New kid in town
One of my all-time favorite web resources for parents in San Francisco is undergoing a massive change today. San Francisco GoKid.org has been replaced by SFKids.org. What had been a non-profit labor of love dating back to the early days of the web is now growing up, moving out of it's old home, and hopefully maturing into an even more comprehensive and sustainable resource for all San Francisco families.
Here's the mayor's introduction to the new site:
I really like what I see, but I can't help but worry that the new DCYF publishers will not be as responsive and approachable as the original team, or that they will have their own agenda that will be freighted with territorial bureaucracy and city politics. The fact that the front page on launch day features a smiling picture of the mayor along with the DYCF pandering above does not fill me with confidence that the new incarnation of this site will maintain the level of integrity and clear purpose of the old site. If the new owners waste precious space promoting themselves and their political patrons, the site will quickly become irrelevant.
For now let's give everyone the benefit of the doubt and celebrate an impressive upgrade to a venerable local web resource. Congratulations!
Here's the mayor's introduction to the new site:
We are proud to present this dynamic new website for San Francisco families. SFkids is created by real San Francisco parents from the City & County of San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, working with their nonprofit partner GoKid.org. SFkids is designed to help every family in every neighborhood of our beautiful City raise healthy, happy children from babies to young adulthood. Please enjoy this site...and tell your friends!My first impressiions are positive. Gone is the folksy, hand-made look and feel of the old site. The new design is much more polished and readable. The site navigation is clear. The depth of content promises to be more extensive. The old site featured a small number of pages that scrolled enlessly on and on. The type was too small. The pages didn't print well. But we gladly put up with the shortcomings because the site was so useful. On the reborn site we see many more pages that are cleaner, prettier, and more accessible. The downside is that you have to click further into the site to get what you want.
— Mayor Gavin Newsom
I really like what I see, but I can't help but worry that the new DCYF publishers will not be as responsive and approachable as the original team, or that they will have their own agenda that will be freighted with territorial bureaucracy and city politics. The fact that the front page on launch day features a smiling picture of the mayor along with the DYCF pandering above does not fill me with confidence that the new incarnation of this site will maintain the level of integrity and clear purpose of the old site. If the new owners waste precious space promoting themselves and their political patrons, the site will quickly become irrelevant.
For now let's give everyone the benefit of the doubt and celebrate an impressive upgrade to a venerable local web resource. Congratulations!
5 Comments:
I thought the new publishers were the old publishers, with an influx of money and editorial oversight by DCYF? I think your points are well taken but I'm not sure the old team isn't the new team, with new owners.
I think you are basically correct. The bye-bye message on gokid.org/ spells it out. The founders will continue to help develop the site. Let's hope the site retains their well established editorial integrity. I totally trust the founders. It's the new partners I'm leary of... hopefully without reason.
As a longtime user of GoKid and fan of SFKid and DCYF I agree with Anonymous (above) -the new team is the old team with new owners.
Additionally, whether you're a fan of Newsom or not, as Mayor, his people (notably, Margaret Brodkin of DCYF) have seen the importance of having this website and have made it happen by 'adopting' GoKid, taking the best of what they did and provided more resources to keep it alive.
It is an unfortunate reality that many nonprofit websites can't garner the resources to stay alive without some sort of merger or buyout - I'm just glad two organizations I know and respect weree able to join together to continue this great service for SF families.
I liked Gokid.org but am glad the new site is up and running. What a tremendous resource for parents, kids and our communities.
I'm really happy for the goKid founders, and really happy to hear that they are still in charge, just with better resources at their disposal.
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