Digital Greenwich - DG Online

In my group on "Delivering Education" we weren't able to meet the last days so we wad to work separately. Adam is working on the DG building (mentioned in older posts) I am working on the website of the DG concept and Neil on the services/courses etc. which will be provided in the DG building. Additionally, there was a change in our plans; instead of many small DG buildings all around Greenwich, we thought it would be better if there was only one iconic DG building with a very busy agenda of courses, events and activities going on there. This would be placed in Woolwich, as an attempt to face the problem at its core trying, in an attempt to upgrade the area Mr. Shaun encouraged us to work on.

The DG Online web application, which will be the major software in the DG, aims to provide information about the events talking place in the DG and apart from that to be a website which promotes culture in Greenwich (the way is explained below). Additionally, looking at the Greenwich's council website, it is full of stuff and activities with Youth Centres and extra curricular activities for children and millions of courses for adults. So, DG Online tries also to take advantage of all these courses and activities already taking place in Greenwich to make sure all users are aware of them.

Since the project is conceptual I draw a Mind Map of the website I would recommend. Click to enlarge:

Serving DG's needs

Starting from "DG's operations" the staff will use this website to keep the rents and bookings made in the DG. This will be really useful since every user of DG Online will be available to look at his/her account; what needs to be returned, until which date etc.

Library

The users will use DG Online to search across the Library DG has to offer. Also, Greenwich provides an on-line ibrary service which searches across all Greenwich libraries and shows if there is a book available with the criteria entered in any of the borough's libraries. So when the users are looking for a resource they will use a search engine which looks at both the DG's library and at all the libraries of Greenwich. Additionally if there are any resources in digital form they will be available in the DG and online. Resources with Copyright restrictions will be available in digital form only in the DG.

Agenda

The DG will have a busy agenda with lectures from academic tutors and projection of films etc. Neil is working on that. Here in the form of a calendar DG's agenda will be shown along with other educational events/activities taking place in Greenwich, like Reading Groups. Agenda contains only events and activities which are not in series.

Courses

When it comes to learning cycles of 2 or more lectures this event will be placed in the Courses section. Here is an attempt to combine DG's schedule with the spectacular (at least in numbers) bunch of courses provided in Greenwich. The thing is if someone is interested, a visit in one place and a few clicks to be enough to get informed and find the right course for him/her.

All the aspects of the website mentioned above have to do with the services offered in the DG. Apart from that, DG Online will be an online place for culture which provides meticulous content and where the visitors can get involved.

Motivator

The first time I used a computer which was on the internet I had a blank Internet Explorer in front of me, and though I could realize this medium's power I couldn't find anything to type in the address bar. Arguing with myself I could say this was ages ago, and indeed the solution to this kind of problem comes with "www.Google.com". But what I saw from my mother for example is that the same situation occured to her when looking at the cursor blinking in Google's textbox. It took her quite a while to learn how to use the Google.

To take DG's users out of this uncomfort zone in DG Online in the front page probably there will be a catalogue of interesting stuff found either on the web or offline. It will be sorted by date and updated in a daily basis, selected stuff which has to do with Arts and Culture and either hosts or redirects to interesting findings that could motivate its readers.

DG exhibits

Thinking of the LiTRO free-press literature and the concept of involvement, I thought it would be nice to have a kind-of monthly magazine which includes some artworks of Greenwich's residents. The way this could be developed and have chances to be successful is:

1. DG will have an exhibition space for all these artworks

2. Residents interested in that, or who consider they have artistic skills will sumbit their work.

3. This work will be curated and then exhibited in DG

4. The new additions in DG's gallery will be published monthly.

DG's gallery could contain any type of artwork, from paintings to digital artworks. Also, there will be seperate  space / room for artworks which have to do with Greenwich, entitled with something like "Greenwich seen by its residents". This will also help the borough to display its identity via art, since a borough is neither the land nor the urban scenery but its residents.

Other

To provide something more complete, it would be nice to have a section with news and recommendations for movies, music and exhibitions running. Of course links to all the other activities taking place in Greenwich will be provided through DG Online.

Target group?

It will be the same with the DG's target group mentioned in the previous post and the general build of the website will be as iGoogle, in terms of: it provides everything but everyone of us takes only what he/she needs.

Concluding

I don't know the quality of the services (which are millions) currently provided in the borough, but I think a better management and promotion of them and would be what Greenwich's Education aspect needs before anything else. I would suggest the use of a Poll to see whether the residents are aware of all these facilities provided by their council.

To-do

Today we have a meeting with Mr. Shaun, so we will move on according to his feedback.