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Workplan for Manitoba Association of Multi-Age Educators
(based on Liz's notes)

Decide on a domain name.

 * [|www.multiagemanitoba.ca]

Register the domain name and select host site (probably same place)
There are lots of options for shared web hosting, but what you'll need in order to run pretty much any wiki / blog / cms software is an account package in UNIX-base (not windows), and gives you php5, mySQL, some sort of admin interface, some storage space. The ability to create cron jobs would be nice too. Examples that offer this, that I've worked with are:
 * tera-byte - [|http://www.tera-byte.com/ shared.php]plan 4U is good - Cost is $122.50 per year.
 * 1and1.com - [|http://order.1and1.com/xml/ order/Hosting]The '1 & 1 business' - Cost is $4.99 for first six months and then $9.99 per month.
 * Dreamhost [|http://www.dreamhost.com/ hosting.html]I haven't used them but have heard lots of good things. Their package looks great and really affordable.

Write the content and approve/sign-off from Board of Directors - use this wiki.

 * plain content pages (descriptions, mission statements, resources, photos) that don't change much, can be added to over time.
 * blog-like content (news pieces, event postings) that are more timely, posted more often by a set group of administrators, and are less needed once they expire.
 * wiki - content is created and edited collaboratively, useful when you want to create relationships between information (like a reference document)
 * Although a slow process and not too exciting it is important to write the content and know what you want on the website, for whom, and why. That will help us decide on the tools. This is what we don't want to happen - []

Create the site and other pages/services - use our domain name - fill with approved content.

 * A **CMS** (wordpress or drupal) would give you the **basic site**, sitting on a **domain** of the organization's choosing. It would handle regular content and blog-like content (news, events). The idea is that this is like a gateway, giving that main landing point for people to find you, and offering the core information.
 * Create a blog (Wordpress.org or Drupal.org) - fill with approved content for homepage. It's a free, open source blog platform; but don't let that deter you, because it can basically act like a content management system (cms). It's easy to use, quick to set up and you can make it look like whatever you want. Since you dont' need any really complex functionality, this would do the trick. You could also use Drupal ([|drupal.org]) which is a more complex, feature-heavy content management system that can do just about anything, but it's a pretty steep learning curve to get working in the beginning.
 * Create other external services like satellites (a wiki on wikispaces, event registration on eventbrite, photo albums on Flickr, google Calendar, networking on Facebook, etc), and just add links to those satellites from your main site.

Publish.

 * Can we create some target deadlines for the next few months so we all know where we are going with the site creation and what stage we are at? See sample timeline... (~posted by Kathy)
 * Establish domain - end of May
 * Create the site (ie. All content added) - mid-June
 * Investigate eventbrite.com re. online registration with other SAGs that are currently using it. - mid-June
 * Is this something that either Leslie or Ian could help out with?
 * Invite feedback from Executive Members - end of July
 * Send out invites to entire membership to view site - end of August
 * **Can we set up a meeting for all 4 of us (Janet, Leslie, Ian and Kathy) to get together to discuss what needs to get done, and who can help out where, in order to get this website up and running this summer? Anytime works for me...June or July, daytime or evening. Let me know what works for all of you. I would have e-mailed you guys but I am currently in the Yukon until June 10th and I don't have anyone's e-mail address on this computer! If you could reply here, that would be wonderful!**
 * **July would be best for me but I am sure I could fit something in during June in an evening, probably next week would be the best week for me - Tuesday or Thursday ~ Leslie**
 * **Any time is good for me as well. Tuesday and Wed. evenings are usually booked when the weather is nice! Perhaps if we meet in July it can be about turning the website over as much of the content is getting written in the collaborative process we are currently experiencing. ~ Janet**
 * Tuesday evening next week seems to work for both Leslie and Ian. Janet, would that be okay for you, too? We could meet at my place so we have access to Internet, if needed. Ian said after 5pm...how about you pick the time, Leslie?

Invite members to the new site.

 * Kathy has invited Executive members to this site and has encouraged them to give us some feedback!
 * Leslie Dent and Ian Walker, two of our Executive members, have volunteered to help manage/maintain our site once it is up and running. They can be key people involved in the decision making of this web site, content, updating, etc.