Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Straw Bale Networks and Portals, why don't we use them???

I was just thinking of all the different straw balers out there. The different views, different techniques, different regulations and now the different Networks. I checked in to the European straw bale network webpages http://www.strawbale-net.eu/ which was launched a few months back and where you can also find this blog being posted and saw a great topic there that I had to answer. The heading was WHY are WE (the European Straw Bale Community) not using the Portal that was made for us? 
Its a good question. Its free, is easy and its created for us. So why don't we use it? This is a hard one to answer. Maybe you can help??
People constantly talk about having more openness and more information. Here is a website that could have it all. Granted it needs some more detail and work and the great people who have put it together need volunteers, but it should work and it should be spread around. I hope others join and help out in making this site get off the ground as it would be a shame to have another site just hanging in internet limbo..
Then I got a newsletter from another site in America www.strawbale.com Another hardworking strawbale builder and I have to say great promoter, and in their newsletter was the mention of the launch of a now worldwide strawbale network. It has some of the same ideas as the European one but on a bigger scale. Is there room for two when we haven't even got to grips with one?
I don't know but I hope we can use these tools smartly and to our benefit. Lets see.

We can use this blog here to test and see what advice you have for both these networks.. Send in your comments and lets pass them on to the creators of both sites to see can they learn what you need from them!