Editor’s Note 5/17/11: Dan Acree is still working to improve and upgrade the Texoma Living Website and its contents even though the hard copy magazine is no more.
Two years ago, I was designing and building Websites, using all the latest software and techniques. When it comes to computer technology I know just enough to be dangerous—and to be the only one in the office who is able to get a printer to print, or the e-mail to work.
Somewhere between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 my skill level declined dramatically. Just think old dogs and new tricks.
Web 2.0 is what the world is calling the move from old-style static web pages to more sophisticated websites that are “dynamic.” I would explain that to you if I actually knew what it means. Point taken
TexomaLiving.com allows our readers to get a complete digital record of each issue, to see content we didn’t have room for in the print edition, and to interact with our editors and fellow readers.
The Social Networking World
About the time I had MySpace figured out, then along came Facebook and Twitter. What happened to Friendster?
It’s not just teenagers using these social networking websites. How do you explain the Facebook page with over 200 posts from fans of the long-gone Ashburn’s Ice Cream in Denison?
Our main website takes advantage of current technology to allow readers to submit comments on any story we print.
Editors and writers can post items to their “blogs” to update stories or respond to questions from readers. The immediacy of the Internet and ability to search and find from billions of entries makes it an essential archiving tool.
Archiving the Past for the Future
When future writers want to tell the story of Texoma, we envision they might sift through the digital archives of this publication. And long after even the few surviving yellowed, brittle copies of an issue have disappeared, there will be a copy filed away on a storage device on a server farm somewhere in a salt mine.
Meanwhile we are content to tell our stories for the living. Texoma People. Texoma Stories. We are committed to finding wonderful stories about interesting people and sharing them with you. I encourage you to visit our new websites and to browse the old and the new and to discover the extras we have posted there—unpublished photos, additional content and readers’ comments.
The online community is growing and we are taking a leap of faith that our readers want to interact with us in new ways. We’ve made that possible. Now all you have to do is log on and tell us what’s on your mind.