XprsYrslf » Coding & Web Design

Almost half a year ago I’ve done a face lift for the website of ‘Jeugdhuis de PUT’. It is a youth organization for youth and by youth. I work there as a volunteer since 2006 and I became board member in 2009. This website is again in dutch because its target group is localized in that language area.

The design is build up with only 3 images: background image, header/menu image and rounded corners of the dropdown. If CSS3 would be supported in all browsers, it would take only 2 images. The dropdowns are realized with jQuery and the video’s page runs embed player of YouTube. On the frontpage is something called a Live Feed; it gives you all the posts made to the website. In ‘Kalender’ you get the upcoming activities. The website currently contains more information than ever before: the vision, the rules, information about the active volunteers and the prices. A great amount of work went into the photo gallery, it currently holds more than 1000 pictures.

Also the back-end got an upgrade, I’ve switched from CMS Made Simple to Wordpress. It uses some very nice plugins, some of them also used by the blog you are reading now. To sum up: the standard Akismet for stopping spam, Blogroll-links plugin for the Links page, Google Map Shortcode, Google XML Sitemaps, my own Contactform Plugin and the awesome NextGEN Gallery with the Lightbox plugin.

Plakzuilen.be, the most recent project I’ve been working on. This is a website in dutch for the Flemish area and in the future maybe for the Netherlands. The tool is targeted at the Belgian youth whom tries to promote their gigs via publicity columns or simply ‘Plakzuilen’ in dutch. There seems to exist no exact translation on the word so if anyone can help me out, I would appreciate it. This website should form an overview between the many different regulations and widely spread locations.

It utilizes the MediaWiki software from the Wikimedia Foundation. This makes it possible to build a nice community of youth, youth organizations and municipalities working together on a single project. A wiki page is simple to create, easy to learn and the result gives a nice overview of all the information. For my Flemish readers, just check the page on how to create and edit a page.

In the short period that the website is online, a lot of people have asked me how I came to the idea. Well, the youth in Flanders has never been more active then now. They organize parties and concerts every weekend and every club is full. In their promotional tour, these young people do their best to be noticed between the mayor clubs with professional promotors. In many cases, there is abundant use of the publicity columns, publicity boards and in some cases also on houses, shacks and electricity cabins. The latter are usually illegal. An Internet search for publicity columns had very little result. If there is anything it is an ambiguous explained place with reduced or no rules.

A wiki is an excellent way to collect the various locations and regulations and make them available to the public. Just like the famous Wikipedia, Plakzuilen.be is open for everyone (municipality workers, promotion teams, youth centers ,…). Anyone can add locations and regulations and adapt the information at will.

Before I forget, Plakzuilen.be has also linked into the various available networks online. Check us out at Twitter, Facebook and Netlog. Also Plakzuilen.be is entering at a contest for Youthwork site of the Year 2010, you can vote here. This website has been made possible with hosting and support from Jeugdwerknet.be.