I don’t know about you, but I don’t handle change well. So when I went to PDNOnline this morning, I was a little taken aback. It’s all different! It’s grayer! There’s a community section!

I calmed down a little when I got playing with the new “Compass” feature, which has a rad map situation that zooms in and out on other members’ locations. I do like a map.

Anyhoo, Haggart’s talking about it, and it seems like the future. I nailed down my buddy Daryl Lang, News Editor and all-things-awesome over at PDN, to tell us what’s what.

This is Daryl Lang. Photo by Danny Tsui.

Hey Daryl! What made PDNOnline decide to change its look?

It was time. Web sites have changed a lot since PDNOnline’s last redesign. To take one thing, people have gradually migrated to higher-resolution computer screens and faster Internet connections, so we have more freedom to play with wider layouts and bigger photos. Also, our readers have become much more comfortable with nontraditional formats like blogs, forum posts and videos. The new site is better organized to wrangle all this extra information. There are also a lot of technical improvements that might not be obvious. For example, we have a new search engine that’s much better. This is a good place to mention that the new site was a team effort involving many people from PDN and Nielsen Business Media’s digital media group.

What new features has the site added?


This site brings together a couple of PDN sites that were previously isolated from one another. It’s easier for readers to find information from the PDN Gear Guide site, our PhotoServe directory, our Photo Source guides and our PDNedu publication for students and educators. We have a slick new events calendar that’s going to be jammed full of exhibitions, contests and photo shows. Our forums are a lot better. And we have just launched PDN Compass, which is a community site for photo professionals.

What purpose is the community section intended to serve? Is it sort of like Facebook meets a photo forum? Is it aimed primarily photographers, or industry professionals, and will it be able to connect the two?

We looked around and saw a couple of excellent social networking sites for photographers who specialize in one thing or another. And we saw lots of photographers active on LinkedIn and Facebook, which are much more generalized. What was missing was a community site for everybody who works in photography– photographers, editors, creative directors, assistants, techs, retouchers, curators, educators, you name it. We decided to build one and connect it to our forum, which has gotten increasingly lively in the last few months. Communities like this are only as good as their members, so it was important that we make it welcoming and easy to join. It’s free, of course. You don’t have to subscribe to our magazine. As it grows, our tech team plans to build on more features. To start, the killer ap is the map.

I’m psyched about the map function, Daryl! Tell me about that!

We hope it works as a simple, visual way to bring photo professionals together. You can search the map by location and specialty. So if an editor wants to find, for example, a photojournalist in Florida, they can locate everyone who meets that description, check out their Web sites, and get in touch. Or if you’re planning a trip and want to talk to somebody who’s familiar with where you’re going, you can find that person and ask for advice. The more people who join, the more useful the map becomes. Did I mention it’s free?

In what other ways is PDN planning to take over the world?

I’m thinking reality television. America’s Next Top Photo Editor?

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You heard it here first, Bravo TV.

Check out the new site here, and click on community to add your profile to the mix.

 

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