Neighborhood Link (http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/) is a hosting service that provides free interactive neighborhood web sites.
To view the site, point your browser at: http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/tucson/ . Select "See Entire City" and GO. The result is a list of about 150 websites. For a good example in the list click on:
Midvale Park Neighborhood Association
Advantage of Neighborhood Link hosting service:
Disadvantage:
The City, through Citizen and Neighborhood Services (http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/cns/), sponsors web pages for neighborhoods at the Virtual Neighborhood Association site (http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/vna/). The web pages hosted by the city are just that -- a single page for each association and thus limited to containing minimal information. About 20 associations are listed. Some point to URL's at neighborhoodlink.com. A few point to commercially hosted sites.
Conclusion: not of interest, except nice to have a pointer to a website hosted at a fuller service.
Dakotacom.net, a commercial web-hosting service, has as its minimal offering, at $19.95:
advantage:
disadvantage:
Some site may do for free what a commercial hosting service does for
dollars. This is not an impossible dream. Individuals have servers; a
small business may allow someone they trust to set up a low-volume
site; etc.
Combine (A,B), which gives us visibility through our being among other neighborhoods at a communal web page, with (C,D), which allows us to place the files we want to display (directory, newsletter, etc.) in the most comfortable format on a full-service host.
Think about how many people will use the site: likely only a few (< 10?) at the start. Thus one should begin small and cheap, expanding if the site has traffic.
Should one pay $19.95 for a commercial host? At first, it may work to rely on kindness in the form of free space on a friendly host. However, $240 a year does not seem out of reason for a site with even minimal use.
Should one pay for programmer time? Perhaps not. Setting up a simple site is not difficult. Also, there has to be continual maintenance, in the form of posting new information (directory, meeting agenda and minutes, etc.). If an El Encanto resident does not do this, the cost could be appreciable, both in frustration and money.
In any case, a resident (or group of residents) likely will need to take responsibility for formatting (as html, pdf, ps, whatever) the files of minutes, agenda, directory, etc., that the board and residents may generate. Also, not inconsiderable writing and transcribing would be needed to create files for some of the more useful (IMHO) pages: history; charter and bylaws; newsletter; membership directory.
I hope, from one's viewing this site, with these notes and the several outline-form EEEHA web pages, that it is clear a non-commercial server and a minimal programming effort would be enough to get a simple neighborhood site up and running.
Should one register a domain name, if only to reserve it ($35/year+setup fee)? Again, the cost is low, and preferred names will be taken by others as the net expands. Already, elencanto.{com,net,org} are in use and not available. Domain names free at this time are:
A principal advantage of a registering a domain name for EEEHA is that the website name (what is given as the URL to a browser) is unchanged even if the host is changed. A corollary advantage is that one can easily type and remember "eeeha.com", more so than "hostservice.com/~eeeha".
For prices and information on domain name registration, see the InterNic Domain Services website. Web forwarding is $12/year from Network Solutions .
history and general information about El Encanto and EEEHA
membership directory and directory map - kept current
newsletter - current and archives
who recently has moved in (with bios? photos?)
neighborhood hot topics, problems, etc.
list of committees, etc, needing volunteers
list of email addresses
list of members who have paid dues
encourage residents of El Encanto to:
join EEEHA (pay dues....)
participate in EEEHA
contact the board
photos:
of el encanto
of beautification problems/successes
of new residents
of board
archival material:
bylaws and amendments
duties of the board
history of accomplishments of EEEHA
minutes of board meetings
list of committees with memberships
forums:
meet your neighbors
activist corner - exhortations, politics, etc.
links:
crime stats
waste collection schedules
City of Tucson information guide
city and county departments, incl.: planning, city codes, etc
mayor and city council
county supervisors
county assessor tax database
state legislators
information of general interest:
phone numbers for police liaison officer, TEP, etc
zoning map for el encanto
local schools
interesting (quirky) tourist sites, arizone info., etc.