Joint website coordinator's report for 2006/7

An urgent need

By Jackie Fuller, NLCA joint website coordinator (but with the Web Manager post vacant)

Most of them moved away

Developing a good website for the NLCA has proved to be the least successful so far of the various activities undertaken by the Association over the years. Since it was first recognised that the NLCA needed to have a web presence, we have had no less than five different volunteer web managers, all but one of whom have moved out of North Laine not long after agreeing to take on the web administrator role - we're assuming that there's no connection!

Not updated

Our current site was designed and set up five years ago but has not been updated for more than a year. It has been quite disheartening to have spent time with a series of different volunteer web managers in order to explain the work and structure of the NLCA and our aspirations for developing and maintaining the website, only to have them move out of the area not long after starting work on it.

Updates ready

The current situation is that I have a large folder full of updates and new pages ready to be put on the site but no-one to do it. I do not personally have web skills and so we really do need a volunteer with those skills who would be prepared to contribute some time to the community association as a member of our team by helping us to update the current site. The updates are in a variety of formats, including Word, HTM, PDFs, JPEG etc depending on what the material consists of. Is there anyone out there who is an experienced website manager and who might be able to find the time to do this fairly soon (and who isn't planning to relocate in the near future)?

This is for the short-term and is now very urgent. It assumes that for the time being the overall design and structure of the site remains the same, but at least anyone visiting it would then find up-to-date information and there wouldn't be links which don't actually lead anywhere (as is the case now).

In the longer term

However, in the medium to longer term we need to have a rethink about the site as a whole from three different aspects:

(i) We would like to introduce a more interactive part of the site. There are several ways in which this could be used. For example, the latest information on controversial planning applications or parking proposals etc could be posted and residents could then record their own views and get an online debate going. Another idea is to have a part of the site where residents and former residents could record their memories of how the North Laine used to be. What would be the maintenance implications of this kind of development?

(ii) Is the structure of the rest of the current site still appropriate? For example, should we still aim to provide general information about services etc targeted especially at new residents or should we simply provide an expanded set of links to other general sites which can provide this information (and whose web managers may be able to keep their sites more regularly up to date and relevant  than we can)?

(iii) We also need to rethink the overall design and 'look' of our site, which is now becoming somewhat datead. Over time styles do change and we need to reflect current trends in website design.

NLCA chair to play an active role

I am very pleased to report that over the coming year our chair, Peter Crowhurst, intends to play an active role in planning and progressing actions aimed at achieving the medium to longer-term aspects mentioned above.

A short-term need

But in the meantime can anyone help us at least with the short-term one (with the possible option of being involved in the medium and longer term goals afterwards if interested to do so)? If so, please contact me.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, no185, March/April 2007]

Postcript: THE SITE THAT YOU ARE NOW LOOKING AT IS THE RESULT OF WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE ABOVE REPORT WAS WRITTEN!