Handy Project Tip: Try URL parking to Simplify Things

OK, this is a little geeky, but the result is very very nice if you’re going to run a project over multiple years.

This is the third Flat Classroom project and the second Digiteen.  Well, what do we do with all the links out there and making sure that everything is linked together?  We’ve recently “messed around with it” and came up with a nice little innovation.  Net cost per project if you buy domains in bulk (and get a discount) $16.45. 

I bought the domains www.flatclassroomproject.com and www.digiteen.net.  Then, I bought URL forwarding — yes, we could have done this other ways, but with all of the services we are using, this is the best way.

This is what the URL’s look like right now:

OK, so what does this do?

Well, now:

• www.flatclassroomproject.com takes you to the new project – the link never changes.
• ning.flatclassroomproject.com takes us to the current Ning (if we ever decide to change it.
• wiki.flatclassroomproject.com takes us to the new wiki (this does change each time)
• calendar.flatclassroomproject.com – Google Calendar
• teacher.flatclassroomproject.com – PRIVATE teacher Group (don’t ask to join, just for the teachers of the project)
• bookmark.flatclassroomproject.com – Our Flat classroom project Diigo group we’re just setting up.
• conference.flatclassroomproject.com – Will always link to information on the next conference.
• help.flatclassroomproject.com – ONE wiki we’re creating to hold the help files for ALL of our projects.  We aren’t going to keep reinventing the wheel, this will be the backbone and we’ll just update this.
• archive.flatclassroomproject.com – Link to the archives for the projects.
• We have elluminate links for teachers to access the elluminate rooms, etc.

HOw does this look for digiteen?

• www.digiteen.net – Our Ning – may change to the wiki when it is finished (see the beauty of it?)
• wiki.digiteen.net – Current wiki
• ning.digiteen.net – Current Ning
• calendar.digiteen.net – Current Calendar
• teacher.digiteen.net – Current Google Group for teachers
• help.digiteen.net – Central repository for help files for all projects
• archive.digiteen.net – Link to original project which will have links to everything we do.
• We’ll also have links to the private elluminate room for teachers.

So, it just makes things easier for us.  I can go in on the back end and update where things should point depending on this year’s project.  This has always been a problem since we started with the second Flat Classroom project.

It is so important to be able to share and leave student work for purposes of legacy, I believe, but it is not always practical to reuse the same wiki.  I use bulkregister.com but have a bulk account because I used to buy a lot of domain names when I was a hosting reseller and website designer. (pre teaching)

OK, the WORST way about doing this is the google search engine thing.  WE’ll have to have a hosted main website and then link to all of these things, but right now, with this coming out of my pocket, I’m just not ready for another full site to maintain, I just can’t keep my own updated and am  not going to add any more.

Do you do this sort of thing? What helps you?