News

Media Manager

Alan Edwards — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:35:00 GMT

http://www.nbdev.co.uk/media/p/3640.aspx

Application to help manage your media in Bulk, can be used on all SPOTZ.COM supported sites.

What is SPOTZ about? I am still not completely sure myself....

Alan Edwards — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Ok, I am sorry for the delay, I have been busy, really really busy (for years basically). Busy enough to want to leave explanations until I had something to show for a change. You can talk and talk about things but at the end of the day you have to deliver something for all the hot air. I think I can safely say I have reached that point.

My name is Alan Edwards, I have a strong passion for marine life and the environment which I developed through my love of diving. Some years ago I set about creating what initially was going to be a diving only website to write about issues facing diving the world over. Following on from this it escalated, people contacted me, wanted to know more, I put more back into the project myself, as I feared that our environment is doomed and that by getting involved I might help. But now we all know it's not just diving, if you travel enough you see what is happening the world over you realise it's everything.

Outdoor enthusiast have a passion for conservation within their area of interest and our generally a good sort in regards to all environmental issues. I basically took the mix of ideas we thought would work and created the SPOTZ.COM network. Think GIS maps, Wikis , Communities with special interests and you are there.

The network basically works like this, we have some SPOTZ.COM sites of our own, each run independently by Community Director(CD). The SPOTZ.COM staff ensure the sites run, the technology works and the support is there to help configure and develop the site. This allows our CDs to focus on Community Development. Our CDs run SPOTZ.COM, not me. Here are some of the SPOTZ network sites that are run by us:

The CDs control the site content, direction and development . That way each site has it's own personality and also provides much needed independence. The last thing we want our site clones, SPOTZ.COM provides a service to CD's who manage each site.

Future commercial revenue will allow us to develop further our charitable support, completely for free whilst providing them a revenue from their site content. Our GIS based Community technology can really help charities which may not have the expertise or money to develop their online presence around a similar GIS/Community based model. Here are some of the sites we are just starting to help out, they cover Marine Conservation, Rebreather Safety, Diving Safety.

We want to do more, we want to develop more environmentally responsible communities whilst helping charities who share our members goals. Please contact a Community Director of a SPOTZ site, or email us at info@spotz.com.

Long Journey

Many people have contributed in small and big ways, I appreciate all the support I have ever been given, sometimes it did work out, but I always leave the door open to anyone who has contributed to SPOTZ.COM over the years. I would espcially like to thank my wife, who has been my forced into SPOTZ.COM against her will, and the people on the SPOTZ.COM team. Mark and Kevin, thank you for your patience, advice and support, Mark, over the years you have been a very important contributor to SPOTZ and I appreciate all that you have done..

I would like to thank all the people who have had to put up with my random tetchyness and "crabbie" behaviour. I have met many quality people through SPOTZ, and have become re-aquainted with old friends. I hope that we can shake of the dark cloud that is the credit crunch and get back to doing the things we love, understanding the world better that we live in and getting along with one another.

Performance

Alan Edwards — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:29:00 GMT

We never envisaged the server we currently have being maxed out before Beta release, especially around Christmas when it's more difficult to get hardware upgraded. We are currently upgrading the server to deal with the unexpected demand, we appreciate your patience during this time with response times.

Getting there

Alan Edwards — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:51:00 GMT

Things are moving in the right direction, if not slowly and usually painfully. One of the main aims of SPOTZ.COM is to give charities access to our platform so they can use it to promote their work geographically and also be able to bennefit from the traffic their SPOTZ site generates. It is not easy getting the message across and since the concept of new technology can be alien to some charities it can be difficult to sell the bennefits.

Many charities have been very positive and we hope to have them up and running in the New Year, creating a SPOTZ.COM site does take time, we are still learning, still making mistakes but still doing our best.

I am very pleased with our association with the following not for profit organisations which are trying to improve Rebreather and Diving Safety:

If you would like your charitable organisation to join the SPOTZ.COM network please contact us at info@spotz.com

Welcome to Spotz

Alan Edwards — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:18:00 GMT

All things exist in state of development, the standard Beta tag which is used to indicate this should be pretty much on all sites at all times, no website stands still. Spotz is pre-Beta for that matter, we are currently getting the right people together to use their experience to run our different communities. This cannot be rushed and will not be, it's important we take time over this so we make sure each Spotz unique Spotz Community will share our ideals and goals. It's not about money, it's about individual interests, shared interests, culture, identity, friendship. One of the key reasons for the pre-Beta status is that we did not want to fix the communities ethos/technology before release without feedback from members. Your feedback is essential to helping us develop our socially conscious community model, so we care deeply what you have to say. The http://spotz.com site will not only be a portal to the Spotz Communitess, but also a place where you can interact directly with us about concerns you have with Spotz.