[Imc-web] in search of web consultant

[dporreca at insightbb.com]

Hi,

I'm Dave Porreca, an IMC member and journalism teacher/newspaper  
adviser at University Laboratory High School in Urbana. This summer  
my students are going to design an online version of our print  
newspaper, the Gargoyle.

My students and I agree that we want to do more than simply post our  
print content online. We're excited about the concept of open-source  
journalism as discussed in Dan Gillmor's "We the Media" and  
elsewhere. We have dailykos.com, ohmynews.com, and your own site in  
mind as models of the sort of online community we'd like to create.

I'm writing you because I'm not a Web designer and have no experience  
in setting up a content management system such as Mambo, PostNuke or  
Scoop. Even though several of my students have considerable expertise  
in this area, I think it would be valuable for us to have an outside  
consultant with whom we could discuss our ideas and who could give us  
occasional technical advice.

Basically, I'm asking if there is anyone at IMC who would be  
interested in serving as a consultant to our online "startup." This  
wouldn't require much in the way of a time commitment. Much of the  
communication would probably be done via e-mail. If you're familiar  
with Uni High students, you know they're amazingly bright. They learn  
quickly, so you wouldn't be asked to do any hand-holding.

Several student editors and I will meet at Cafe Kopi this Friday at 6  
p.m. You're welcome to join us. In fact, it would be great if someone  
from IMC dropped by. I've long wanted Uni High's journalism program  
to develop a working relationship with IMC. Of course, the  
refreshments are on me.

If someone could reply to this one way or another, I'd really  
appreciate it.

Thanks.

Dave Porreca
Uni High
244-8578