Lifhaus; where most of everything happens

About time I wrote another post on something other than soccer and basketball. This time, back to computers. Just wanted to say WordPress has really impressed me as a blogging platform just as much as Drupal has taken me over as the CMS of choice for websites. So what’s been happening in both fronts. WordPress continues to be the face of this blog and I would not have it any other way. I have yet to look at the blogging capabilities of Drupal but there are just things that WordPress does that I would just simply wish for on Drupal. Importing/Uploading images is simpler, very intuitive and clean.

I’d like to take time to talk about a project I am spending time on mostly after hours. Lifhaus which at present is just a simple discussion board but read on and see the vision I have for this simple website on the World Wide Web.

Lifhaus Redux
Lifhaus was originally started by Robertson Szetu, now Manager Western for Our Telekom, and as a discussion board it was way ahead of its time and generated so much interest. Robertson has since taken a lesser active role in Lifhaus and I have taken over mostly because of Lifhaus as an icon with some history. Robertson is still one of the mainstays of this latest redevelopment of Lifhaus. The very latest of my brainchild, www.lifhaus.com.sb is where I hope most action will be happening. The website is actually built on Drupal and my intention is to see it morph into social networking site. Perhaps people will ask, WHY? Isn’t registering on Facebook enough, at least it gives you a bit more than Lifhaus. True, but Lifhaus would really be a truly locally driven initiative with a local audience, local adverts, locally customized content that is free from the gloss of every overseas content. It will also extend its capability to include e-commerce, blogging and become a news portal. I would also love to see it become a local search engine modeled after Google. Big talk and dreams, but I have always believed anything that can be done is always possible.

Social Networking
But where does WordPress fit in? As I have said WordPress is the ultimate blogging software so I’d like to see Lifhaus provide opportunity for other Solomon Islander’s to blog. Some people cannot afford maintaining a complete website but would like to broadcast themselves. I’ve always said that the Internet is like a mirror and most people like to look at that mirror and see what they look like inside it. Providing Solomon Islander’s with that opportunity will help them see and shape how the world sees them too. Discussions are ongoing but I envision that blogging on Lifhaus will be free but with certain restrictions to ensure that we get quality blogs with great content.

Better still is that Lifhaus can flog off subdomains, eg. yourdomain.lifhaus.com.sb for free that will be a complete website with customized templates, all done from your desk. The possibilities that this has are great and I am very excited that this will be the great step forward for Internet development in the Solomon Islands. At present, I have already put up a discussion board. I will add other components as we go along and hopefully when it is complete Lifhaus will be a truly well developed Solomon Island’s social network which will also be the focal point for everything and anything about the Solomon Islands.

Local traffic but where’s the content?
So why am I doing all this? The answer is simple, one day my boss said, “Why don’t you do something that will reverse the trend in Internet traffic?”. Too often we have seen requests to the Internet going overseas and as an ISP, we would love to see local traffic within the Solomon Islands. I had my moment of inspiration and the solution is quite simple. We cannot generate local traffic if there are no local content. We do host local websites but they have very little content that is of interest to people. OK, so once in a while you visit the National Parliament website for some news but there is really no content that is of interest to people. Social Networking and blogging seem to be the current trend and most excitable way of generating interest and having people visit websites. I decide to add the commercial aspect by incorporating e-commerce into the mix. What we have now is Lifhaus. I am encouraging you to share ideas and help in its growth. The potential is huge and what Google Analytic’s has shown me is very encouraging.

So what of the future?
Think of Lifhaus in its truest meaning. A lifhaus in the Solomon Island’s context is where social interaction takes place, its also where small business transactions happen, deals are made and anything is done. Using that same concept, I envision that Lifhaus will provide a medium through which these activities can happen and provide the very best for all involved.