Plings.net going national

We’ve got a big vision for Plings. We want any young person in the country to be able to easily answer the questions: “What’s on for me? What activities can I get involved in and how?”. We also want to pose a question to activity providers: “How can you help develop the talent and potential of young people who show an interest in the activities you are organising”. We hope the new look and feel begin to convey this message.

With the launch of a new Plings.net website this week, we’re a step closer to that vision – though there is still a long way to go.

When we started building the Plings positive activity information platform over two years ago, there were many areas where the data and information on activities existed only in peoples heads or locked up in printed flyers, and at best, in spreadsheets on someones hard-disk. Now, for many of the 20 local authorities we’ve been working with as part of the DSCF funded Information & Signposting Project, much of the information on positive activities for those areas is available through our output API ready to be syndicated to local and national websites, and used in any number of widgets and tools. Whilst we’ve brought activity information together in one central place, Plings is very much about supporting local information providers to develop new ways of collecting, sharing and amplifying positive activity information – and we continue to encourage local websites to make use of the data feeds of positive activities we provide.

Our vision though, is bigger than providing information in just 20 local areas, and so the new Plings.net website provides a space for young people from any area of the country to take the first step on a journey to finding positive activities where they live. Right now, if we’ve not got information for a local area, we try to signpost young people to the local youth websites that we’ve found and categorised. We’re also working with 1Up Design to identify activity information that has been added to the national PKHD directory, and to use that to start gradually improving the coverage of Plings positive activity information across the whole of the country (more on that soon…).

As we continually improve both our list of local website links (all suggestions always welcome), and, more importantly, the data held on local activity provision, Plings.net becomes a key launchpad for any young person wanting to explore their interests, or get involved in something new. But Plings has never just been about a website – it also increases the availability of data in our Output API for anyone to use and innovate with – presenting ever-more-ingenious ways of encouraging young people to find and engage in positive activities.

So, as, over the coming months, we transition from Plings.net as a pilot in 20 local areas, to a Plings.net that can serve young people anywhere in the country, we hope you’ll continue to share your feedback and ideas with us – and to join us on the ongoing journey..