March/April, 1998

This holiday commemorates the events of 1775 which led to start of the American Revolution. And, even though the commonwealth has recently dissolved the entity known as Middlesex County, it is still celebrated in "...every Middlesex village and farm." In fact, historic reactments and parades will be held all across the entire state.

Community Webmaster Resources

So what, exactly, is a community Web site? How do you build and run one? Starting this month, we'll explore topics like these in a new series of articles (this issue's entries below).

We're all members of community - often more than one. The neighborhoods.net communities are primarily geographic - we each represent a particular city, town or neighborhood. But what is geography on the 'Net? A Web site in Newton or Boston is as likely to get visits from California or Japan as from Eastie or Nonantum.

Community Webmasters need a variety of talents, interests, skills and tools. And we're just the folks to gather them together and offer them to community Websites around the globe. We welcome your comments and suggestions about the types of things you'd like to see here.

Building the community online: Content

One of the first things you want to do is to develop pages that are both interesting and useful to members of your community. Adam Gaffin, Webmaster of Boston Online, one of the oldest community Web sites in Massachusetts, shows you how to get started.

Opportunities and Challenges for Community Webmasters

Lee Levitt, Webmaster of NeedhamOnline, provides an outline/checklist on issues to consider.

Community Websites: Commonly Misunderstood

Mere geography isn't enough to make a town/city site a Community Website, as Deborah Bier, Webmaster of the Concord, MA. Homepage, explains.

Community Webmasters: Are we just nuts?

Bier continues her look at what exactly makes a community Webmaster tick.

Additional resources

No, we -- and you -- are not alone! This pages provides links to papers and other documents based on online community building in the rest of the country.