We held our first Hangout on 1/17 with only a few technical difficulties. This should be an effective way to communicate virtually throughout the semester. We have several aggressive goals for this semester:
- Content for SXTXState – before and during event
- SXTXState.com site redesign
- Ushahidi mobile app to report and map our participation and others
- Social promotion and our own events (in-person meetups, guest speakers, hackathon, Taco Party)
So, we spent a good amount of time on the call talking about the original previews students have already made of SXSW participants. These are being shared on the sxtxstate.com site as we continue with the redesign.
We also spent time discussing design options, and we are currently in the process of applying the redesign, new logo, new theme, and associated adjustments. We also have to update our branding on social media.
Students each have a responsibility area in addition to their regular reporting. These areas are: design, social, ushahidi/mobile development, multimedia/mobile reporting, textual content. Students are completely responsible for their areas, soliciting feedback from the rest of the team. This is working out well so far.
Tonight, we will be having our 2nd Hangout, with guest speaker Amy Schmitz-Weiss. Amy used Ushahidi to develop an app last year for her school San Diego State. Hopefully Amy can give us some insight and tips. You can see their project at aztecast.com, download the Aztecast app from the iOS App Store and read about their progress on her blog mobilenewsapp.wordpress.com.
We have a lot to do with planning our events, so I will be focused on those over the next few weeks, while the students work on content and design issues. Later this week, we will have an in-person meetup on campus to cover some of the Ushahidi issues and MAYBE have another guest speaker. Stay tuned.