Site Redesign 2008

At the 2008 conference we had a short lunch time meeting to discuss changes to the site, here is a brief overview and the status of said changes.

It was apparent that the site as it is provides some value to the ACCU Membership, but it has the potential to provide a lot more. One of the aims of the meeting was to gather ideas on what that would involve. 'More value' could be providing more features for members or making more visitors want to join up

1. there used to be a mailing list for those interested in the ACCU web site and I suggest resurrecting it. Apart from possible discussions on where the site goes, it would also be used for announcements of changes.to the site. Anyone who would be regularly contributing could be signed up. I don't see it as being a high traffic list.
2. We should put together a list of ACCU members who have active blogs and websites and list them. There could also be the possibility to use their content on the ACCU site.
3. To look at linking or networking with other sites and organisations with which the ACCU could be affiliated or have a common interest or theme. Maybe the Publicity officer could be brought into this loop and liase with Tony.
4. I've discussed with Mick some ways to streamline the process of joining the ACCU.
5. revision control for xarPages???

1. remove the current login box and have a clearly labelled “Login” link at the top right which leads to the (optionally SSL) full Login page. We can also include further instructions here on what site and ACCU membership provides, how to recover your password and how to get help.
2. We'll remove the 'introduction to the ACCU' paragraphs to free up space for more dynamic content. This can be moved or merged in with the “About the ACCU” section.
3. the front page needs to be much more dynamic. We'll try different ideas, but probably something along the lines of showing all dynamic content (news, blogs, articles etc.) with ways to filter the content to one of those sections in particular. Use a cookie to remember the visitors selection.
4. remove the weblinks section as there seems to be little interest on keeping it up to date.
5. find a way to make the calendar more accessible on the front page. Possibly a block in the menu column, or possibly a larger block somewhere on the front page content. Allow any member to add to the calendar. Have an export to vCal option.
6. check that the print style sheets actually work.
7. error and exception handling is sometimes a little less than informative and could be improved.

1. Giovanni has asked if it could be possible to 'push' data into the xarPages part of the content system. I'll look into this, but if it is not simple we'll leave it for now.
2. Someone suggested putting more of ACCU bloggers content (e.g. Thomas Guest) on to the site. Tony will contact bloggers to see what is possible.
3. Integrate some sort of Wiki system into the site. As much as possible keep the look and feel as of the site. Allow members write permission, visitors read-only.
4. current blogs should indicate how many times they've been viewed.
5. somewhere we should have a way to advertise the fact that the ACCU is active in the area of standards organisations.

1. would it be possible to provide access to the Mailman archives through the ACCU website? At it's simplest this would be to have Mailman generate an HTML archive every night
2. synchronise accu-announce with ACCU members from site.

1. at some point it makes sense to move away from MarkLogic to a custom module. I'll put together a proposal for that. I don't see that as an urgent project though, what is there works.