question

Submitted by jessica l. on October 22, 2007 - 7:09pm.

tags:

London Commons

Just a question for anyone who can answer --

I'm new here and was checking out the FreeWiki page...I noticed it says the LC wants to offer the following services:

a computer recycling, fixng and teaching program
a bike recycling, fixing and teaching workers cooperative
an energy cooperative specialising in wind power, biodiesel or both

Just wondering whether any of these have gotten started up at all? if so, how successful have they been? If not, does anyone know where the funding for the site comes from?

Just my own curiosity here... thanks guys.

-j.

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some answers

Submitted by Trev McNaughton (not verified) on October 22, 2007 - 7:20pm.

well as far as the recycling projects go and the workers co-op ideas, those have pretty much been abandoned for now. A few members of the site have started recycling bikes on their own, and if you want I could try to dig up if they still do that.

computer recycling hasn't really happened either, and I don't think anyone's doing that either. but I could be wrong, if they are, I don't know about it.

for funding, we had a few fundraisers when the site was still fresh, and that paid for hosting costs for a little while, then when it ran dry, it came out of the pockets of a few individuals (and still is). Same with development and upkeep of the site, its done out of the kindness of people's hearts..

[#londoncommonsnet] /me is 1337

actually

Submitted by Rachel Ayres on October 22, 2007 - 9:03pm.

Actually we still do have london commons funds, that are available to be used.
at any point in time...
-r.

ballin

Submitted by jessica l. on October 24, 2007 - 10:56pm.

thanks for the answers, that'd be great if those initiatives could get off the ground.

..if I can ask another question -- what's gonna be new about the new LC? and, why the changes? to be honest, I'm just interested in the concept of this kind of website, and curious to know about any obstacles that have been encountered that could be work to hinder the site reaching its full potential (however we might define that).

londoncommons.net 2.0

Submitted by Trev McNaughton (not verified) on October 25, 2007 - 5:20pm.

with all things on the net, there needs to be upgrades and features to spark more interest, as well as better protection from such things as spammers.

we're designing the LC to keep up with web 2.0 standards. web 2.0 is like having an application you can sign onto as a web page.

there are also alot of wicked cool features added, that we think will help the site be used for what it was originally intended (as a community builder). just to name some of them, chatrooms (like irc style), buddylists, streaming audio players, organic groups (which allows users to create a discussion group of a specific topic or theme, and can be self moderated), and some other things we might be keeping as a surprise (or I can't think of right now haha).

we'll also be having a new look to the site, as right now, the site uses a default theme that came with the web software we use. Thomas is working hard at coding a brand new look, so we're excited to have that implicated as well.

we're also upgrading the database, using a newer version of mysql, php, and apache. plus speeds will be faster to support all this.

I should also point out that we want to make profile sites, or atleast help anyone wanting to setup a community site similar.

as for obstacles.. wow, there are a lot of them. the reason the new site isn't up yet is because of the many obstacles. mainly we're experiencing issues from the hosting we use currently. its shared hosting, so it has some safe-mode features that hinder the new sites design. We also face code that doesn't work with other code. Browsers are also a big problem. something will be perfect in firefox, yet will break in internet explorer for example. we also had a lack of volunteers to help with testing the prototype. most people want to wait til its fully released to try it, but sadly, if thats the case, we won't know what doesn't work until its official..

its also pretty new to a lot of us, but its extremely fun, and would suggest to anyone interested to give it a shot.

hope that helps..if we re-publish our prototype site, I'll let you know and you can check it out (it might have bad language, its frustrating work sometimes...)

[#londoncommonsnet] /me is 1337

thanks! :)

Submitted by jessica l. on October 28, 2007 - 4:28pm.

thanks! :)

The new London Commons is

Submitted by Thomas Czermak on October 22, 2007 - 7:36pm.

The new London Commons is coming soon (not soon enough). Maybe with the launch of the new site we can spur some people to begin disussing these possiblities again. There are lots of creative/progressive types in this town trying to achieve similar objectives. Part of the reason this site exists is to help spur cooperative, sustainable or otherwise progressive projects. I think though, with the new site, we'll have to drop some of the described objectives. To be discussed at the next meeting for sure.

We'll see what the new site will bring...