What fascinates me is not simply the arrival of the ideas but the conditions under which they appear. With this particular project I have deliberately decided to take things easily. I have imposed no artificial deadlines and am resisting the temptation to rush towards a finished product. This is quite a departure from some of my previous ventures, when I was inclined to push forward with considerable enthusiasm and then discover that certain fundamental questions had not been properly resolved.
I am beginning to appreciate more fully the extraordinary processing capacity of the human brain. I think of it as the ultimate relational database, although one that puts any computer system to shame. Throughout the day I feed it information, conversations, observations and occasional frustrations. While I am occupied with other matters, and particularly during sleep, the brain continues its mysterious work of sorting, comparing and making connections. It draws upon years of accumulated experience, including my earlier community projects and conversations with people both inside and outside Somerset.
Then, without any apparent effort on my part, a new perspective emerges. It is almost as though an unseen committee has been meeting overnight and presents me with its recommendations in the early hours of the morning. I have learned that allowing ideas to mature can be more productive than trying to force them.
One of the ideas that emerged this morning concerned the relationship between the printed community guide and the website. The guide should concentrate on regular activities and established organisations, providing a relatively permanent reference point. The website, on the other hand, can supply the changing details of individual events, including dates, times, venues and special arrangements. Visitors should be able to find what they need without having to embark upon an expedition through half a dozen different pages.
This brought me back to a principle well understood in online commerce. People have a limited amount of patience when searching for information. Someone who cannot easily complete a purchase will simply abandon their shopping cart. The same applies to someone wondering whether to attend a local coffee morning or concert. If finding the relevant details becomes too complicated, they may abandon the idea altogether. The organiser loses a potential visitor, and the visitor loses an opportunity for enjoyment or companionship.
Another lesson is the importance of resolving as much as possible in my own mind before asking a developer to do any technical work. Every alteration made after construction has begun can involve additional time, expense and complications. A few hours spent thinking through the logic of a system can save an extraordinary amount of subsequent effort. The developer’s task should be to implement a clear concept, not to discover what I really wanted while building it.
I have also decided to give the website a more substantial writing section, to be called A Longer Read. This will provide space for articles and reflections on community life, rather than restricting everything to short notices and event announcements. I hope local people will feel encouraged to write about their experiences, observations and discoveries, whether they concern a particular gathering, an interesting organisation or some aspect of life in the Somer Valley that deserves wider attention.
My own website, briansnellgrove.net, now contains more than 2.1 million words accumulated over ten years. This has taught me that words themselves place surprisingly modest demands upon computer storage. A single good-quality photograph can occupy ten megabytes, roughly comparable to the space needed for the plain text of the entire Bible, depending on the format used. A substantial collection of articles is therefore unlikely to present any serious storage problem. The greater challenge is organising the material so that readers can find what interests them.
There is plenty of room for everybody, provided the site remains neat and tidy. I would be delighted if people who have never previously thought of themselves as writers were encouraged to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and describe something that has interested, amused or moved them. Some may be hesitant about their spelling or grammar, but that is what an editor is for. The important thing is the experience being communicated, not whether every comma is in the correct place.
I suspect that over time these contributions could form a fascinating portrait of the Somer Valley as seen through the eyes of the people who live here. Events come and go, but the stories surrounding them can remain. A community contains an enormous reservoir of experience, much of which would otherwise never find its way into print.
Looking back on this morning’s burst of activity, I am reminded that creativity does not always respond well to management. We can prepare the ground, collect information and establish the right conditions, but the moment of insight cannot be ordered to appear at a particular hour.
Perhaps this is one of the advantages of getting older. I am becoming less concerned with how quickly something is accomplished and more interested in whether it has been properly thought through. There is no particular prize for finishing first, especially if one then has to spend the following six months correcting avoidable mistakes.
For the moment, I shall continue feeding information into that remarkable database between my ears, giving it time to digest what it receives and seeing what emerges.
The only slight disadvantage is that its most productive working hours do not always coincide with mine. I would be perfectly happy to receive its next report at nine in the morning rather than half past one.
