So my ongoing 'mission' for this site is to create a space where me and my family have 'our little piece of the internet that we carry with us everywhere' (in the same way that sea otter's carry their favourite stone with them everywhere). Some of vague requirements (which I of course reserve the right to change at any time) are:

• Easy for anyone to manage
• Cheap (I would rather avoid the cost of hosting given what this is)
• Flexible
• Available anywhere
  
• Some level of security restrictions (as kids grow up they can have their own areas to play in)
• Extensible

So far, am just using google sites as part of a Google Apps with the domain name pointed at it all (thanks White Labelled for domain management). It's certainly not something a novice could get too, but equally it hasn't been to hard and I haven't had to write a single line of code.

This gives us:

• A website with an easy to use WYSIWYG editor
• Email
• Documents storage and editing
• Ability to extend into a server environment if ever require (well, vaguely thinking about future of home automation type stuff)

Now have just found the 'announcements' functionality which looks like a simple blog and twitter widget for pulling in status updates. So far so good...