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Website
to be revamped
Singapore
Democrats
30 Mar 08
Dear readers,
We will be
revamping this website in the course of this week.
The
movement for democracy in Singapore has grown and so has our
party. Because of this we have found that the present website,
while having served us well for the past three years, has become
inadequate for our expanding needs.
We will require a
more sophisticated system to manage our work in cyberspace.
The
SDP's website began in 2001 when a Young Democrat wrote a little
programme for us to upload announcements about our activities.
Our top priority at that time was content, aesthetics was
secondary.
But as we developed and gained experience in
working in cyberspace, we felt that we could do much more with
the website. Hence, the birth in its present form on 28 Jun 05.
As technology developed, so did the site. We jumped on
the idea of podcasting in 2006 and were going to use it to help
our campaign in the 2006 general elections.
The PAP saw
the danger and promptly closed down our podcast for the duration
of the elections.
Since then, another form of Internet
communication has developed. Youtube came on the scene and
quickly became a staple in the New Media.
We have since
used it, and even relied on it, to get our messages across to the
online community.
But more than just putting out videos
and media releases, we have also endeavoured to post news
reports and analyses that Singaporeans might not otherwise get to
read in the mainstream press.
In addition, we have also
used this site to organise our different campaigns. We have put
out calls to join us for our various activities be they training
workshops, public forums or protests.
Many of you have
responded.
In this sense, our efforts to build capacity
through the Internet have not been unfruitful.
Indeed,
this website has been the first in reporting alternative news and
views so much so that many, including students, policymakers,
researchers and journalists both local and overseas, have come to
use this website to learn more about the reality of Singapore's
politics.
As a result, this website - updated on a daily
basis - has recently been given an award for its popularity among
Singaporean Internet users. We will make a full announcement on
this shortly.
But as much as this website has been a
faithful servant to the party, and we will be sad to let it go,
our needs and operations have expanded. We need a higher level of
management system.
Our new website, while retaining the
primary functions of providing political news and analysis on a
timely basis, will have added features that will add to your
reading, viewing, and communicating experience.
Of course
as with all new systems, there will be glitches (fingers crossed
they will not be in the Heathrow-T5 proportions). We hope that
you will bear with us while we work them out.
And so as
we say goodbye to the old and bring in the new, we want to thank
all of you for making this website one of your cyber-homes over
the last few years and we invite you to continue to do so for
many more years to come.
All this for the sake of
building a democratic society, based on justice and equality.
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