About the Online Physical Activity Magazine (o!Pam)
Goals
- Keep individuals informed about the physical activity opportunities available near them
- Makes it easier for providers (people, places and things that provide physical activity opportunities) to share their information with the public.
- Provides event reporting and coverage for local events.
- Allows for the information gathered on this site to be published on other sites of individuals choosing.
What is it?
The Online Physical Activity Magazine is a website that is focused on getting people more physically active in their communities. o!Pam is powered by a unique web content management system that allows businesses, clubs, and other providers to quickly and easily publish their events, news, and other information, making it all available to the general public, in a variety of formats, at the push of a button.
The majority of the content on o!Pam is supplied by service providers, such as bicycling clubs, running clubs, fitness facilities, outfitters, and parks. Each provider is given their own little slice of o!Pam where all of their related content is gathered. Content for multiple providers is grouped into communities. Each community is assigned one or more editors, who are responsible for the overall management of the content for that community.
Framework
The o!Pam is designed around four main categories of data:
- Community
- Generally considered to be a defined physical region and used to group content from multiple related providers.
- Providers
- Organizations, clubs, parks, places, fitness facilities, outfitters, and other service providers.
- Events
- Organized physical activities in which individuals may participate, such as group hikes, fairs that focus on physical activities, bike rides, and yoga classes, just to name a few.
- News
- Information linked to providers and events, for example, class registration announcements, results and coverage on past events, and articles.
Why use it?
It is amazingly easy to provide information. All you have to do is fill out a form.
The information is not only presented on your own provider area but is also displayed at various levels of the magazine, thus reaching a broader audience without additional work on your part.
Once your information is entered on the o!Pam is it easily shared on other websites. For example, Parkersburg Bicycle has provided information about local bicycling events on their homepage, www.parkersburgbike.com, by using the bicycling news feed provided by the o!Pam.
You can allow folks to sign-up for automatic event updates and the information will be mailed to them when you update your provider site.
Honestly, the benefits are so significant it is impossible to list them all here. For more information on becoming a part of o!Pam, please visit the Join page.