we won't be working on the site before then, especially in November and December. With BW volunteering at the WTTW pledge drive in Dec, I imagine we will get an uptick in traffic.

OK, OK . . . enough of the process stuff. It's time to just hit send. (Did I mention that I was nervous? ;-)

Best,

Gin

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dan brown on November 1, 2010 at 4:51am

nice work Gin and others.
I got my sticker Friday at CCM and love it.
Dan

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Permalink Reply by Gin on November 1, 2010 at 5:46am

The plan for now is to have one main blogger per year to chronicle the journey with some guest posts and also feedback from the community, such as the inspiring and helpful testimony you just added as a comment to her post. Check it out, ya'll.

I think a pamphlet, even just a little how to flyer, could be a great idea. Most of my energy this year is going to be focused on the site though. The sticker is sort of like a pamphlet placeholder in that it directs people to the site where--eventually--all the info you need is stored.

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Permalink Reply by Chris B on November 1, 2010 at 5:46am

great , nice looking

who do you want us to send technical problems to? (I noticed some errors )

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Permalink Reply by Gin on November 1, 2010 at 5:48am

For now, to spare the chairs, use gin_kilgore at yahoo dot com I know we will be catching a lot of stuff. Thanks for the keen eye.

Chris B said:

great , nice looking

who do you want us to send technical problems to? (I noticed some errors )

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Permalink Reply by Holly on November 1, 2010 at 5:49am

Hi Cricket--I hope my blog will be fun. I'd like to have a few guest bloggers and if that might be of interest to you, let me know. ("Friend" me here if you want to be in touch or have any thoughts on possible candidates for guest spots.)

Our plan with the blog is to pass the torch (or rather the warm (but not too bulky) ski gloves) to another volunteer beginner biciclist next November.

I'm hoping to have enough time to dedicate to this to produce at least a couple of posts a week, sometimes more. I have a few other ideas that will also encourage group participation. I've yet to discuss them with everyone, but suffice it to say, I'm going to have as much fun with this as I can. And I hope you guys will hold me to that so that I don't bail early in the season!
Holly