Community Site using WordPress

WordPress is such a powerful and flexible blogging software that most of the time I think of it as a Content Management platform rather than a blogging software.

I have this idea of creating a set of plugins that would allow people to put up a local community site for even the smallest town in the world by just using WordPress. So, months back, I started putting thoughts together on how to create the needed software to allow people to create hyperlocal sites using WordPress.

For starters, I planned to put several things on the enhanced WordPress installation. Some of them include:

• Geo Mapping – I wanted to use another open project called OpenStreetMap to use. This is probably the most complete openly available map of the world but that’s another story. I wanted to put location services on the community site that is going to be built on top of WordPress.
• Local Directory – To differentiate the Community Site from all the other business directory software on the Internet. I wanted the directory to be use the local map at the center of the directory.
• Photos, Videos – Aside from being able to maintain a local directory, I wanted things like photos and videos to be linked into those locations for easy access.
• Shopping Information – One of the very first things I wanted to know when I visit a location is where to buy certain things or products. So I wanted the community site to have some way of listing products being sold in that local community and linked to the businesses / shops that sold them.
• Classified Ads – Of course no local community should not live without one. It helps people in a community sell and find things being sold locally by individuals.
• News / Blog – I planned to organize the WordPress installation to allow users to subdivide the site into different sections and also include it’s own blog (of course).
• Forum and Community communication – This shouldn’t be much of a problem since the WordPress team already has things for these.

Mobile site and services

Besides being able to offer the above features. The other core service I want to put in is a mobile version of the site that will allow features like location check-ins for the community. I also wanted to put in a feature that would allow people to request for reservations into things like a restaurant.

The current state

Today, I’ve created part of my plan. I’ve updated my Ortigas Online web site to showcase the features I plan to put in the local community software I want to put on top of WordPress. You can check out Ortigas Online (A local business district in the Philippines).

Aside from showcasing the flexibility of WordPress, the power of OpenStreetMap, I plan to put up a service that would allow people to put up their own local community sites without having to deal with the intricacies of developing software needed for it.

What’s Next

In the coming months, I’ll be developing some of the basic mobile features for the local community site. On top of my list is a check-in feature and product rating feature to allow people to provide feedback to products and services in the community. Stay tuned.