Today is CommunityCentral 'More-vember' day!

If you checked your CommunityCentral desk calendar, you'll see that today is the Tuesday 31^st of November. But rest assured, it's also Tuesday 1^st of December...it's got both dates there. Oops! ...apologies for the error and hope you enjoy the extra day with our compliments.

So, we thought what a great oppportunity to update you about what's happening on CommunityCentral.

Your survey feedback

In recent weeks, we've done an evaluation exercise involving an online survey of CommunityCentral users. We were delighted to get over 90 responses-about 20% of our members. Thanks to those of you who took the time to tell us what you think.

Below is a summary of feedback. You can access the full report online, if you are interested.

Nearly three quarters of respondents had heard about CommunityCentral either by word-of-mouth or via the internet. 82% rated the ease of registration very highly. Over 70% rated the home page as welcoming. Over half have registered to receive e-newsletters from CommunityCentral, though a quarter had still not used any of the site's other features. 60% told us that they had some or a lot of experience with online networking prior to joining. 60% rated their satisfaction from visiting the site as either a 3 or 4, on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being highest. A similar number said that they have found useful information via the site. 80% have told us CommunityCentral has helped them with their networking and 80% rated as either a 2 or 3 that they will continue to get value from returning to the site.

Three quarters consider that it would be useful to list their organisation, and also see a directory of all organisations on CommunityCentral. Around 60% told us that it would be useful to find other people on CommunityCentral with similar interests and be useful to send in short items and events in to appear on CommunityCentral.

Also, we have analysed the results of the feedback received from the workshops we held around the country during September. On a scale where 4 is "Very useful" and 1 is "Not at all useful", 81% of workshop attendees scored CommunityCentral in terms of its usefulness as a 3 or 4, with half giving it a 3.

We can also tell you that after attending one of our workshops, we learnt that over 90% would either 'certainly' or 'probably' browse the site to see what is available; 70% would 'certainly' or 'probably' join to receive email newsletters. For each of the following, 80% would 'probably' or 'maybe' join a discussion network or private workspace; use CommunityCentral to distribute their email newsletter; use CommunityCentral to establish a discussion network or private workspace; or use CommunityCentral to profile a collaborative project.

Again, we're delighted to know you think that CommunityCentral is useful for community organisations to work together.

Improvements are underway

We're making several changes to CommunityCentral in response to the feedback you have given us.

Here are some examples. The registration process will be simplified for those signing on for the first time. We're also going to enable all CommunityCentral members to add the organisation/s you are a member of, as well as your interests and be able to find others with the same or similar interests. We think this will improve the 'sociability" of the site and help you all to better connect with others.

Just over a quarter of the survey respondents found it hard to remember the fullstop between the first and last name when you sign in-so that is on the to-do list!

Our next CommunityCentral Update will tell you all about the completed improvements and what's coming next in the pipeline. Thanks again for the feedback, we are finidng it particularly useful.

Our latest statistics

As of yesterday we had well over 600 members on CommunityCentral, with 9 e-newsletters, 31 Private Workspaces, 9 Discussion Networks, and 4 Collaborative Projects. For the month of "More-vember" there were: 1,558 visits, with 834 unique vistors and 10,533 page views.