Hello Tazzu community members, I am writing this from the Cafe Trafiq, a beautiful coffee shop close to my apartment with free Internet Access ( Yay! ).
The barista girls have just served me a heavenly Americano, so now I am all nice and awake and about to give you an updates on the recent changes you’ll be seeing on Tazzu:
Revamping the Forum Categories
Our community is currently very focused on Technology and Internet Marketing and our forum category structure clearly reflects that. If we wish to stimulate more business relations in our community, we need to have members from more diverse industry backgrounds. This will provide greater opportunity for Tazzu members to offer consulting and expert services to each other.
This type of community knowledge-diversity would reflect signs of a healthy and strong community. A diverse community is also much less intimidating for the prospective members who would like to join in, because they are more likely to meet the kind of people they can relate to.
One approach would have been to create every possible Category and Forum we could think of, but then we would have ended up with many unused categories that would just clutter up the forum.
A more sensible approach is to improve the current categories in Technology, Business & Marketing and expand and establish the categories of Art (Illustration, Photography, Performing Arts, Music), Journalism, Writing and Design ( Web, UI, Interior Design, Architecture, … ).
Jen and I figured that Artists, Designers, and Writers are the next generation of members who could relate to the current Business, and Technology focused members.
The new Forum Category structures would be as following:
Design
- General Design Discussions
- Structural Design ( Interiors, Architecture, Industrial)
- Graphic Design
- Web Design
- User Interface Design
Art
- General Art Discussions
- Photography, Motion Picture
- Illustration, Freehand Drawing
- Art Events & Exhibitions
Computing & Communication Technology
- General Technology Discussions
- Programming
- Computer Engineering & Architecture, Hardware, Software
- Web Application Development (Content Managements, Client Relation Management, Project Management Systems, Mashups, …)
- Administration and Maintenance
- Networking & Security
Business, Management, and Career Development
- General Business Discussions
- Project Management
- Small Business Center
- Marketing & Promotion (online or offline)
- Employment Opportunities
- Employment Wanted
Journalism, Poetry, Creative Writing
- Writers’ Loung
- Blogging, Vlogging, Podcasting
- Old School Media (Newspaper, Magazine, Radio, TV, …)
Please consider that these categorizations are subject to change and improvements… whatever works best during the process. Jen and I welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Using a better Forum Application
There is a very strong possibility that our Forum software will get ported from phpBB to Simple Machine Forums application. We have been using SMF for the Joomla community forum, which currently hosts more than 97,000 members quite smoothly. SMF is a wonderful Open Source forum application, with nicer features than phpBB, and reasonably good architecture in general. This move is also aligned with the Tazzu Networking web application that will soon be under development.
I am currently doing migration tests on a development site to ensure things will go as smooth as possible. I will be posting more updates with this regard.
New Theme
I am also thinking of a new look & feel for our Community Forum and future networking application. The new theme would more effectively portray the sense of community and the diversity of talents that we have among our members. I will be posting screen captures and listen to your comments once I have the new themes ready.
Technorati Tags: tazzu, networking, simple machine forums, phpBB, community diversity, business networking, art, design, architecture, interior design, technology, computer engineering, photography
Wonderful changes Jen & Rastin. The new categories are awesome, they will most definitely allow for a more diverse membership and an infinite amount of shared knowledge.
I think so too Leah, I’ve heard it numerous times from people who wanted to join Tazzu and thought that they didn’t know much about technology, or their field wasn’t technology related.
I think changing the category structure, adding new forums, and a new design theme should solve that problem.
Thanks Leah,
I’m really excited about the development/growth ideas that we will be implementing to the Forums.
The new diverse membership will create more opportunities for each one of us to expand our network - offering our expertise to a larger group.
I’ve noticed tonight some of the changes in the forum headings…Bug Tracker, New Membership Introduction and overall more clarification in the Forum Information section.
This should help users better identify where to post their threads….can’t wait to see more changes!
Cheers,
Leah
I really like the direction that Tazzu is heading at. Keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing how Tazzu would look like on a new platform and in new clothes/theme
@Leah - Thank you, I am thinking of a real tracker for all the online services, but for now I think a forum would do fine. For ever new adjustments, we also need to move forms and threads around a bit, so there is a bit of house cleaning involved.
@Vivien - Thank you for all the support, you are so kind. I wish I could deliver all the results in a short time, but that wouldn’t be realistic would it! We need to go for a stage by stage delivery and watch for community feed-back each time. It’s a method which has worked for many other successful communities. With the kind of members we have on Tazzu we will become a role model too.
The new categories are a great step. I am excited about the writing categories. I believe that theses new category changes will spur more consumer/sociological technology discussion and debates. The invitation for more non-technical people, like myself, interested in or having to work in a rapidly changing technology world is a great step for the evolution of Tazzu.
keep up the great work.
I agree with you Businesstech.
Technology has influenced and continues to influence the way we live and do business today. This can be initmidating to ‘newbies’ at first - which is why we felt it was a great time to begin to merge technology with other industries, for example the Arts.
Thanks, and enjoy!
Art and technology is a very fascinating subject that can be explored for hours on end. I find it very fascinating. When I took a visual design and technology course I was fascinated by the evaluation and technical evolution something as simple as fonts.
I would like to know what people think. What was the greatest technological product, application etc… that changed the way people designed or made art. Some would say the printing press, I think it might be the human mind.
“I would like to know what people think. What was the greatest technological product, application etc… that changed the way people designed or made art.”
I think you should start a new thread on the forum Businesstech, and let’s see what people think.
Ooops! I didn’t know you have already started a thread here