Coinciding with the start of my internship at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), the group was undertaking a complete redesign and redevelopment of their website. With the programming contracted out to Dan Collis-Puro, I was asked to assist with the project by developing its design and coordinating production.

The new site, launched in December 2009, offers cleaner navigation and consistent layout and font. Utilizing BrowserCMS, the staff now has a much easier, more straight-forward method to updating the site in the future. Google has been heavily integrated: utilizing Google Calendars to manage two calendars (the association, the members), Google Analytics for tracking, and Google Maps for a clear display of all the member organizations within the Commonwealth.


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It seems there’s a battle-of-the-board games heating up. While this type of entertainment has certainly seen better days (pre-video games), there’s new life brewing and being stirred up in the board game world.

Wired Magazine recently covered the growing popularity of Settlers of Catan. For those of you who may not have played this game yet, it’s a German board game that deals with land speculation and resources. The game has been around for two decades now, but it is catching on very recently in the U.S. (we actually have the game at home). Wired’s focus on the game however is whether it will surpass the popularity of Monopoly.

Oddly enough, this month Google and Hasbro released Monopoly City Streets. This brand new take on the game provides world-wide interaction and the use of the OpenStreetMap project. The rules have been modified as have the objectives (the oddest change is that creating a “monopoly” is nearly impossible) and the game will effectively close in January 2010. These changes however have created a stir – the system completed crashed the day Google launched. Google and Hasbro had to completely reset the game (after hardware and software updates were made) about a week later. Just look at the constant chatter about it on Twitter.

So what does this all mean? Settlers of Catan is certainly bringing new life back to the board game “platform.” While I have played it, it’s not my cup of tea. The game moves somewhat slow and is pretty confusing at first. The concept and execution are excellent though (I wish the game board didn’t fall apart so easily). Hasbro may have taken its game from the board to the internet, but this is nothing new. Monopoly exists on nearly all gaming platforms. The concept behind using other platforms is to peek interest and thereby increase the likelihood players will also use the board game platform.

I don’t really think it’s fair to say that Settlers will “beat” Monopoly. Board games will live on for quite a while. These games (and their reincarnations) are proof. I’m sure anyone out there would take a board game night over video games.


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