Hello,

I was there when Greet GOFFIN, the president of the Belgium Straw Bale Association, announced during the EBSB in 2009, that a dedicated team would make a European Straw Bale Portal.

I thought it was a good idea and what is more, I had the impression that most of the other participants also thought high of it.

So when on October 10 of this year, Nora KASANICKA announced that the portal (http://www.strawbale-net.eu) was ready, I was really glad and thought that our community would fast adapt this new medium. A month later I realised that I wasn't visiting the European Straw Bale Portal at all! WHY I wondered?

So I returned to the site and looked through it. Not much was changed. Very few articles were published and only 70 or so individuals had subscribed.

I jumped to a conclusion. SUBSCRIPTION, I forgot to subscribe! So I did and thought all will be fine and went on with what I was doing. I am ashamed to say it, again  lost the site out of my sight!

During all that time I was following email discussion via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This proves that our community is "a live" (and kicking). Somewhere mid November, my professional activities took up so much time that, I stopped reading the emails. Exactly on month latter I returned to my unread emails to find 8O+ of them! Most of them (maybe all) on OSB, a subject that does interest me.

Once again I wondered WHY WE were still using the email mode of communication. WHY hadn't we adopted the BLOG of the European Straw Bale Portal? They have a few advantages which email communication doesn't have. These are: 1) The entire discussion is visible in one glance, no emails to be opened and or looked up, 2) the discussion is chronological and uninterrupted, again something emails can assure, ...

So I asked around WHY, but didn't found an answer. I also thought about it and assume that there are several reasons, not one. For one, I never started a discussion on a portal, and what is more, I don't know how. In the mean time I know, it isn't that difficult. You only need to try.

Another reason may be that our email communication does serve its purpose very well, and as long as we are engaged in it, we don't need another tool.

Do YOU think there are other reasons? Please communicate them because I am wondering WHY.

WHY AREN'T WE USING THE EUROPEAN STRAW BALE PORTAL,

And more specifically

WHY AREN'T WE USING THE BLOG OF THAT PORTAL?

You can send your response via email if you want, but why shouldn't we trying to use the BLOG utility of the Portal?

To do just that you need to click the beneath link.

http://www.strawbale-net.eu/

Once you are there you need to register, at least that is what I think (didn't found out yet)!. When you have subscribed yourself you can go to the BLOG utility and find this text. There you can post you comments.

LET US TRY.

Surely, some of us will find it difficult, and will want some help. No problem, post an email and WE (? I am not sure I can ?) will help you by telling how to do it.

Kind Regards