Behind the Scenes: The Establishment Goes Digital
Boston’s Federation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, recently completed a year-long strategic planning process. One of the most palpable new programs to arise in the wake of the strategic plan is an ambitious new website-to-be, JewishBoston.com. The website aims to be a major hub for Jewish communal life in the Greater Boston area, centralizing information from over 500 Jewish organizations and making that information usable to the casual consumer. God bless the folks attempting that project, I sure wouldn’t want that kind of pressure!
The people behind the website have put a lot of effort into community outreach, holding focus groups and open feedback sessions as the plans coalesced. Today, thanks to Twitter, I learned that the Jewish Boston website is live — sort of. While it doesn’t yet feature any of the bells and whistles planned for its proper launch, the folks putting it all together are using the domain for a blog about the process of creating such a gigantic undertaking. So right now, JewishBoston.com is the address for “Building JewishBoston.com - a blog about the development of JewishBoston.com.”
This probably won’t be of interest to many, but for those of us who deal with how Jewish communities communicate and organize information, it’s a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain.
