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Bloogle

Bloogle is an exciting concept in community-based web pages sculpted to meet the information needs of Blue Mountains residents.

Created by retired journalist, John Penlington of Wentworth Falls, Bloogle will be able to give us all the information we need about our own area—and the goods, services, opportunities and recreation available here.

Although it is Blue Mountains-specific, U3A Penrith members will also find much that is useful and relevant to their own needs. You only need to look down the list below to see just how much information is available.

And this is only the beginning! Like Lao Tsu, who was said to have emerged from his mother's womb fully grown, Bloogle has arrived as a fully grown facility but with the promise of more to come. In an email this week (June 28) John said, "There are a few more things I need to do with Bloogle before publicly promoting it." I'm going to be watching keenly to see what else he has in mind.

Bloogle also makes use of the Possum search engine, dedicated to browsing local web pages.

When you first log on to Bloogle you'll be met by an easy-access home page with the links clearly visible and simple to navigate. There is an interesting slide show of local events: at present you have a choice of three slide shows to watch—the Winter Magic Festival, Snowfalls at Blackheath, and Wentworth Falls in Flood. There is even a "Daily Puzzle" to exercise your grey matter.

A quick look at the page shows the following facilities are available:

• What's On:   This links to the Blue Pages, a detailed calendar of what's happening in the Blue Mountains.
• Street Map:   A link to Google Maps with instructions on how to find local addresses.
• Weather Watch:   Everything from weather radar (and methods of interpeting it) to current rainfall forecasts, local weather, and satellite images.
• News:   The news comes in three grades—local, national and international. It's all at your fingertips.
• Timetables:   City Rail, Country Link, Blue Mountains Bus Company, and Trolley Tours.
• Email:   Links to MSN Hotmail and GMail to help you set up an account, if necessary.
• Services:   You can phone a taxi, book a flight, dial a bin or call a vet.
• Cinema:   You can also check out what's showing at The Edge, Mount Vic Flicks, or Glenbrook Cinema as well as find previews and reviews.
• Traffic Reports:   Thinking of driving down to the suburbs but don't know what the traffic is like? This site has a link to the RTA's video system. You can actually watch the traffic right through the suburbs, beginning at the M4–Mamre Road intersection. You will see stationary images, not a moving video of traffic, but they are updated every few minutes.

John Penlington

What does all this cost? Absolutely nothing! It's a free service. Sure, there are some small Google ads in a column at right of screen but these are relevant to the Mountains and are non-intrusive.

So who is John Penlington? He modestly describes himself as a "retired journalist whose hobby is web programming". A Google search reveals that he was compere of ABC TV's Four Corners in 1964 and went on to other major roles with the ABC. There is little biographical material about him on the web but many references to his professional achievements. You can read the transcript of two Four Corners stories he did in the 1960s HERE. They were rebroadcast in an anniversary edition called "Reflections from the Sixties" to mark the programme's 40th anniversary. One is about the emergence of surfing as a major sport and the other about discrimination in Queensland pubs when publicans could be fined for serving women in public bars. The anniversary programme also included a report by his colleague Peter Reid on aboriginal fringe dwellers at Cunnamulla. It all seems so long ago, but it was programmes like Four Corners and journalists like John Penlington and Peter Reid who shone a spotlight on inequities that might otherwise have continued for much longer.

Do visit Bloogle, and do consider the advantages of making it your home page. I did.

              —David Evans