Does Your Group Need a Group Website?

There are a lot of websites out there that represent groups of people - companies, sports teams and leagues, non-profit charities, clubs, event planners, collaborative efforts. But maybe you have an idea of sharing more than just bandwidth with your group. Maybe the members of your group would like to have more autonomy while being a part of a greater, supportive whole.

Who could benefit from such a group website?

Family & Friends

Sports teams and leagues - baseball teams, basketball teams, soccer teams, football teams, softball teams, coaches, managers and parents

Community Groups and associations - neighborhood associations, church groups, temple groups, home owners associations, community centers

Nonprofit organizations and boards, volunteer groups, event organizers

School groups - class websites, teacher websites, project websites, PTAs and PTOs

Social Clubs - book clubs, stock clubs

Work groups - project teams, intranet

Travel groups

Let me play devil's advocate here. I love collaborative projects but there are difficulties. Maybe not all group members have the technical savvy necessary to work with a website. Maybe no one does! Maybe group members are so busy they don't have the time to learn. Maybe one group member has the knowledge and some time, but not enough to run the site for everyone. But now you're back where you started; just pay someone to do the webmaster work? You'd lose all the benefits of allowing people to be more independent.

What you need is a hosting service for websites and blogs that removes technical obstacles to publishing profitable text content on the Web.

You need a system that makes it easy to create a website, to invite and add members, and to maintain, as well as being customizable and collaborative. Sharing information, photos and YouTube videos should be fast and easy. Instead of websites being one-person endeavors, they might easily become social projects. This would encourage individual creativity and responsibility as well as participation in a greater whole.

People are such social animals. We work at home to get out of our cubicles, make our own decisions, and set our own priorities. But then we miss the water cooler! Can't we have a website that serves as our water cooler, but with some rules and safeguards?

Whether your group is a loose-knit gathering of colleagues supporting each other's work, a group united by charitable intentions, an online magazine, business partners, a timeshare network, a knitting circle, babysitters club or jogging group - you need a time-saver, not another project! You need a convenient way to stay in touch, share knowledge and schedules, and help each other.

Wouldn't it be cool if independent participants could take responsibility for their own work, and colleagues could read about each other's research, studies, and accomplishments and benefit from the exposure to each other's readers and mailing lists? Charities could network fundraising, volunteer projects, activities and programs. An online magazine could easily manage multiple editors and topics. Business partners could delegate tasks and stay updated easily. Social networks could share schedules, transportation, successes and stories.

One person would own the website and manage the site as a whole, but no one would have to do all the technical work because there would be software in place to do all that.

As Bob Marley said, "Let's get together and feel alright!"