Mobile Events

I started making a mobile (.mobi) version of the Community Color directories. Mobi are super scaled down sites for cell phones.

I think mobile will be big in the local entertainment scene as people want to connect with events, venues and restaurants while on the go.

Salt Lake is the community with the most events; so I will use it as a sample. To go mobile, I made a page for the calendar, venues and events. I also started making a directory of mobile sites.

My basic idea at this point is that if you have a mobile site, I will list it in the MOBI section of the main directory, then display all of the items for the MOBI page on the cell phone page.

The first interation of the .mobi stuff is now live. .mobi sites look boring ... but I think it will be useful. The real challenge will come in trying to figure out how to advertise the existence of the mobi pages, and figuring out how to monetize the program.

Calendar Event Category

I just changed the category list in the Calendar application. The calendars now use the same categories as the main directory structure. I realize that this is a hassle as a calendar really only needs a dozen or so categories, and the directories have hundreds of cateorgies.

In a future update, I will start listing the events in the directory. This will give events greater exposure, and will put dynamic data in the calendar.

I had a complex migration planned where I would map the calendar categories onto the directory categories. I am so far behind on updating the calendar that I decided that it would be prudent just to delete all the old category inforamtion.

Calendar events are time sensitive, and the currently listed events would end up deleting themselves with the passage of time.

I also started gathering geocode information on each of venues and am figuring out how to encode google maps. Here is the map page for the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy.