May 2008 Archives

With a crash of thunder, a blinding flash and the click of a mouse the Harrow Observer's website has been officially brought to life.
Myself and a dedicated team of technical boffins, not many of whom were called Igor, have spent a long week tweaking dials, flipping switches and definitely not graverobbing, to get the site up and lumbering. We have now released it into your community and are nervously watching from the battlements in the hope it's not greeted with burning torches and pitchforks.
To be honest I'm very proud of the site, to the extent where I have recently been boring the eyebrows off all my friends with talk of how I've spent the day 'embedding links' or 'updating the hyperlocals'.
As with all big new projects a couple of the bolts have worked loose here and there and caused mild levels of panic or frustration as we work to screw them back in, but in all it is now running like a charm.
So don't be afraid, we haven't created a monster, but a digital gentleman who never sleeps (so can't dream of electric sheep). Now I've just got to see if he can make friends...

Prepare the guillotines, lock up your royals and let's all eat cake - there's a revolution going on.

But before you go lighting your flaming torches (and I stretch this metaphor past breaking point), I must confess this revolution is entirely digital.

We at the Harrow Observer have just launched the brand-spanking-shiny-and-all-round-spiffingly-new 24-hour website for the Harrow Observer newspaper series.

No longer does news have to come off on your fingers or line your rabbit hutch (unless you have a particularly tech-savvy rabbit), for now we will be bringing you the latest news from Harrow and the surrounding communities 24-hours a day. As the Harrow Observer's Multimedia Content Editor I will be updating the site, managaing the forums and comments and encouraging you to get involved. Being British it is nearly impossible for me to get excited without sounding either sarcastic or like I'm trying to sell something, but really, I am excited, and you should be too. We have also launched a number of community websites which we hope you will take control of, posting your own pictures, videos, telling your neighbours about clubs you run. We want you to write about the issues that affect you and set your own news agenda.

It's no use me getting excited on my own - I could chat with myself on the forums, post pictures of me in a variety of hats and upload my own version of Jurassic Park made on my camera phone, but then we might as well call it the Tom Observer (actually that does rather have a ring to it...). So please, put aside your bowler hat and unstiffen your top lip for five minutes and have an explore round the site and hopefully you will get excited too. Then let me know what you think - post on the forums, send in a picture, email me asking for a blog. At the risk of sounding so non-British I may break out in stars and stripes, this really is your site and you can make it, so please get involved.

Right, that's quite enough bells and whistles, I'm going to readjust my bowler and head off to the forums to discuss Harrow's cricketing prospects, see you there...