This section will be updated on a timeline as the website evolves:


June 21, 2005

In the spirit of the quiet launch users are trickling into BlogScholar.  OK Quiet,  but 10 members is maybe a little slow. Especially because so few have submitted news or directory listings. But it is encouraging to see people interested in the community regardless.

John Glass of Not Your Typical Sociologist was the first member and the first to submit a site to the directory who was not named Chris Brauer. Tina Fetner's Pub Sociology was the second.

It is maybe time to ramp up the promotion of the site.


June 18, 2005

The end of a six day cycle from conception to implementation.

In creating the site I downloaded and installed Mambo as a content management system, mainly because of the easy integration of the link directory function, which I saw as the core area of the site. I modified a default template to meet my needs but was really impressed with the interface for this system. The only additional module I implemented in addition to the core Mambo is the AKO Comment component and mambot to allow comments and comment administration.

I am developing another community, netmodern.com, using Drupal which appears to be much more powerful in the ability to give individual users permissions, a critical element of 21st century websites. But Mambo has proved to be quite flexible and the community of users who support it are very active.

The main challenges have been editorial: selecting feeds, communicating effectively the site purposes and functions, and modifying the default look and feel.

The idea occurs to Chris Brauer to create a portal for academic bloggers while he plays tennis in Greenwich Park, London.