Elevating Environment Discourse

Just a conceptual idea. Navigation would appear over the root with an outer glow to make them appear to "grow" from the roots.

-Grog - Top Navigation (Index)-Image/logo
*Only put a portion of post (inch size)

-Profiles- short bio - link pages/photo - social media links - contact info.
*Thumbnail picture link with posts

-About Page - our mission - email link/Contact - link to university/environmental envs.colorado.edu

-Glossary - terms/definitions

-Most viewed or popular posts - links to sites or organizations of interest

(News Feed or news articles/videos)

I tried finding a few blogs that I thought use the group blog format well.

The group blog called Tapped from the American Prospect does a good job of using mostly text and just a few pictures (within the blogs themselves) and keeping it all relatively easy to navigate through. I also like that they don't let any of the blogs get too long, instead they use a KEEP READING link that goes to a new page (sometimes done with "read more" on other sites). It's not easy to tell who the author of each post is, however, and I think that using thumbnail pics of the authors is a good idea (which Joy pointed out is used by Grist).

The Penguin book publishing company has a group blog that I think is set up nicely. It is pretty simple and easy to navigate like the Tapped blog I mentioned above. I like the Guest Author section on the right side, which maybe we can do something similar with for Max's guest blogs. I think that in this case fewer graphics and minimal pictures allow users to get straight to the content of the blogs - which is important.

http://e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp?id=2477

http://environment.change.org/

http://www.cre3design.com/
(the resources are real good)

http://www.treehugger.com/

Labels: links

I like the section on this Care2 site labeled causes we care about, we could totally at this to our site for environmental causes and maybe have like a donation or contribution button for more info about helping the causes.

The more articles section at the bottom of the New America Media site is pretty cool. I feel like it could be a good way to store our archived stories, but still reminding people that they are there and can look back on older stories. I also really like how they have the section at the top right about Ethic News making headlines in other media outlets. Thank could be a cool thing to add to the page, like Environmental stories that make the headlines or front page news out side of our contributers.

acornsfall.com

This is actually a site my brother in law set up about a year ago when they were having their first kid. While the content of the site is mostly social stuff for family and friends, I like how stripped down it is, with simple navigation even while integrating other services like Twitter, Flickr, archived posts, and comments.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

This site is very simple, and there are some design things that I don't like about it at all. But I think it does a good job pointing out a good general style with the main blog post content in the middle of the page in order of chronology. Navigation is limited as most of the content is from the blog posts themselves. Really emphasizes the daily updates instead of complicated navigation.

http://www.politifact.com/

Although the content of this site is more produced than what we will likely be doing, I like how the page breaks up the different sections while still presenting a coherent whole. There is the Obama section on the right, a main article at the top middle, the "truth o-meter" going down the middle of the page. I thought it was something to consider if we want to separate content from the different bloggers on one main page.

http://www.fangraphs.com/

This is another site that isn't all that attractive, but it is incredibly useful in terms of sorting through a lot of information and finding what you are looking for. They have the main content article down the middle, but they also have well organized stats, links, recent stories, etc. If we are going to have a lot of content, I suggest looking at this site to see how they do it and what works well.

Here are some examples of bios:


In These Times bios include recent articles and blog posts on the profile page

In These Times


At this site I like how there is a short profile at the top, and then an extended profile beneath. It also includes contact information

She Source

I also like this Campus Progress site. It is clean and has organized sections. I like the idea of having like a wire section of tops stories coming in quickly, keeping the blog up to date.

I really like how the CNN.com site is set up. The bottom of the page is organized really well into different news areas (I don't know how many different areas we will even have) but it could be a good break down of the different environmental issues. Also I like there don't miss video section it is a great collection of videos that are easily accessible.
Katie

I like how The Nation distinguishes between news, analysis, blogs, books etc. into separate sections. I think it would be good to have a separate section dedicated to books since Ben mentioned many of the people involved with this project are or will be published authors.

I like the pictures of the writers the the right of the headlines. I also like the use of pictures on this site, although it's hard to tell if it's an ad or a picture that links to a story.


Grist Site

I was thinking about a flash intro that might be cool, however, the problem is I have no idea what the entails and had dilemmas about whether that would look academic enough. Also, I know we have not really discussed who is doing what, but I would like to offer my services as an html coder, because I'm ok at html but I want to get better at CSS. That being said I'm also open to do anything. I'm sure we'll figure it out soon.

Here is an image that I found on this site:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-person-with-tree-roots-image7073350

I am pretty sure we can not just take it from anywhere on the internet, but I thought this was kind of a cool idea for Boulder Stand with the roots and a person standing (obvious connection). I just thought it could be interesting idea to base the logo off of.

Katie

I found a few pictures that I think might be representative of Ben's idea of 'The Boulder Stand.' He of course mentioned aspen trees, and I thought this was a beautiful picture (someone's Flickr photo, I think). If we did something simple with minimal graphics, or just one main graphic/logo at the top, I think something striking like these aspens might be a good way to go.


After looking at it for a while, the shape of the black border around the aspen picture started to remind me of a retro TV from the 50s or 60s.


See what I mean? Maybe we could implement something using the shape of either a TV, ipod, etc. as a way to represent the fact that our bloggers/scholars are studying the media effect on climate.

I was also thinking about Ben's explanation of the importance of the roots of a tree and came across a couple pictures I liked. The first is a simple clipart picture that might be used as a logo.
The second picture is a just a drawing that I thought maybe we could do something similar with the words 'Boulder Stand.' But I'm not an artist in the least bit, so I don't actually know who would do that.


I found one blog called Inhabitat that I thought used a logo picture nicely. I like the header of the blog because it's pretty simple (other than the advertisement). I don't necessarily like the layout of their content or anything else, but I do think they make good use of the their logo pic.

Please keep in mind that these are just a few things I came across (separately) and they are not meant to go together. I also don't know about use of these pictures in terms of copyright.

Found the links to Ben Hale, Tom Yulsman, and Max Boykoff's bios for when we're ready to use them:

Ben's bio page from the Philosophy Dept. includes all his contact info, information on his publications and it also links to his resume. He also has an extensive site (looks like a personal site) called Practical Reason that includes even more writings, bio information and a photo album.

Max’s bio from the Center for Science and Technology Research isn’t quite as nice as Ben’s, but has most of the basics (including a headshot). He also has a short bio page on the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) site.

Tom Yulsman has a personal website that includes bio info, work samples, resume and his scholarly affiliations.

Which Roger Pielke?
I thought I found the bio page for Roger Pielke on the CIRES site, but then I realized there is another Roger Pielke affiliated with environmental research at CU (Roger Pielke Sr. and Roger Pielke Jr.). I’m not sure which one we’re working with.

I. Boulder Stand

a. This is a working title from Ben Hale. The name is inspired by a “newsstand” and taking a stand for accurate environmental information. Aspen trees look like they are standing individually, but underground are interconnected with their roots. This is a metaphor for the site that will pull in different blogs and news feeds into one location. Boulder is in the title to give more recondition to the University of Colorado’s environmental research.

II. Members, classifications and emails

a. Joy Hamilton: joy.hamilton@colorado.edu

b. Katie Feldhaus: Katie.feldhaus@colorado.edu

c. Travis Keeper: travis.keeper@colorado.edu

d. Sarah Ruybalid sarah.ruybalid@colorado.edu

e. Daniel Randa Daniel.randa@colorado.edu

III. Statement of purpose

a. Build self-sustaining website that aggregates blogs and relevant news, opinion, and commentary pertaining to environmental news and resources. One stop shop for everything environmental.

IV. Scope and Scale

a. The main focus of the site is to highlight CU’s environmental research experts and their work (including blogs, commentary, etc.). The site will also serve as a collective resource of environmental terms, a clearinghouse of videos related to the topic, and links to other useful resources.

b. Maintenance of website will be limited in that much of the content will be static, and other portions (blog feeds) will be self-sustaining.

V. Division of Labor

a. TBD

VI. Website will be similar in nature to Climate Wire, Grist, Huffington Post (Green section), and google reader. Bloggers initially will include Tom Yulesman, Ben Hale, and Max Boycoff. The Boulder Stand will pull RSS feeds from these contributing bloggers.

VII. Programming, design, communication with key stakeholders, and timeline.