Chris Cant, 22 September 2010
Here are some ideas, some not necessarily being implemented immediately.
Overview
The idea is to provide more (interactive) space to publicise our activities and record events: to encourage new members, help existing members, and aid/document the actions and projects we undertake.
The site would keep the current friendly look with quite a few pictures.
Power to the people
I think that it is important to encourage people to contribute to the web site, ie to take control in the same way that action groups do a lot of the activity of PACT, eg
Action group facilitators would put the agenda and minutes for their group online (in a blog?) Ditto for the steering group secretary.
Project leaders would be able to add pages, photos, blog entries etc for their project
To make this happen it is important that members are encouraged to have a go, and training sessions are provided.
To make this happen, the site must be easy to use and update. For some people, doing stuff online may be a new way of working.
Concrete Aims
Publicise PACT, each action group and each project
For specific projects, show the plan, progress and delivered items.
Internal document storage
Calendar, both for past and future events: Could be used as a green diary for all Penrith/Eden. Aggregate events RSS feeds from other groups.
Have lots of content but be fun and easy to use.
Members can register at the site and log in to take part in discussions. Permitted members can add info to the site, eg action group facilitators.
Provide Comment and Share on Twitter etc options.
Provide options to join online and buy PACT calendar
Have logo for each action group.
Admin filing system
Michael has written up his ideas on what PACT admin files there are and how they should be categorised.
I'm aiming to capture many of his ideas in the basic design of the site. The site will be extensible to add new “folders” and “tags” to store and categorise any information.
People need to start saving any new information on the web site, and ideally store old files.
Web site categorisation
One aim to is tag all (or most) content, eg with one or more of the following: action group name, project name, grant, etc.
Where possible, items should be given a date, so a date-ordered list of items can be seen.
Each calendar event may have one of more tags, eg area, target
audience.
Events may be set up as repeating, eg every Monday, or
every 1st Monday on the month.
Standard holidays will
also be shown.
Access restrictions
Most of the site will be visible to all visitors. (Some sections will be aimed at casual viewers – while other areas, eg filed minutes, will be there “for the record”.)
Other areas of the site will be restricted so that they are only visible to appropriate users.
All registered users will be able to add an event to the calendar; these will be moderated before showing.
The site will also have edit permissions given to certain people, eg action group or project leaders, so they can update page content and add pages.
How it will really look!
In the following, some info will be visible in multiple places.
Possible menu structure, with any sub-menu able to contain one or more pages:
Home page: see below
Groups
Buildings and Energy
Education
Energy Descent Action Plan
Food
Resources and Waste
Steering Group
Projects
Community Ovens
Plastic bag free Penrith
Story Giants of Eden: info page(s), blog, films, photos and press releases.
Project ideas: drawn in from groups
Events list
News list
PACT
About us
About Penrith
About Transition
How to run an event
Documents
Formal: constitution, policies
Grants: public info
confidential info
Agenda / minutes
Action point store
Business plan
Connect
Films
Photos
Forums
Blogs
Resources
Ideas
Motivations
Links
Organisation development sources
Annual task and event list
Repeating event list
Assets
Contact: general, specific action group or project
Home page
Big “month calendar” showing forthcoming events (and also past events/actions).
List of latest news.
Highlighted summary of forthcoming events.
?Tag cloud: clickable tag links to show all entries for that tag
PACT 2 years on film.
Other pages
Other “pages” can consist of:
any text and pictures
a list of files etc, sorted alphabetically or by date, group by tag
Blog or blog entry
Forum or forum post
Aim to have every item linked to a date.
Other Ideas
Mailing list of each group (even for people who aren't users)
Log volunteer hours, by tag
Facebook login
CRM
List current financial position, inc budget areas.
The web site can restrict access to certain pages to specifically authorised users. This could be used to have a private working area, eg for action group members or project grant documents.
Dynamic menu system, eg switch to tag or year/month menu
Technology
Drupal CMS
Google Apps email
Me: What's the best was to add stuff so it appears in calendar and in the right place. (Blog/filefield/etc)