Let’s assume for the moment that you already do email. You have learned to deal with the various annoyances that go with it. Web sites have their own quirks.

The first and most annoying is that they assume a privileged voice that others respond to. So I create (or “post” as the web mavens would say) the words you are now reading and they come up on the site for all to read. Visitors to the site, such as yourself, then respond, if they wish, to what I have written. For the first few weeks that may be fine as we all adjust to this new way of conversing, but over time it may stunt what wants to be a true conversation. Hopefully, it won’t.

A second quirk is that the material I put on the site is presented in reverse chronological order; most recent first. This is the third posting, but if you are coming to the site for the first time today (and if so, welcome) you will see this part first, then the ones that actually precede it. And woe be to me if I leave something out and try to tack it on the end later in the day. It will go in the beginning.

Probably the biggest headache is “identities.” In order for the site to work, each participant in the conversation needs to tell the site, up front, who they are and needs to establish a password. I wish we did not need to do all this, but there is a whole world of spam and worse out there that likes to cripple web sites just for fun. As we get into this, we may want to adjust our administrative procedures.

Finally, recognize that we are all learning this new web converation business together. I have never done this before, either. I will make mistakes and do dumb things. If you are looking for reasons to decide that this whole KeepOurPlace.com thing is unworkable, you will surely find some in the early going.

Fortunately, we are back up by a very extraordinary team of web developers, blend interactive, who have worked hard this summer to make this site as usable as possible. If there are things that can be better, I will work with them to make them better.

Tomorrow: Whither KeepOurPlace.com Part I