Re: [Computerbank] new web site

[Sam Reid <sbr@gonzo.cable.nu>]

Frederic Fery wrote:

> About this
> I would wait to give the new url (that's my web development experience)
>
Yep, that's what we're doing. That's why it's only just been posted to 
this list - for discussion.

> I have noticed that people are confused when are given 2 url (the 
> normal one and the new one).
>
Noone ought to be giving out any URLs (outside of those interested in 
the development of the site).

> And I think there is nothing worse than "site under construction"
>
Couldn't agree more. The old site stays until the new one is ready.

> I guess that's what we need to talk about: WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT STATEGY
> 1/ who is doing what (update the national site or state or both)

States may or may not use Nuke, or host on the same server as they 
choose. States look after their own sites, but can syndicate CB national 
news through the .rdf backend if they choose.

Let's assume that what we are discussing for the moment is the future 
national www.computerbank.org.au web site. At this stage I think that a 
single volunteer could easily post any news items of national interest 
and take care of moderation for the one site. Depending on the traffic 
on the site more people could be involved in managing seperate areas.

I would like to make the point that having been involved in the 
construction of quite a few sites of one sort or another over the years 
for companies, non-profit organisations and individuals, I've noticed 
some common situations:

a) No one really knows what they want before the site goes up, because 
they generally don't know what their site visitors will want. I don't 
pretend to know this either as it differs with every site, and even with 
the way promotion of the site is handled. We don't have the time or 
resources to do a comprehensive survey (the corporate approach) and IMHO 
these tend to be of limited value anyway as I believe most site visitors 
generally don't know what they want either, at least until they see it 
for the first time.

b) No matter how much planning you do beforehand the first couple of 
weeks after a new site goes up is going to involve making changes to all 
sorts of stuff. See a)

c) Said changes often end up costing as much or more in effort and time 
than the original planning and implementation, not because of 
insufficient planning but once again because of a)

> 2/ time frame 

ASAP - is there ever any other time frame?

> 3/ how often the content needs to be updated

Whenever there's new content to go on the site. As often as possible.

> 4/ which content do we put there 

News, items of general interest, links to articles on other sites that 
may be of interest (like newspaper articles and slashdot items). 
Technical questions, frequently asked questions, links to software and 
documentation, links to computerbank official documents. I'm sure we can 
come up with others.

> 5/ who is going to approve it

Approve... what? One voulenteer admin. As long as everyone generally 
agrees on that person (and as long as it's not me) I don't see the need 
to over-bureaucratise the situation.

> There is quite a few hands to help, but that needs coordination, don't 
> you think?
>
Well yeah. That's what we're doing now, isn't it?

> Do we work on a site map, to define main menu (or navigation items) ???
> ie,
> home
> about cb
> contact us
> projects
> documentation
> etc....
>
Um have a look. By default this is all layed out already like that. Main 
menu block, you know? Any admin can edit that (in a nice form on a web 
page).

If you're suggesting we write a site from scratch and go through the 
whole hoolpa of starting with a site map, etc., and writing all the 
software ourselves, well, have fun. I'll be sure to drop by next year to 
see how the planning stage is going.

> I reckon it is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP on a new web site
> When this is done, we can start working on the content, news, 
> discussion....
>
Yeah OK, you don't have to shout, Fred. I agree that navigation is 
important, but if you have a bit of a look you'll see that navigation on 
a nuke site is about as generic as it gets. And if you wish to add some 
division of information that doesn't fit in easily to that structure I 
can hack it in easily.

Nuke has a simple paradigm: almost everything is a story, and all 
stories can be commented on (as per the comments policy of the site). 
Stories are assigned Sections - either Articles (general items, always 
displayed on the front page) or a custom Section, such as "CB Victoria", 
"Technical" or "Web Siteb Discussion" (special sections, optionally 
displayed on the front page but also each with a "Section" home page 
that exclusively shows stories for that Section).

By default Nuke supports some non-story things, such as FAQs, Web Links, 
and Download links. I've also already added a Calendar module. Many, 
many more are available to use as we might see fit in the future.

> so can we brain storm on the main sections?????
>
Lets. This has been a long email though so I think I'll let someone else 
kick off that thread :-)

Cheers,

-Sam



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