Online Editor Report

The purpose of this report is to update the Officers about our new website, our team, and our approach and get them excited about moving forward.

Goals of this Report

  1. Highlight the solid state of our software development and organizational changes
  2. Obtain feedback on content priorities and workflows
  3. Summarize potential items to bring before the BoG in March

Progress since Allerton 2008

  • Completion of Phase I Development with SixFeetUp
  • Significant migration of existing content
  • Bug fixes, ideas for new features
  • Preparation for launch
  • Brainstorming for new content, organization

Software Development I

Project Management

  • Timeline: Started late May 2008, essentially complete late November 2008
  • Costs: Estimated $54,720, Spent $56,442 (594 hours billed, 21 unbilled)
  • Longer than expected (Graphic Design, Homepage customizations, Paper object)
  • Time and materials contract
  • Total costs (discovery and development) under $60K originally approved by the BoG

Plone content management system (CMS)

  • Open-source, estimated value > $100K out of the box
  • User accounts, access control, roles, workflow, integrated search
  • Standard News, Event, Image, File, Folder, and Collection (Search) objects

Software Development II

SixFeetUp Customizations

  • Graphic design, especially the main homepage
  • Custom Profile, Papers, Awards, Group objects
  • Email obfuscation
  • Documentation
  • SixFeetUp is a great development partner for IT Society (creative, responsive, professional, and altruistic)

Professional Hosting

  • Spruce Goose package from SixFeetUp
  • Easily transfer new developments to production site
  • 1 year contract
  • $318 setup, $119/month
  • SixFeetup very helpful in staging the site for launch
  • SixFeetUp will continue to examine traffic to match the package to our needs

Content Migration

  • Essentially all of the legacy website
  • Transferred Student Committee website
  • Archived ISIT 2007 website
  • Still need to move BoG repository
  • Developing Plone gurus, potential future Online Editors
  • Special thanks to Matthieu Bloch, Jean-Francois Chamberland, and Anand Sarwate

Current State

Discussion I

Launch

  • New site is ready and staged for launch (professional hosting, Pareja integration, Google analytics)
  • O ld site is a pain to maintain
  • I deal to leverage ITA audience

C ontent Priorities

  • News and Events
  • Profiles (like the old "Directory")
  • Committee, Chapter, and Group Web Areas
  • Newsletter
  • Shannon, Plenary, and Distinguished Lectures
  • Dissertations
  • Survey and Tutorial Materials, Graduate Seminar Materials

Discussion II

Organizational Considerations

  • Formalize Online Committee or integrate into "Publications" Committee
  • Appoint 2-3 Associate Online Editors to distribute load and develop volunteers
  • Rethink "announcements" process, e.g., website, mailing list, newsletter
  • Rethink how various committees can leverage the webs and interact with Online Editor(s)

New Features for Development

  • Layout tweaks, user interface accelerations, bug fixes
  • Email integration (mailing lists, email on content updates, etc.)
  • Lecture object (bio, abstract, photo, slides, video)
  • Conference object
  • Automatic paper linking (IEEExplore, arXiv) and discussion
  • LaTeX support for technical documents and discussions

Potential Motions to BoG at CISS 2009

  • Motion to approve the new website (if required)
  • Motion to formalize the Online Committee and appoint Associate Online Editors (2?)
  • Motion to continue with another phase of development (perhaps better for ISIT 2009?)

Web Resources

Acknowledgements

  • Online Committee, especially Matthieu Bloch, Jean-Francois Chamberland, Anand Sarwate
  • SixFeetUp
  • Officers who have helped "ground" us