ournewton.org

Greetings!

Hi, my name's Catherine Lui and I'll be working as the new Outreach & Technology intern. I'm a third year student pursuing a major in Computer Science at Wellesley College, and I hope to get into web development in the future. I'll be responsible for keeping the site updated and performing general maintenance. It's nice to meet you all and I'm looking forward to getting started next Monday. :)

OurNewton is looking for a Paid Intern!

The position involves 3-5 hours of work per week over the remainder of the 2009/10 school year, starting in March.  The position may be extended into the summer.  Work location is flexible and position can be used to fulfill high school or college credit.   The goal of the position is to increase use of the site by community organizations and residents.  The intern will work closely with members of the OurNewton Launch committee to achieve the growth goals. read more »

OurNewton Benefits Flier

This downloadable and printable flier from LaTanya Arnold of the West Suburban YMCA provides a good overview of site features and benefits.  Please print and share with your friends!

Tags Explained

"Tags" are one of the primary ways content on this website gets organized. 

The tags most frequently used by people adding content can be found in the box in the right sidebar labelled "Tags (Categories)".  This box of the tags that have been used is also referred to as a "tag cloud".  The more people use a tag to describe their items, the bigger that tag appears.  All tags used on the site can be found here in alphabetical order. 

When you click on a tag, you are taken to a page that displays all of the items that have been added to the site using this tag.  This is a handy way to find information on a topic.

About Tags When Adding Content:  If you are a user adding content, you can create your own "tags" for that content to categorize the information you are sharing.  Think of common terms people are likely to search by.  For instance, a workshop for new parents being held at the YMCA might use the tags "parents", "parenting workshops", "childcare", "YMCA".

Add your tags as a comma-separated list in the "tags" field, which is right under the "Title" field in a blog entry or a bulleting board posting.  You can use as many tags as you would like, so try to think of different ways people might be likely to access the information.

Also, it helps to use some tags that have already used for other entries on the site, so that your item will show up with similar topics.  You can reference the tags that have been used by looking at the tag cloud.  You will also notice at times that as you begin typing a tag, the site will suggest tags used by others that are similar to what you have begun typing.  You can use the suggested tags by choosing it from the menu that appears below the the entry field.

Next Portal Launch Team Meeting--Dec. 8 1 p.m.

Well, our Dec. 1 "soft launch" date had passed.  The "beta" has been dropped from the site and we are ready to start sharing the site more broadly. 

The next Launch Team meeting will be at 1 p.m. this coming Monday, December 8, at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center.  Directions can be found here: http://www.lsjcc.org/home/leventhal_abo.html

This will be an important meeting as we will discuss plans on how best to spread the word about the site.  In particular, at this phase we are still especially in need of outreach to organizations to contribute their content to the site.  We've had a few active contributors since the site went live but need to broaden the circle!

If you happen upon this post and haven't yet participated in the planning process, feel free to join us at the meeting if you're interested!

RSVP for the meeting by emailing dcrowley@socialcapitalinc.org.

Calendar How-To

The OurNewton Community Calendar is a place to share & find all kinds of events around the community.  Our goal is to make this as comprehensive as possible such that it is a great place to get an overview of what is happening around Newton.  Of course, Newton is a busy place and the calendar will start filling up.  We'll be adding options for you to view the calendar by the type of events you are most interested in.

To add an event to the calendar:

1.  You must first be logged-in.  Click here for information on how to set-up your free account.

2.  Once logged in, you'll have a series of options (i.e. ways you can add content) under "Create content" in the left-hand sidebar.  Click on "Event" to begin adding your event to the calendar.

3.  You should now be on the page with a number of fields to fill out.  Note items with a red * are required fields.  Most are self-explanatory, but a few helpful hints:

-The "Village" category refers to where the event is taking place.  When entering categories, to make multiple selections, hold the Ctrl key (PC) or the Command key (Mac).

-You can click "repeat" under the category section to enter an event that happens more than once. 

-When you click in the date field under time, a calendar window will pop open to make it easier to select your event start and end dates.  Note if you leave end time blank it will assume the event ends the day & time it started.  So it's a good idea to put in an end time even if it's an estimate.

-The "description" field is a good place to put more detailed information about what will be happening at your event, including a link to your own website where people can find more info.

-"Groups" comes after the description field.  With the option to choose an "Audience" from a list of groups on the site.  Simply ignore this for something you want to make available to the public.  But if you'd like to target the event for one or more groups on the site, select those groups here.  If the public box is checked, it will go to the public calendar as well as the group(s) you've chosen.  If you want to make the event available only to members of you're group, be sure to uncheck the "public" box under the group selection.

-Entering your location info will enable someone to quickly access a Google map & directions from your calendar listing.

-Click "file attachments" if you would like to make a file, such as an event flier or registration form, available for download with your event listing.  Click "browse" to find the file on your computer, then "attach" when you have selected that file. 

-Be sure to click submit at the bottom of the page to send your listing to the calendar!  Note if you leave the page, loose your Internet connection or refesh your browser while you're doing your listing, you'll lose your work.  You can save something and come back to it by clicking "publishing options" at the bottom, unchecking the "published" box, and then submitting.  This has the effect of saving but not publishing it so you can come back to it later.

 

 

How to use this site

OurNewton.org is rich in features, some of which can be confusing to the average site visitor. In the coming weeks, we'll post how-to articles explaining how to use each section of this website, starting with a general introduction to the site. Check back as the bullets below turn into links to individual how-to articles.  read more »