Sights, Sounds, Stuff

HawaiiStories is barely four months old, and has continued to tap the talkstory tendencies of island-loving techies. We've linked more than a dozen kama`aina (and kama`aina-at-heart) escribitionists, and discussed hundreds of topics. We've also been able to provide a home to a few wonderful writers.

But, I've made no secret of wanting to go beyond the blog, as I know with the `ohana we've built the potential is there for all sorts of wonderful things. So. What's next for our little green hypertext hut?

HawaiiStories Chat was a fun gizmo added a little while ago. But ideas keep coming. There was the aforementioned possibility of a fiction section (be it collaborative or individual), for example. And lately I've been thinking of "sights and sounds."

How about a HawaiiStories Gallery? I could do a multi-user install of Gallery (which I use for my personal site), so HawaiiStories members could post pictures in addition to text. It could be a showcase of our most recent favorite pictures, which we rotate periodically. Imagine having a gallery theme challenge, say, "sky," and we could all post our favorite or most artsy pictures of sky.

Or, how about HawaiiStories Radio? Imagine everyone sending in their favorite MP3, creating a diverse, ecclectic mix of music, and having it streamed from the site via a little radio link on the main page. (Or we could even set up different 'channels' and rotate them — Hawaiian music, 80s music, and the like.) I could encode them in RealAudio, or we could even try something like Andromeda (especially if folks like the multiple channels idea).

Server space would be an issue with both of the above, but I'm sure we could manage.

What else, what else? An occasional HawaiiStories "Local-Style Literacy" quiz? Random polls? Instead of fiction, perhaps periodic feature articles (a la Two Japanee Bruddas)? Topic collabs that we answer on our own sites?

The possibilities are endless! We have many members who've never posted. What would inspire them to jump into the fray?

Comments

I have thousands of pictures and a nearly 2000 MP3s. I am willing to share a few of them to either a gallery or online radio station.

Besides the space issue with online radio, there lies an even larger issue with royalty payments for streaming music content. The record companies through the RIAA has levied a fee on internet broadcasters (like IRH.com) which threaten to put them out of business.

If you decide to do a streaming site here, the same royalty payments will apply... and you know what sucks about that.. the more listeners you have for your streaming station, the more money you have to dish out to the RIAA.

The best site for coverage on the RIAA fees is at Save Internet Radio.org.

Rabbett at IRH has some opinions and links on how you can save online radio.

A recent Star Bulletin article written by Erika Engle on the subject: Click here.

Love the collab idea. (I used to do quite a few of them.) Of course, this being HawaiiStories, it'll have a island theme, no?

Hrm. I like the idea of a joint gallery. Ryan, with the gallery software that both you and I use, you are able to assign albums to people, where they can control sub-albums and permissions and whatnot. That might be fun. :)

Oy. I see I only read part of your post, and that you're way ahead of me here. Nevermind. :)

great ideas!

However, I would recommend using 4images (http://www.4homepages.de) for the gallery over Gallery- much more features and easier to manage. And we could use it to create a stock photo source, too- if we charged for use of the photos, say aanywhere from a quarter to a dollar or two, we could use the money to cover hosting costs. (Although we'd need to buy a 4images license if it were to be a for-profit thing.)

I've also been meaning to ask you about honolulustories- I really want to get it running, and if it's not difficult to set that up through MT, I'd like to have it be an extension of this site. It would be specifically for real-life stories that center around Honolulu. I've written a few but I'm definitely looking for contributors.

I visit HawaiiStories almost daily, and love the content here. I'm an islander so to speak [my mom's family is from Waianae and my dad's family is from Hilo, but I've never lived in Hawaii] stuck in the middle-of-nowhere-Texas and would love access to great Hawaiian music.

Keep up the great work, and I look forward to the changes here at HS.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - I blame stress-induced gastroentritis - but here goes...

One of the things I just thought about last night was to put up something to the effect of HawaiiStories Living - since we post household hints and recipes on this board (and since Martha Stewart never gives practical advice on how to "live Hawaii" anyway), why not have a collaborative effort on the best advice on how to survive the climate? There's already a few collabs devoted to recipes from journalers and bloggers (Ali, I know you've got a few of them linked up), but something local-oriented using familiar ingredients would sound pretty nice.

Also, since we talk about food, as well (and Lisa, I remember you suggesting this), we could also have an entire section on where and how to get the best food in Hawaii - not just restaurant reviews, but also features on what you can find at the supermarket and where to get the best bread, stuff like that.

By the by, since we've brought up the topic of a fiction collab - why not poetry, as well? Okay, so maybe we're not exactly Bamboo Ridge or anything, but you know, little nonsense stuff. (Remember our job haiku thread? That was fun!) And I already brought up the idea of a Hawaii Stories Book Club as well, which we could employ on a more regular capacity as long as we've got a theme to go on.

(Think on it: one of these days, maybe we'll be able to have a "Hawaii Stories Books" shelf at Borders or BestSellers one day, right next to the "Oprah" and "Kelly Ripa" books. Or not. But it's nice to dream, ain't it?)

I could go on a little longer, but this'll do for now.

Hmm! Lots of good stuff, Stella! Fiction and poetry are a good match, and under a title like "Words" I'm sure even a book discussion/review section would be right at home. And indeed, food is a popular topic here, so recipes and restaurant reviews could also be a good combo.

Lisa, 4images is nice, but requires its own MySQL database, and I haven't any to spare. Though it's off topic, I'd love to know what it does that ol' Gallery doesn't. (And MT sounds like a perfect CMS for the City Stories concept!)

Here's a question I got ... er, anonymously, though — should HawaiiStories broaden its offerings first, or concentrate on building a more active 'blog community first? Four days without a post is kinda discouraging...

> Four days without a post is kinda discouraging...

Hey, can't expect to become a hawaii.test overnight! :)

And from time to time hawaii.test does go through periods of no postings.

Now that I've taken my journal offline, I've been thinking about expanding my 3-year-old Austin Stories burb (Hawaii Stories? Austin Stories? Coincidence?) into a community weblog, much like this site.

Expansion is good, but at the same time, I'd be wary of dilution. In the years I've been maintaining Musicwhore.org, I've found myself paring back a lot of the stuff I've been adding to the site.

First things first, love what I find here!

I'm literally just stepping off the boat here in Honolulu, and Stella's suggestions of something around the 'Living' concept really appeals, I wouldn't have much to contribute just yet as still finding my feet, but the concept I think could really work to everyone's advantage.

Also like Lisa's idea of HonoluluStories, and Lisa; fabulous photo's. Sorry about the car, that really blows.

Pardon my ignorance (or not...grins), but what the heck is hawaii.test? And as for the expansion, I'm in favor of any/all, just to see the new stuff folks could add.

Hawaii.test is a usenet newsgroup. It's available through Google's Newsgroup website.

Anyone who's been around here for awhile would know about my...ahem...obsession with Local Kine Grindz. So, what about a group of us heading for a restaurant featured on that show and then do write-ups on the food? Yeah, I know, I'm 2000 miles away still, but, I'll be back Sunday afternoon. Just in time to miss another hui! ::smirk::

nice sight

Great site, I love hawaii

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