Gwulo in 2011

A quick wrap-up for this year, and some ideas for next:

[Aside: If you live in or near London, please read 'Lunch @ London?']

2010
 
This year has seen a steady increase in the rate we're documenting Hong Kong's history. We finish the year with: 170 stories, 350 forum topics, 1,310 places, 4,330 photos, and 11,370 comments!

On the Juror's List project, we've finished 11 years so far. That means there are now over 9,600 lines of data about individuals published to the web and available to anyone with an internet connection.

The number of people that are interested in all this is growing too. Last month we had 10,700 unique visitors to the website, and a total of 72,400 page views. Another 180 people are subscribed to us via e-mail.

And away from the computer, we've had several dinners during the year, where we've got together for a social chat.

It's the first time I've noted all these figures. I'll be interested to see how they've changed by the end of next year.

2011

So how about next year?

Well, first I hope we get lots more of the good stuff we've seen this year. But there are also some improvements we can make:

People

We're getting more inquiries about people, often people that lived in Hong Kong around the late 1800s / early 1900s. It's a good direction - learning about the city's software, to complement the information we find about its hardware (trams, buildings, etc).

The idea is to add a new content type 'Person', which will store the usual information: names / date of birth / etc. That in turn will work well with...

Connections

People, Places and Photos are interesting, but it's the spider-web of connections between them that I find most fascinating.

If you look at Places and Photos, we already have a way to connect the two together with the 'Places shown in this photo' field. I'd like to build on that and make it more powerful:

• Currently only the person that created the photo can add a Place to it. Change it so that anyone can add a Place to a photo.
• Expand it to work with other content types. So we can say that a photo shows Place A, AND Person B.
• Expand it to allow different types of connection. So if we have created two 'Person' entries, I mght want to add a connection that says Person X is the parent of Person Y, allowing us to build simple family trees.

Dates

Dates on Places also need a bit of love & attention:

• Let a person mark a building is demolished, even if we don't know the date it was demolished. Then allow maps to show all buildings / only buildings that still exist / only demolished buildings.
• Add the dates into a Place's title, so that when we are adding a Place to a photo, and there are several generations of a building, we can see the dates and so choose the right one.

Maps

My favourite! 

• Allow us to describe the area that a map shows. Then when we look at a Place, have the option to see a list of all the maps it is displayed on.
• Create more overlay maps, similar to the 1924 map. Specifically one for the Peak, and one for Kowloon initially.

Map & Photo annotation

So we can highlight the part of the image that we're commenting on. This is something that Flickr does well.

Move to a new home

By the end of 2010 we are regularly exceeding the limits of our current hosting company. That's only going to get worse as we add more content, features, and readers so I'll need to find us a new home.

More sales

The website's shop can be tidied up, and promoted better. It certainly needs an FAQ.

Other

During the year I'll also ask for help with finding new subscribers, and additional volunteers to help with the Juror Lists project.

Reality check

That's quite a to-do list, especially as there's all the usual commenting, writing, and site housekeeping to fit in.

I'll have to work on the 'Move to a new home', and expect to finish the People, Connections, Sales, and Dates tasks this year. The others, we'll have to see.

Feedback

Do they make sense? Is there anything that isn't clear? Have I missed anything from the to-do list that you'd like to see in 2011?

Regards, David