Sandbox options

Recommendation:

If the purpose of setting up a web laboratory or "sandbox" is to simply promote new tools and receive feedback without collecting data to analyze, a Blogger version is sufficient, and can easily be maintained by someone with limited technical skills.
If the purpose is to promote new tools, receive feedback and analyze data from the feedback, then it is necessary to use the "weblab" software offered freely by Jason Battles.

Comparison of sandbox options
	Blogger	Wordpress MU	Web laboratory
Strengths	Free, easy to use. Requires little or no staff time to set up or maintain. Includes comments feature. Add poll option.	Free. Would allow us to pull in other library blogs currently on Blogger. Includes comments feature.	Free Designed for this purpose Includes polling with integrated comments Integrated statistics collection.
Weaknesses	No access to stats from comments, can only get stats on visits using Google Analytics. Polls are multiple-choice only, no room for comments.	No access to stats from comments, can only get stats on visits using Google Analytics. Would require using widgets or plugins for polls, new one for each new item. Requires staff time to set up and maintain.	Requires staff time to set up and maintain.