An idea for a website for CRITICS

[Celso Alvarez Cáccamo]

Dear all,

I told Teun about a possible idea for a website for Critics, or CDA/CDS, as I (mis)understood that he would take care of it (he was only referring to proposals for a new list). At any rate, I am now explaining it to the list. The idea is to use NetVibes. For those of you who don't know about it, NetVibes is a free, and advertising-free platform to create "dashboards", or collection of resources (links to webpages and materials, to search engines, etc.), in a simple and graphic way.  NetVibes is not exactly a webpage, or a blog, but it has something of both, and it is very flexible and even fun to create. It is designed for information, not for discussion (though that's possible, too). I understand NetVibes is being used more and more for institutions, organizations, courses, libraries, etc.

Each URL in NetVibes starts http://www.netvibes.com/xxxxxxx . Since the suffix/subdomain "CRITICS" was not taken, and these names are unique, I went ahead and took the liberty to register it.

Today I found a good excuse to procrastrinate my correcting 50 class reports, and went ahead and created a pilot NetVibes page for CRITICS, with some samples. It is NOT my intention to manage it ;-)  . Simply, I started it, and, if people like the idea and somebody wants to take over, all I have to do is transfer the email under which it was created (my own), that is, change it, and give the password to the new person.

Sections I created are Welcome, News, Websites, Discussion Lists, Journals, Books, Papers and Repositories, Upcoming Conferences, Past Conferences, Topics - Ideology (created as a sample of a special topic), and Searches and Feeds.  Oh, I forgot Jobs (could go in News). Better than explaining how it works, please visit the pilot page (link below).  There I include informations on how it works. Right now the page is public, but only people who know the URL can access it, as I don't believe it's listed anywhere. At any rate, it can be made private, until it is more ready, and then launch it again.  The "tabs" (sections) which are more developed so far in terms of format are Websites and Journals.

Even if a more "traditional" website is also created, the Resources part could be hosted in NetVibes.

This is the URL: http://www.netvibes.com/critics .

Everything and anything can be changed. Work can be done collaboratively, by dividing tasks, between two or more people with access to the same sign-in information (for example, an ad-hoc email that would be created just for that, and the password), but care has to be taken so that the page is not being edited by more than one person at the same time, that's all.

Best,

-celso

Celso Alvarez Cáccamo