[Nfb-web] NFB Web Sites, NCBYS Portal

[Peter Donahue]

Hello Joseph and listers,

    Let me say a rousing, "Amen" to your concerns about NFB Web Sites. The
June 2006 Braille Monitor included a great article by Mark Riccobono about
the educational programs developed by the NFB Jernigan Institute including
the new Web Portal for our National Center for Blind Youth and Science,
(NCBYS.) The portal was to be operational on May first, 2006. The URL is:
http://www.blindscience.org

If you visit that link you'll be presented with a media page with a link to
enter the portal. Being curious I selected the NCBYS Portal link and
received the following message:

404 Not Found

Not Found
The requested document was not found on this server.

Web Server at nfb.org


    And they said it would be available on May first. It's now May 27, and
we're getting the above error message when attempting to enter the portal to
check all of the great resources available to parents, educators, and blind
children wishing to enter scientific fields, or to study science as a part
of another educational program. I really feel that this doesn't bode well
for this organization when visitors are presented with messages such as that
when seeking information about blindness and the NFB. If there were
unresolved technical issues preventing the portal to be accessed on-time
members and friends should have been notified of this delay. This is rather
disappointing and is a blunder we need to avoid in the future. I hope the
situation is investigated in the next week or two and the portal activated,
or an explaination of the problems encountered fourth-coming. This is just
my two sence worth.

Peter Donahue

From: "T. Joseph Carter" <knghtbrd at bluecherry.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] ACB Radio, or...


Tina, I'd be happy with our website and those of our affiliates simply
being updated once in awhile.  They need it.

On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 04:44:19PM -0700, Tina Hansen wrote:
> I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to copy ACB's practices to the
> letter, but I think what people are asking for is more of our content to
be
> offered on the web. I believe that we may be better off getting our kernel
> books, as well as some of our others, made available in DAISY format, or
> even just as mp3 files. It also would be great if we could get the Student
> Slate, the Braille Monitor and some of our other publications up on the
web
> as mp3 files. We also may wish to offer online mp3 archives of convention
> meetings, and not just the general sessions, but some of the divisional
> seminars.
>
> I can understand what ACB is doing, but I think we have more substantive
> literature, and that, in my view, should be made accessible to the
> ever-growing Web audience. This, in my view, is what National ought to
> encourage, and if we can get some coordination going, it can be done.
> Thanks.
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