So before we do a monster post about the super-duper new Commons Cam site we thought we’d share a little pre-lunch jam with you:

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We’re very proud of our popular site for Ithaca’s Commons Webcam! But we’ve been working on a new design, concept and features that will make the already super-fun one of Ithaca’s coolest sites.

Within a week the new Commons Cam will launch, with some great new experiences for users. We’re also incorporating weekly polls related to the Commons, downtown Ithaca and all things Ancient Wisdom.

In the meantime we’ve set up a great supplement to the new site: a Flickr group!  Join The Best of the Commons Cam group and submit your screenshots/downloaded webcam shots to the pool.

Exciting times are coming, and you’ll have to keep checking out exploreithaca.com for the new and improved Commons Cam website! Once we wrap that up we can resume band practice on Dark Side of The Moon.

For all of you who waited with baited breath:

Molly, Tyler, and me (Casey) on the Flickr.

Again, the talk went very well. You can read more about it in this previous blog post, though hopefully you’ll hear about it in more detail from the rest of the gang.

As a note, all the pictures were taken after the main part of the talk, so there were more than five people there (really).

Also, the answers to yesterday’s Stumper(tm), “What’s wrong with our blog?”

1) Poor choice for text colors (white on black), thick font, red-on-black is a harsh contrast.
2) Lack of frequent updates.

If you guessed correctly, you win nothing. Sorry. But good job though.

So the other day we gave a talk to a Science Communications class up at Cornell. I think it went pretty well, as some (awesome) hung around after the class to ask us questions and such. We’ll show some pictures from it tomorrow, once we get them developed (a.k.a. uploaded on Flickr).

The talk focused mostly on design decisions we make when creating a website, everything from line-spacing to negative space to the color palette. Since we only had a few hours to throw this thing together (last minute request), we were only able to put together about six slides. You can check out our Presentation in Flash or download it as a PDF.

After reading viewing the presentation, you may notice that our blog kinda violates at least two of the recommendations that we make about designing blogs. Can you name which ones??? (answers tomorrow).

Point is, though, that we had a great time putting this together and talking about the stuff we love to do so much.

Due to a nasty winter storm system developing over the Northeast, we are expected to get between 6 and 10″ of snow. Any predictions? Ithaca schools are open, but we are placing bets on an early release time (Ithaca Journal updates). The snow has already started to fall and is covering the Commons with a nice layer of fluff! I will put up more pictures as the day goes on. Who’s going to spend the night at the office? Here is what is looks like from our point of view

9:30 AM

11 AM

1:30 PM

4 PM

Time to go home, eh?