New Directions
Brightwind has been running for several months now, and it’s given me a lot of chance to think about what it could become in the future. I’ve tried posting everything from inspiring essays to film reviews, and from short stories to photo galleries. All this experimenting has given me a better sense of the kind of thing I like to write, draw, photograph and so on.
In terms of the site management, I was going strong with the Typepad system for a while, and just when I was getting into its rhythym, the Typepad service became inaccessible from China and I was forced to move over to a new provider and a new blogging engine. I chose Expression Engine, even though it was expensive for me, because it seemed to have the widest potential for growth. With it, I could make Brightwind into any kind of website I might want to have.
But this added flexibility and power, combined with a wider appreciation for what I really want to accomplish here, creates a much larger work load! The current design is not flexible enough to handle everything I want to do, so basically I need to work out something totally new.
Here’s the list of ideas I’ve thought through concerning ways Brightwind’s content might develop:
My original motivation for developing Brightwind was to have a space to share some different views about things going on in the world, as well as issues that other people like me might be dealing with. I’ve been thinking for 10 years or so about everything from love to education, from religion to world peace, and it might be useful to others if I wrote some of these ideas down. Also, since I graduated with a major in religious studies from Vassar College, it would be nice to apply some of the things I got out of my formal education.
To me, the name “Brightwind” itself refers to a stream of beauty and constructive thinking flowing between the minds of human beings, and it was with the hope of contributing something to this stream that I started up this website in the first place.
Up to now however, I’ve been a little timid in my writing about such issues, and I think it would be better to step up and speak more about them.
I’ve started a hobby in photography and have a number of neat photographs of my travels in China, coupled with little observations about living here. Sometimes little things are the most interesting memories, and it would be nice to have an outlet for sharing them.
In addition, web design itself has become an increasingly important part of my life. I read all the time about it and keep thinking about how to incorporate new techniques into Brightwind. Some websites that really inspire me are whitespace for its approach to content arrangement, and the CSS Zen Garden, for its variety of approaches to beauty. There are many others, including sites like So Very Posh, with it’s cool calendar setup on the side, with one feature or another that I’d also like to integrate into Brightwind at some point.
Finally, and possibly more importantly, I’ve been working on my dream of writing children’s books and other picture stories, and it has occurred to me that it might not be a bad idea to start a webcomic. Being that I’m hoping to make my career with picture stories of one sort or another, for me not to do something creative and cartoony for you to enjoy seems wrong somehow, like a person who dreams of being a writer, reads books on writing, buys fancy pens and word processors — all without laying a single word on the page. I’m a bit better than that, though. I have a good deal of creative ideas and sketches (in some cases I’ve even planned out huge epic stories), but I still lack finished products. This problem deserves to be remedied.
So then the issue here, is how do I fit all these different kinds of content onto one website? Should they all be separate sub-domains of Brightwind.org (such as china.brightiwind.org and comics.brightwind.org)? Or should they all be woven into one stream somehow? Furthermore, since Expression Engine makes it very easy for a website like mine to maintain memberships, it would be possible for me to create methods by which any of you might also write content for Brightwind. I could move the comments you add to my work into a much more prominent position as whitespace has done (although I would need many more people to visit Brightwind and comment more often for that to work!). I could also set up means for any of you to register as a member at Brightwind and start writing content for in a section of your own. What would you write about? How would it fit into the themes of the site as a whole?
The best approach I can think of so far is to separate out all this content into different sections and then, perhaps, provide one home page with much of it laid out like a newspaper or something. It’s easy to write out that idea of course, but actually doing it is a big effort! Doing it really well is an even bigger effort.
And how many people are really reading this site anyway? This is the question that anyone who maintains a personal website must address at one point. More precisely, the essence of the question in the weblogger’s heart is twofold: “Why do all this work if only my mom and dad and a few friends of mine are going to come look at it?” and “Will I ever break out one day and reach lots of people?” There are some people out there who get hundreds or thousands of readers every day, but up to now, Brightwind has not been one of them.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be. I’ve done some reading on this issue, and it seems that the most important thing to keep in mind when you’re producing some kind of content for the internet, is that you should really put your heart into making it as useful, entertaining, and inspiring as it can be. Most everyone wants to be inspired, entertained, and get useful ideas. “If you build it, they will come”, so to speak. And even if only a few people visit Brightwind, and yet come away with some useful gifts of knowledge or inspiration, then a great deal of effort will have been worthwhile.
I’m also going through the redesign/reorganization phase. I’ve got some ideas banging around in my head, but haven’t had the time to sit down and write them down.
What’s great about ExpressionEngine is that it’s so flexible, it will allow you to easily add new sections/features to your site as you need them. Just make sure you organize and plan for expansion before starting out.
There are times I also feel like no one reads my site. Most of the time, it’s family and friends who leave comments. But then I get email from people that tell me they’ve been long-time readers and really enjoy my site. And they’re from all over the world. So I’m sure there are more people that read your site than you think. Perhaps one issue to tackle would be a way to make it more inviting for a reader to leave a comment. A way to invite readers into conversations. That’s something I’ve been batting about for a couple days now.
Posted by Chris on 06/04 at 11:37 AM
Hey i think we should have less categories because many of them being quite the same. and many of them have only one writing 
Posted by Exir on 06/16 at 02:52 AM
