Madison Commons Web site

Madison Commons is an excellent idea for a Web site. It’s a place where all people can go and share stories, thoughts, ideas, pictures…the list goes on, and the best thing about it is it all revolves around the city of Madison. I think it provides an opportunity for effective community conversation on a variety of issues and acts as an overall way to enhance community togetherness.

That being said, while this site provides a great opportunity to accomplish these things it is not being used to its fullest potential. As others have pointed out, there is a strong lack of timeliness for current events, stories and overall conversation and activity on the site. The problem? I just don’t think enough people know about this site… I know I didn’t until this class. So I guess what I would do to improve upon Madison Commons is start by better promoting it. I know it’s easier said that done but I think if more people knew about the site it could be a hit. Since it’s a site specific to Madison, it could really attract a lot of attention as it has so many valuable resources that could highly appeal to people living in Madison. Imagine if this site were used as often as facebook – the amount and variety of activity it would get would be great for the site and for the people. The reason facebook is so interesting is because is constantly changing, being updated with new material and it never gets boring. Right now Madison Commons is too stagnant to keep people interested, but with a little promotion I think it could change.

After a week of observing, I want to highlight what I liked best about Madison Commons. First off, it’s really easy to navigate. There are tabs that take you where you want to go, a listing of issues, which is helpful when sorting through information. There is even information available divided up by Madison Neighborhoods, which I think is really cool and accommodating to the users based on where they reside. Also located on the site are polls, forums, blogs, calendar of events and a place to put pictures up titled “Madison in Pictures”, which is a great thing because everyone loves pictures and its fun to share and look at ones specific to Madison. In terms of the tabs there is an “about me,” “blogs,” “common maps,” “forums,” “madstubs” and “common quiz”. I spent some time on all of these and I really liked “Common Maps,” because it provides hyperlocal maps, which is something I find really helpful and unique to the site. I looked into “forums” and there was not a lot of activity going on so I decided to post a comment regarding public transportation (it caught my eye because I have a strong love/ hate relationship with Madison public transportation after many eventful bus rides to the East side of Madison for work). There was a post from 2008 about the Madison Amtrak and I made a comment about it with a 2010 perspective. Lastly, I took the “commons quiz,” that asks a variety of questions about things going on in Madison. At the end of the quiz it says to write your name to be put on the commons quiz honor roll…I can say with assurance I’m not making the honor roll. Yet in my defense it was a 2007 quiz so I wonder if I would do better on a 2010 one, and would love to try.

Overall, I had a good time on Madison Commons and would love to see it grow and become more active and updated because I really do think it has a lot to offer.