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How To Build Your Community With Community Journalism

This article will show how to use a community journalism (also called participatory journalism) platform to build and maintain a community by using the internet as a mean of communication between its members.

Why is community building important?

We are all part of communities whether we realize it or not. We have our local community, national community. Some are members of clubs or groups. Some are fans of a band or play hockey. Schools, Colleges, universities and workplaces are also communities.

Having a closer and more committed communities could benefit us all. Think about big corporations. In such workplaces people hardly know one another while they have so much in common. A tighter community in the workplace will make people feel more attached. Bring better communication and more productive relations between different departments, branches or even people at the same room.

Stronger communities also provide reliance when times gets rough or when crisis hits. The stronger the community is, the better the chance it will work together to solve problems and learn from past mistakes.

The internet is the ultimate community building tool

A good community needs a central place where community members can meet, communicate with each other, display ideas, share experiences and sound their voices. A community magazine is the perfect mean of communication and has numerous advantages as a community meeting place.

Here are some of these advantages:

1) Accessible to anyone from anywhere at any time
A community website is accessible from almost anywhere, community journalists and other members can participate at their own free time without constraints of time and place.

2) Democratic and empowers the individual
Anyone can express their opinion and submit their own content. It's the glue that keeps the community together. The fact that everyone has a voice is key.

3) Free of charge
Websites like www.comagz.com provide some communities with their own community magazine which is free and does not incur operation costs.

4) Requires minimal moderation or attention
Platforms like comagz.com provide the entire community members with the ability to post content and decide which content should be promoted and shown on the front page for example while throwing out inadequate content.All this is done by a voting system and algorithm which manages the content according to the reader's votes.

What are the ingridients of a good community magazine platform?

An online magazine look and feel with nice layout.
Sections for news, articles, recommended links and personal columns
Flexible Categories for easy browsing
Easy submission of items by all members
Automatic management of content items according to users votes
Forums for discussions and search for finding old posts.
Exposure of the content to all major search engines and blog aggregators

Conclusions

Building or enforcing a community and tightening the relations between its members can be both fun and beneficial. The web is a great enabler for community building. Community members can serve voluntarily as citizen journalists and write for the community blog or magazine. Setting up a community magazine is easy and cost free. So what are you waiting for?

Check http://www.comagz.com/webmagazine/ for an example of a CoMagzine.

posted by vkyqyab @ 8:36 AM 0 comments

Great Tips on Planning a Furniture Removal

Moving from one place to another can be quite a traumatising experience. Moving all the heavy pieces of furniture, keeping an eye on the workers to make sure they dont break anything, packing all your things, then unpacking them, arrange everything these can turn out to be a heavy ordeal. But this whole moving operation could be completed without big headaches if you plan it carefully in advance. Here are a few tips you should apply whenever considering the possibility of a furniture removal operation.

The planning should start a month ahead the moving day. Start gathering all kind of necessary moving supplies like tape, boxes or rope. Get some newspapers for the breakable things if you dont want to spend money on bubble wrap. Always make the necessary travel/transportation arrangements ahead. If you plan to move in another city far away, you should contact airlines to make the necessary arrangements. You should also call more airline companies to get the best price and the best transportation conditions.

After doing this, look for a furniture removal company. Check more furniture removal companies, as they have different price and different facilities for transportation.

But the most important thing you should be doing before moving is to arrange for your mail to be delivered to the new residence. Contact all your friends, relatives, family etc to inform them on your new address. Inform the bank and other financial institutions on your new residence details. Ask the post office to forward your mail to the new address. Look for a new doctor/dentist/vet in the new area that you are about to move into.

Two weeks before starting the furniture removal, inform your utilities companies of your change of address. And contact the utilities companies at your new residence to sign up for their services. Confirm the moving or travel arrangements and start packing all the things that can be packed in advance.

The day before the moving day, make sure you havent packed the moving supplies (meaning the tape or the bubble wrap). Make sure you have put the most important things (documents, checks, money or jewellery) in a bag that you will keep with you at all times.

And, during the furniture removal day, remember that losing your calm will not help. So try to stay calm, breath deep whenever an unfortunate accident (like breaking your favourite china) happens.

Good luck with your furniture removal operation!

posted by vkyqyab @ 5:07 AM 0 comments

To Frame or Not to Frame - That is the Question

Is this worth framing?

If you like it, if it gives you enjoyment, if it has sentimental value, then frame it and enjoy it. Dont judge it, and dont let others judge it either.

A few years ago I owned and operated three picture frame shops/art galleries. The number one question I used to get was, is this worth framing? My answer was always, Yes, of course it is.

I would get customers carrying in snap shots, childrens artwork, prints from the free calendar they got from their insurance company and just about any picture or print that you can imagine from a number of sources. Yet, the answer is always the same. What makes an item worth framing is what it is worth to you, and no one else. The vast majority of that value has nothing to do with dollars and cents. It has to do with its intrinsic value that no one else can appraise or appreciate.

I especially encouraged parents to frame childrens artwork. Now obviously this can get a bit expensive if the child is cranking out 3 or 4 a day in a school art class. However, framing selective pieces can go a long way towards encouraging a budding future great master or just building self-esteem in general.

Vacation snap shots are also worth framing. The more time that passes the more you will be glad you made the investment. With all the new computer technology, it is easy to touch them up. You may be surprised to find you have a little more Ansel Adams talent in you than you thought.

I have a good friend that lives in a beautiful home surrounded by a golf course community that boasts of residents that include NFL Football stars and professional golfers. She is retired now, but at one time was a rather large art dealer specializing in paper art. Her home is beautifully decorated, as one would imagine an art dealers home to be. I cant begin to tell you the huge amount of artwork she has had the opportunity to chose from, many of them very valuable.

Yet, walking through her entryway into her home, the very first piece of artwork you see is a small but gorgeous, professionally framed and matted print entitled Ted. I sell it in my eBay Store for $15.00, http://stores.ebay.com/FrameHouseGallery/.

When I asked her of all the beautiful prints and originals (not that this one isnt beautiful) that she had to chose from why was Ted picked to be the first piece one sees when they enter the home, her answer was simply, Because I like it!

So if you like it, it doesnt really matter what anyone else thinks. Frame it, hang it and enjoy it!

No permission is need to reprint or distribute an unedited copy of this article as long as the about the author information including links are included.

posted by vkyqyab @ 1:42 AM 0 comments