I am currently working on a new web project, which will be called “Russian Riviera Today” and will be hosted on the domain, www.krasnodarkrai.org.
I have decided to use the Wordpress MU platform with the new plugin called BuddyPress and an older plugin called bbPress. Wordpress MU is a version of Wordpress for multiple users, hence the “MU” in the name. BuddyPress is a framework which sits on top of Wordpress MU and essentially turns it into a private social network. bbPress is a forums software that nicely integrates with both Wordpress MU and BuddyPress.
The ultimate goal is to create a website/social network focused on the region of Krasnodar Krai. Most every tourist region in the world has a government-backed CVB (Convention & Tourism Bureau) department responsible for marketing and promoting the region. Unfortunately, while the Krasnodar Krai administration has a bunch of alphabet soup named agencies, it doesn’t have its own tourism bureau focused on international travelers. Yes, I know that some of the already established agencies have as their mandates promotion and marketing of Krasnodar Krai but the reality is that they don’t have an english language website, which meets modern standards and incorporates all the channels and tools now available in the Web 2.0 world.
Therefore, Russian Riviera Today seeks to fill this void with essentially a privately owned CVB website for Krasnodar Krai. We have 4.5 years until the world’s attention will be squarely focused on Sochi and by extension, Krasnodar Krai. So, we believe that this project must be started today and built-out over the next year or two.
I will give all of you a heads-up once the website is live and active. In the meantime, if there are any CSS web design wizards out there who are interested in working with us to design and beautiful web standards compliant site, please let me know. Initially, this project will be staffed by volunteers but anyone or any group involved will receive full attribution.
I welcome all of your ideas and suggestions.
UPDATE: I’d like to thank Kostya Kovshenin very much for his help uploading and configuring Wordpress MU, BuddyPress, and bbPress on my MediaTemple.net account. Kostya is an amazing resource and one of Moscow’s brightest young web developers. If you ever need any help with setting up servers on Amazon’s EC2 or need a PHP wizard to tweak the back-end of your Wordpress blog, definitely give Kostya a holler. His website can be found at http://kovshenin.com/
