I'll be honest—Boerne Today wasn't my idea. I wish I could take credit for it. The concept was born at Digett long before my on-boarding as the Boerne Today Editor. Prior to my joining the team, I'd actually given very little thought as to how the site had physically come to exist on the world wide web. I knew I liked the site; It was well-designed and had a strong vision for the Boerne community. I was excited to start in my new position and get my hands dirty in ethnographic research and long-term planning. While those are both parts of my job, I quickly learned there's much more to it than that.

Useless clutter or buried treasure?
During my first two weeks, I began finding all sorts of strange Boerne Today archives.  Remnants of past plans kept popping up everywhere—images nestled in our site archive, graphics lurking on the company file-share—there were even entire site-mockups resembling, but never quite paralleling, the vision of our current Boerne Today.

Initially, the out-dated material build-up bothered me. Why was it still there junking up our server? Why hadn't someone just deleted it? We certainly weren't using the stuff—most of the digital illustrations looked nothing like our site.

"X" marks the spot.
Actually, it was these "file discoveries" that spawned quite a few conversations about the numerous paths the Boerne Today objective had travelled. While there has only been one online version of Boerne Today, there have been countless test compositions and numerous approaches to what Boerne Today could embody as an online publication.

Without the trial and error, Boerne Today would never be what it is today—online and in its second version!

The best thing about our newest site is the built-in functionality for users to add content. That's right, we want YOU to add your own content from the comfort of your own computer. Submit your company's information to our new Business Directory, volunteer to keep a Boerne Today blog, or add an event to the calendar. We're also working towards building a photo gallery that will auto-populate from your Flickr accounts if you tag your photos with the keyword, "Boerne."

Additionally, we're revealing a new Video Vault next Friday (October 17, 2008) that features videos taken during Chamber of Commerce events,"Boerne's Bests," and the many jokes we'll hear this weekend at the October Boerne Market Days. (Learn more about out booth)

We've struck gold.
The process of launching a hand-crafted website is no easy task. Nowadays there are all sorts of online services that can generate a generic, cookie-cutter site for just about anything, that just about anyone can use. But those sites are all the same. You can always tell when you stumble across a real online gem—it looks more sincere and operates better—in the same way you can "taste the love" in a home-cooked meal.

That's what we've been working on here for you, and we hope you enjoy the new look and the new features!  Our lady-programmer, Holly, and Digett's lead designer, Andrew, have put their heart and soul into this site.  We hope you'll enjoy it and put it to good use.

I encourage you all to join our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, tag "Boerne" in your Flickr accounts, and watch our videos on YouTube.

Get totally involved. Sign up for our monthly newsletter. Check the site daily—really, every day! We have big plans ahead and Boerne Today is only going to get better.  :)