[Nfb-web] Webmasters Seminar, Any Thoughts?
Gary Wunder
gwunder at earthlink.net
Mon Feb 18 11:37:23 CST 2008
This is a wonderful summary. Thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ruth Anne Wheeler" <webmaster at nfbofillinois.org>
To: "'NFB Webmaster's List'" <nfb-web at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfb-web] Webmasters Seminar, Any Thoughts?
> Hi Everyone.....
> Here goes - feel free to lift as much as you like...
>
>
> Patti and Ronza,
> This report affects the two of you the most directly (besides myself), as
> presidents of NFBI and IABS respectively. Ronza, as president of IABS,
> the
> feel of the IABS site could be quite different, which is why I am
> including
> you on this full report, so that you can weigh all the benefits and
> drawbacks.
>
> Our Illinois websites will move (more below) if we choose to utilize this
> new function now available and it will also affect how we "look" on the
> web.
>
>
> The webmaster convention unveiled something that is very exciting
> potential
> for the NFBI website, as I can see how this would open the ability to
> update
> the site fairly easily within those who would be authorized to add
> content.
> (Examples: Bill Reif for legislation, Debbie Stein and Connie Davis for
> the
> Braille Examiner) The new platform is something called xCatalyst, which I
> will be outlining in detail below. The decision of whether or not to
> utilize xCatalyst has been left up to each state affiliate.
>
> While at the conference I built a mini test site for NFBI in xCatalyst.
> It
> utilizes the National Center's template as the state affiliate template is
> not yet available. Please go to https://stage.nfb.org/nfb/main.asp to
> review the test site, which contains three pages: an introduction/main
> page
> utilizing the state Mission Statement, the announcements page and the
> committee appointments page. This will give you an idea of what our
> website
> would look like, when we utilize this content management system.
>
> The persons authorized to add content to our site would not necessarily be
> physically updating the site immediately. The update/new page would be
> sent
> to the site admin (webmaster) for final review and publication to the
> site.
> This process would save time as webmaster each month. It's one thing to
> review a page and link it appropriately into our website, and it's another
> to spend 2 hours or more depending on total amount of content to create a
> totally new page (such as a Braille Examiner webpage, which can take a
> couple of days work to create). Updating an existing page myself would
> take
> a slightly lower amount of time, as a webmaster has more of a real time
> update when entering text in the site.
>
> If a page does not meet approval for the site (example, spelling errors,
> format errors) I would return it to the creator to correct, per the
> process
> we have agreed upon within the webmasters.
>
> The benefits:
> * xCatalyst is a very logical set up for creating web pages. The WYSIWYG
> (what you see is what you get) editor is very similar to Microsoft Word,
> making it quite easy for someone with basic Word knowledge to create a web
> page.
>
> * The built in features have incredible potential. Example: It is
> incredibly easy to create online registration forms, utilizing a page
> where
> you check off the boxes you want to use and another page where you place
> them in numerical order (of how you want them to show up on the website).
> There are also built in features for photo galleries (great for
> conventions
> and local events), newsletters and email lists built from registration
> forms.
>
> * Each affiliate will have its own template, utilizing the state Whozit
> logo.
>
> * State affiliate templates have the same look and feel as the main NFB
> home
> page. The difference is slight, with a somewhat different color scheme
> and
> different button options in the state templates.
>
> * Pages on the site will have a uniform appearance, no matter who created
> the content and what the page entails.
>
> * Urgent updates (like legislation) can be placed on the website in a much
> quicker time frame, adding a capability we do not necessarily have right
> now. Example: Bill gets an urgent legislative update that needs to be
> distributed immediately. He posts it to il-talk, but would also like to
> add
> it to the website. He would log into an account created for him, update
> the
> legislation page and send it off to me. Since he has done this, and it is
> urgent, he calls me to advise me there is an update needing to be posted,
> and I can go into my site admin on the web (even while at work) and review
> the page quickly and publish to the site.
>
> * Pages like the committee appointments page become very easy to update,
> as
> I may only need to cut and paste the entire text out of Notepad into the
> page and publish the page with the updated information.
>
> * Anti-spam features are built into xCatalyst for e-mail addresses
> appearing
> in web pages on the site, thereby reducing spam from an e-mail address
> being
> included on a web page. xCatalyst uses a proprietary technology to
> convert
> e-mail to a series of numbers and symbols. An example: a web spider will
> read the NFBI webmaster e-mail address as:
> mailto:webmas&#
> 116;er@nfbofilli&#
> 110;ois.org That cannot be translated
> back into an e-mail address outside of xCatalyst. Yet a clickable link
> for
> e-mail will correctly open a new e-mail to the address from the webpage.
>
> * The NFB server hosts our website. NFBI saves on the website hosting
> costs. We would still need to purchase our domain and e-mail addresses
> from
> Domain Direct. Upon our renewal of our domain, the comparison cost per
> year
> for domain name, forwarding and e-mail is around $50-70 per year, versus
> around $150 - 200 per year.
>
> * Error pages will still show the state affiliate template. You will
> receive a message on the page that says there is no content on the page
> requested. As an example, on the xCatalyst site setup, someone who types
> in
> www.nfbofillinois.org/convention2000 would get an error message of no
> content, but easily be able to navigate back to our main site through the
> template links.
>
> * Webpages are identified with a numerical ID, so links within the site do
> not "break" just because a page is re-named. Example: I start up a
> convention page, and title it convention2008. When it is time to do the
> page for 2009, I can (if I choose), rename the page convention2009, but
> the
> links will still work, as we identify it by the number, not the name,
> within
> the coding.
>
> There are some minor drawbacks, however:
> * While contributors can create content for review, it is not completely
> within "real time", except for site administrators. Content by
> contributors
> still needs to be approved by the site admin in most cases, as well as new
> pages needing to be linked into the site by the site admin.
>
> * xCatalyst is still within development. The WYSIWYG editor is not
> working
> well yet for visual or JAWS users. However, the NFB has a very close
> relationship with the developers, who are very responsive to the needs of
> our community. Because the WYSIWYG editor is not working well quite yet,
> it
> does require a certain amount of HTML knowledge to ensure a page appears
> uniform on the website. I would still need to correct HTML errors by hand
> coding the HTML as the errors may occur in contributed site material for
> the
> time being.
>
> * All pages will look the same on the site (as a drawback). This most
> directly affects IABS. The IABS site is currently with the NFBI hosting,
> but within a subdomain. It will still be a subdomain, but the pages will
> be
> on the NFBI template in xCatalyst if we switch. We can still add the IABS
> logo to each page, but the logo will just be an addition on the page, and
> IABS will not have the same "feel" it has now. The site for IABS would
> have
> a local chapter "feel" - not a separate entity division as it has now.
> IABS
> may wish to consider my setting up a site in a different location if this
> doesn't meet the needs of the student division.
>
> * The site would be hosted by the NFB, and our domain forwards to their
> server. This is a drawback in that we don't "own" our hosting any more,
> and
> there may be situations in which the National Office may request we remove
> certain content due to high traffic bogging down their server. I don't
> know
> that this would happen for our site, as we have never run out of bandwidth
> in our own hosting in the past, even when we have offered live feeds of
> our
> convention. However, it is possible.
>
> * We could utilize xCatalyst on our own within the auspices of our own
> domain completely, but it is quite cost prohibitive, as site licenses
> would
> run a couple of thousand dollars per year. Our only real option for
> utilizing xCatalyst is within the National Center server.
>
> * If we decide to switch, there is an initial re-building phase for our
> website into the xCatalyst platform.
>
> I find overall that this would greatly benefit us and I personally believe
> this is the direction we should go. State affiliate templates are not
> available yet, and probably will not be available for at least another two
> weeks. However, if we are to do this, I am assuming that I would need
> board
> approval, as it is a change in which we will be doing the website for the
> affiliate and how we are presenting ourselves on the WWW. I would be more
> than glad to present this same information to the board as needed.
>
> I realize this is a lot of information and much of it quite technical. As
> Dr. Mauer said to us at the convention this weekend, he knows what HTML
> stands for (hyper text markup language), but has no idea what that means
> or
> entails, and that is why he has us webmasters. Please feel free to ask
> me
> any questions that you may have.
>
> Thank you,
> Ruth Anne
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of milt.1818
> Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 10:31 AM
> To: 'NFB Webmaster's List'
> Subject: Re: [Nfb-web] Webmasters Seminar, Any Thoughts?
>
> Hello All and Ruth Ann,
>
>
>
> It has been some time since I have been away from working software on
> computers. This seminar was a real blessing for me to cogitate on
> xCatalyst
> and new ideas. Networking with all of you was very nice and I would love
> to
> have additional contact from time to time.
>
>
>
> Ruth, so I won't have to totally reinvent the whole wheel and save time as
> well could I have a copy of your report that you presented to your state
> president so I can adapt it to present it to our state president and / or
> state board?
>
>
>
> Thanks much and I appreciate your friendship.
>
>
>
> Milton Taylor
>
> 645 W 1820 N
>
> Orem, Utah
>
> 801-224-1818
>
> milttaylor at comcast.net
>
>
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