I have loads of ideas for making Rhode Island's environmental information more accessible, and if I patiently keep learning and experimenting ~ and I live long enough ~ I'll build out a very useful information resource for everyone who cares about Rhode Island's environment, whatever their interest. But it would go so much faster if there were others who care about this and want to participate.
Most folks focus on ENVIRONMENTAL projects or issues, rather than the specifically INFORMATIONAL aspect of Rhode Island's environment. I'm centered on the INFORMATIONAL dimension. After all, I'm a professional librarian. The Providential Gardener develops and maintains environmental information services such as What Grows On in Rhode Island Calendar and the new Rhode Island Feeds website (beginning life at the end of June 2009 with an environmental focus). Many more information services are in the works.
I'm growing these services organically, planting seeds, testing the soil, using natural processes, rather than forcing growth faster than the technology, my time and strength, and available resources allow. For instance, it took a couple of years to develop What Grows On in RI Calendar out of the Providential Gardener blog. The need for feeds of feeds gradually emerged as more people began using RSS in the past year. The services should grow to solve real problems, rather than being imposed solutions on "business opportunities." And if I go at a pace I can personally sustain, I'll get there some day. The tortoise is my hero.
There is also a Catch-22 to this project ~ actually sets of Catch-22s. For instance, for the Calendar to have ads, it first of all has to have enough stuff in it so enough people will look at it. Advertisers want to see page hits. The Calendar also has to keep up to date and be accurate or people will stop using it. However, event planners don't always remember to add their own events, so some time goes into reminding people or simply proactively adding events. The current website for What Grows On in Rhode Island is very simply done by low-tech website software and it's not easy to add ads to it. My research into content management systems led to learning about Drupal, which has a steep learning curve but is, I believe, eventually worth the effort. I'm actually "getting there" now with the nuts and bolts of Drupal. The new website will have ads that might begin to pay the expenses, but I'm not able to accommodate the growing number of interested advertisers yet. And so it goes, one thing complicating another in an interlocking web. This is to say nothing of the terrible economy's effect on new business development.
Meanwhile, maintaining the Calendar is a time-consuming process which slows down the development of the new website. And I make my living doing other information projects, which also take time from developing the new website. Sometimes people ask me if I ever sleep (I do), and I suppose they wonder if I have a life (I do). I even get out in my gardens now and then.
This is very early-stage entrepreneurial, and if it were some other type of business development, it would not be public. However, What Grows On in Rhode Island even in its nursery-state is already more comprehensive than anything else and is thus very useful, so I'm developing it in the public eye to some extent. It will be done when it's done.
To get things growing a little faster, I'm looking for people with the skill sets listed below who are interested in helping to develop What Grows On in Rhode Island. These currently are NOT paying job opportunities. There is no money to pay people, and there may never be enough to pay for very much (although I believe there could be). The new website will have ads, and there are other revenue possibilities, but until the new website is in place, there aren't many potential revenue streams.
Right now, the best helpers are students who need internships for class credit, business people and organizations that can work out mutually agreeable exchanges of services with Providential Gardener, and people who'd just really love to see Rhode Island's environmental information organized more effectively. I can identify projects both large and small, short-term and long-term, to fit your skills and availability. See my post, Grow Where You Are Planted, for an overview of Rhode Island's environmental INFORMATION SWAMP for a view of the problems I'm addressing.
I'm not interested in twisting arms and I'm not asking anyone to do something for nothing ~ these things either interest you as such or they don't! I've found that many people think the resources I'm developing are useful, but they really aren't interested in actually developing and maintaining these resources. They are great cheerleaders, though. Others actually do advise and guide the development of What Grows On in RI as they can, but their primary focus is their own environmental work or their own business. I love these people, and there can't be enough of them! But I'm looking for the few who would actually enjoy solving the challenges of building a useful INFORMATION resource about RI's environment. So email if you're interested! I'm usually at Providence Green Drinks, and I would be glad to meet with any interested people at other mutually agreeable places and times.
Here are some of the necessary skill sets for building What Grows On in Rhode Island:
- Website Design
- Drupal
- Data Entry
- Indexing and Taxonomy Development
- Data Gathering (contributing links, info sources)
- Priming the Pump (getting more websites and info providers to add RSS!)
- Project Management
- Public Relations
- Business Planning
- Financial Planning
Back to work on the new website! And maintaining the Calendar. And promoting the Calendar. And earning a living. And watching the birds in my garden. And....
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