So much is happening here I hardly know where to start reporting.

Aurofringe now consists of two, sister projects, or which community forge is responsible for one. We have a local partner in Snehal, who has set up and is seeding a social network on ning.com called Auroconnect, aimed more at visitors to auroville, connecting them and making a sort of rotating community.
We have started a facebook group called Aurofringe which serves a similar function, but has less structure.

In all this we have clarified the role of our own project - to build a directory of local businesses and projects. However it will need a new name before launch because Aurofringe is now the umbrella name. For now we are concentrating on data gathering, and building the site. The directory site will have minimal functionality because our resources are few; the real aim of this project, in phase 1, is to encourage a community sense of ownership of the site. Many people in the directory are not internet users, and we aim to give them a web page each and the sense that they are responsible for its contents.

This approach is critical for the long term. We want the entrants in the directory need to feel proud of their free pages, and to be willing to engage on a deeper level by paying for promoted profiles, either in money, or in kind.

We have also published a leaflet in English and Tamil to help with data capture and publicity. We are asking which other businesses they deal with (for later, when we could map the economy), and also what way the business gives back to the community, because it was felt important to emphasise the ethical dimension to this project.

We are still 300 Swiss Francs from our fundraising target of 1000 CHF.