| Dear EMuUsers
Over the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult for me to find an adequate amount of time to put towards the upkeep of the EMuUsers site. Management of the site has never been on my list of “official” responsibilities at Museum Victoria in any case, and for the past year, work on the site has been reduced to me fixing things if and when something breaks.
Whilst the site has continued to operate well, I believe it is at risk of stagnation in future. It probably hasn’t helped that aside from the forums, the only content that is updated on the site is material provided to me by KE Software themselves (and sometimes even that material is somewhat slow in coming through :) I have discussed these issues with KE Software, and they have agreed with me that the most sustainable option would be for them to assume control of the operations of EMuUsers.org, perhaps continuing as a separate site under the EMuUsers domain name, or otherwise incorporated into their own web site.
We have agreed that this transfer should occur at some time during the next six months. The plan is to transfer all existing content, including forum messages to the new site. Maintaining independence
When the user community first discussed the need for a web site five or six years ago, there was a concern expressed by some users that they would not feel able to express themselves freely were the site to be hosted by KE Software. I personally don’t believe that this is an issue any longer; KE Software are very aware of the need for the site to be a free and open forum for frank discussion of issues and ideas. They have agreed with me that the forums must continue to be un-moderated in future. There are many examples on the web of companies hosting their own un-moderated support and discussion forums. Future directions
Nowadays, the EMuUsers site is used primarily as a platform for forum discussions which tend to focus primarily on problem solving – question and answer type stuff. The User Group meetings tend to be where the new ideas get discussed – the cross pollination, the announcements, the innovations.
Whilst we all love going to the user group meetings, they only happen once in a while, and most users cannot afford to attend. When I set up EMuUsers.org, my hope was that it would evolve in such a way that it would become an open-all-hours platform for ideas and innovation. This hasn’t happened, but perhaps it would be a good thing if it did.
I think this is a great opportunity for the EMu community to re-access exactly what types of things we would like to communicate to each other, and how we go about that communication. In taking on the EMuUsers web site, KE now have an opportunity to better tailor it to the needs of the community. These needs are changing to some degree, as many of the early-adopters of EMu are moving out of the implementation phase, and into the “okay, now we have it, what are we gonna do with it?” phase. Have your say If you have any ideas or comments about the future direction of the EMuUsers website, I urge you to post them here in the forums so that KE Software can take these into consideration. Finally... Finally, I'd like to say how much I have really enjoyed the process of setting up and maintaining the EMuUsers site for the benefit of the EMu community.
cheers
Forbes Hawkins
Museum Victoria |