ITTS Update

1. ALA Connect (Sheila)

ALA Connect was upgraded from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 version at the end of July. This upgrade paved the way for phase 2, which includes the mentoring network (now available), an opportunities exchange (due end of October), expanding member profiles, and improving member searching capabilities. The opportunities exchange will allow a member to tag their interests in their profile and then Connect will send a notification when new opportunities are posted.

Opportunities include:

a. Assistantships

b. Awards

c. Fellowships

d. Grants

e. Internships

f. Publishing

g. Residencies

h. Scholarships

i. Speaking

j. Volunteer Opportunities

Email subscriptions were streamlined to allow users to select notifications by community or group all from one page. Email frequency options were enhanced, and a ‘temporarily on vacation flag’ was added to suspend communications while you are away.

New Member searching capabilities will be added to allow members to find an ACRL member in IL who likes Gaming.

Sheila then demonstrated the mentoring network showing views of a mentor and a mentee. The mentoring network is an opt-in feature and has a separate MentorConnect profile. There is a feedback area for discussion between the mentor and the mentee. All discussions between the mentor and the mentee are private. Some members have set up a private community in Connect to use other ALA Connect tools to communicate.

2. Quick Tour of Google Statistics (Matt)

The tour was postponed because ITTS ran into problems with the latest upgrade. The upgrade could not be performed without significant down time using our old Google server in its current configuration. A different path is being discussed and further details will be shared once the new plan is worked out.

3. Collage Maintenance Schedule (Sherri)

A proposal went out to all web content developers asking that the last Thursday and Friday of the month be reserved for Collage maintenance. Several web content developers had issues with having lockouts for updating content prior to the beginning of each month. An alternate proposal for the second Thursday and Friday of each month was confirmed. It was also noted that ITTS might not need this time every month and that ITTS will send a notice to all web content developers with details of proposed maintenance when it does occur.

4. Online Handbook (Sheila)

Sheila showed the new display of committee information pages. An example of the new page can be found at Website Advisory Committee information page. The non-member view will show committee name and term, and the member-only version will contain preferred address information. Sheila also gave a quick demonstration of how to create and update this page in Collage.

5. ePetitions Update (Donavan)

Donavan showed the new interface for the new ePetition system. The ePetition application was started as a directive by the ALA Board. Traditionally members used paper to gather signatures manually to petition for leadership positions or to propose a charge. This application presents a method to do so electronically on ALA’s website. The new system will allow members to create new petitions and sign existing petitions online based on their current membership(s). The system is scheduled to launch in a few weeks.

Posted by Sherri under ITTS Update meetings | No Comments »

1. ADP eTime Software (Sheila)

   Because this is browser based, ITTS can’t push out an icon for this. The site will go live in the next day or two.This link from the KM system will *ONLY* work from inside the office. You can’t use it from home.

2. New Security Certificates for ALA websites (Sheila)Will be re-issued on June 18, so you’ll see new prompts to accept these new certificates that use https instead of http.

   Only have to accept the certificate once per browser on any computer you use.

   Certificates apply to the staff wiki, TrackIt help site, and the KM system.

   ITTS will send out a notification on the 18th reminding staff to accept these certificates to gain access to these sites.

   Reminder about a link to the TrackIt help desk is always in the left column of the KM home page.

3. Usability Testing at Annual (Louise)ITTS is doing a series of usability testing focus groups of division pages, the interface for the awards database (if ready), and ALA Connect
4. ALA Connect Update (Jenny)- Email blast to members went out today, and we’re seeing a lot more hits on the site as a result2009 schedule for Connect:
   • June = migrate to Drupal 6
   • July = implement the mentoring network
   • August = implement the opportunities exchange
   • September = implement new search engine
   • October-December = implement new conference event planner for Midwinter 2010

   ITTS has scheduled drop-in Q&As every day at Annual, so tell your members!

   showed some statistics from May, will post new ones to Marginalia this week; 1600+ visits today alone due to the email blast

5. Intro to FriendFeed (Jenny)

   showed FriendFeed, a lifestream aggregator
   - ALA’s account
   - ACRL’s account

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1. ALA Connect Update (Sherri for Jenny)
The site launched April 6, 2009.   Overall the feedback has been positive.
Here are some statistics for ALA Connect for each of the last two weeks, as well as a combined total.
Week 1
———
880 logins, 759 ALA members + 121 non-ALA members
Non-ALA member accounts created: 159
Posts: 78
Online Docs: 93
Calendar Events: 100
Polls/Votes: 11
Discussions: 19
Images: 21

Week 2
———-
708 logins, 636 ALA members + 72 non-ALA members
Non-ALA member accounts created: 82
Posts: 46
Online Docs: 31
Calendar Events: 25
Polls/Votes: 3
Discussions: 13
Images: 3

Total
——-
1588 (1395 ALA members + 193 non-ALA members)
Non-ALA member accounts created: 241
Posts: 124 total
Online Docs: 124 total
Calendar Events: 125 total
Polls/Votes: 14 total
Discussions: 32 total
Images: 24 total

Division, Round Table, & Office web content management communities have been created in ALA Connect.  Please feel free to join them. The easiest way to find then is to search on the term “web” once you are in ALA Connect. (Louise)

ALA Connect Phase II (Sherri for Jenny)
We need to upgrade to Drupal 6 to improve the search engine and add other enhancements.
Phase II will include an advanced search for members, a Craig’s List-like exchange, a mentoring network, and an online Curriculum Vitae.
5. Web Services Health Check (Sherri)
ITTS has selected a Chicago-based company, Pathfinder Development, to perform the web services health check.  We are in the process of negotiating the master service agreement and the statement of work.  We plan to get this underway as soon as possible.

6. Trackit Update (Irene)

ITTS is a little behind in the implementation of Trackit so we extended the deadline to end use of the helpdesk@ala.org email address for staff.  ITTS will send out an email to notify staff when helpdesk.ala.org is no longer available to staff.  Members will still be able to reach us at helpdesk@ala.org.
Staff can start using http://help.ala.org if they’re not already using it
your login is your FirstInitialLastName (eg, jlevine)
contact Sheila for your password if you’ve never used Trackit before
7. Postini Implementation
Postini will become our new email transfer agent.  The agent will filter out messaging threats, including spam and viruses, before they reach our network. By routing inbound and outbound email through their data centers, we can activate robust security policies that will keep our organization secure and compliant.  This also reduces our inbound bandwidth needs by stopping the unwanted email before it reaches our network.  Staff will be able to log on to the Postini site to look at your Spam.  ITTS has one more piece to implement before we go live.  This piece will synchronize our address books so that email can be properly routed to either our email provider or our Sympa list server.

Microsoft Office 2007 Rollout (Sherri and Sheila)
ITTS has rolled out Office 2007 to Publishing and is about to contact the rest of the units to see if they are ready to move ahead.  Sheila is working on some basic documentation that explains what the differences are between 2003 and 2007.  Sheila demonstrated some of the differences.

PC/Laptop Rollout
ITTS is planning to lease the next batch of PC and laptops and will begin the rollout once the equipment is configured.

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1. Explanation of ALA Connect privacy settings (Jenny)
Jenny did a demo of the new privacy options for members in ALA Connect
this includes the ability to hide community, division, round table, and section affiliations, but not committees

2. Demonstration of new release of Trackit help desk software (Sheila)
ITTS is going to end use of the helpdesk@ala.org email address for staff on April 8
support requests after that time need to be submitted via Trackit
staff can start using http://help.ala.org if they’re not already using it
your login is your FirstInitialLastName (eg, jlevine)
contact Sheila for your password if you’ve never used Trackit before

feedback@ala.org isn’t going through here
can still call 3273 if you’re computer or internet access is down
this site isn’t open to members – helpdesk@ala.org is only going away for staff use, not members
ITTS is discussing ways to monitor Trackit during holidays

discussion of way to just notify about a potential problem, rather than fill out a full report
ITTS will implement that type of feature in Trackit

3. Brief demonstration on how to schedule meeting rooms in Outlook (Sheila)
Sheila did a demo of how to book meeting rooms and resources in Outlook
this is how you can book a meeting room now, although you need to contact Alicia to actually book the executive conference rooms on the 2nd floor
contact Sheila or Louise to book the training room

there’s a bug that doesn’t show “all day meetings” as “busy,” so you’re better off picking specific times (like 9-5)

Posted by Jenny under ITTS Update meetings | 1 Comment »

1. Website

• Web Services Health Check (Sherri)
  ITTS circulated an RFP to diagnose and fix sporadic reports of problem with web-based services
  we’ve been unable to replicate the problem to date, so we’re having issues troubleshooting it
• Web Tag Team Initiative (Louise)
  introduced Sheila Joy, ITTS’ new trainer (the new Louise!)
  Web Tag Team is looking at those pages on the site that have nothing tagged to them – in other words, no content
  they’ll be going through the site and tagging things they think should appear under those subject headings
  will contact web managers when they want to add a tag to a page
  more should start appearing under those pages
  will have to discuss adding new content to the page if none existsquestion: can we send the report of pages with no content around to the unit managers?
  answer: yes, although we’ll probably put it on the share drive

2. ALA Connect Update (Jenny)
we’re still scheduled to soft launch in March and launch officially in April
have a number of volunteer groups for the soft launch
one more staff Q&A session Wednesday afternoon, although we may do a few more in March leading up to the launch

3. E-petition application (Donavan)
Board wanted this for this year’s election
we’ve tried to create something all units can use so need everyone to provide feedback
works a lot like the committee volunteer applications (public and staff sides) with flexible options

4. Second Life (Donavan)
the three staff members most involved in Second Life can’t really initiate anything for National Library Week
need input, initiative, and hopefully volunteers from the divisions and offices
putting on symposia, working with an Emerging Leaders team on an in-world event, continuing to put up videos and podcasts from Midwinter, have a Twitter feed
testing a live streaming capability
gaining confidence in our ability to use this as an enhancement for presenting programs, especially given how tight budgets are
let Donavan or Tina know if you have anything on your sites you want to re-purpose into SL

5. Blogs and Wikis Migration (Matt)
see the email that went out to all staff yesterday
Matt will migrate all blogs this weekend
contact him if you have questions or if you don’t need your blog moved so that he can delete it

6. Midwinter Twitter Presentation (Jenny)
Jenny did an overview of things said about ALA on Twitter and tweets from the Midwinter Meeting

7. Keeping up with developments

Blog w/RSS Feed – http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wiki – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage

8. Q&A

None this time

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1. ALA Website (Louise)

ALA will be conducting three focus groups for the website at Midwinter
only have 24-30 slots and they are filling up
going to also do some remote online sessions with members, too
- want this to be an ongoing process

Accessibility review
had them do 15 different pages on the site and we did not do well
had them test to the Web Accessibility Guidelines, level 2
places we failed include if you’re doing multimedia content, you must have a transcript, even if you offer captioning
have many global changes we have to make

in February, we will begin group webmaster meetings broken out by like units

will move to a serif typeface
discussion of how to make links easily identifiable without forcing the user to mouse over text looking for them

RSS is now easier to both implement and display in Collage
contact Louise if you have questions about this

2. ALA Connect (Jenny)

beta testing for Connect started last week and will continue through the end of the month
five groups are doing the testing, as one has dropped out
if you know of an ALA group that would like to join the beta test, please contact Jenny

when this round of testing closes, we’ll go over the feedback and start making changes in February
when we do the soft launch will depend on how many changes we need to make
the hope is to spend the first few weeks of February tweaking and fixing in order to open the soft launch in late February/early March
from there, we’ll see how well the site scales and when we’re confident it can handle the load, we’ll do an official launch with PR
we hope this will be in March, but the timeline is completely dependent on getting things right after the beta test period ends

3. Hosted web services (Matt)

Dreamhost has changed the way one-click installs work
only the main account holder can do them now because of a security change Dreamhost made
the two options are to have Matt install a database and the unit can then do the one-click install, or to just have Matt create the database and do the install
it’s probably easier to just have Matt do it
still discussing this with Dreamhost to see if we can get this setting changed back

Blog and wiki migrations
resuming the blogs and wikis migration that slowed down over the holiday break
however, we won’t move anything until after Midwinter
Matt will contact each unit individually to work with them to set up redirects and go through any other issues with the wikis

in mid-February, Matt will do a mass migration of all of the blogs still on the old b2evolution software
logins, passwords, and skins/templates won’t migrate, but content will (posts, comments, etc.)
he’ll pick one template for everyone and do the migration

4.  Second Life (Donavan)

there’s a report about what we did in SL for Banned Books Week last fall
have a fairly large agenda for Midwinter for following what’s happening
YALSA now has a “playground” they’ll be debuting there on the Friday of Midwinter, along with some publications
there will be COGnotes and AL Direct stands
on Friday, we’ll be having a Privacy Revolution party
on Saturday, we’ll be covering Librarian of the Year award
doing some simulcasting of member group meetings
will be showing some slides of Guide to Reference in-world
hope to have some info about the awards presentations and have a book award party
plus much more

there are about 1200 self-identified librarians in SL
trying to find ways to interact with them in SL

this is a significant jump from anything we did at ALA conferences last year, and it’s taking less intensive staff resources this time

5. Five Minute Guide to Twitter (Jenny)

Jenny did a quick briefing on what Twitter is, how people (and organizations) use it, and some of the benefits
takeaways include the ability to respond quickly; broadcast to one, a specific group, or many; and the real communities growing there
ALA has a few Twitter accounts already: ALA Annual, ALA Midwinter, OIF’s Privacy Revolution, YALSA, and the Youth Media Awards.

6. Keeping up with developments

Blog w/RSS Feed – http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage; http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

7. Q&A

None this time

Posted by Jenny under ALA Website & ALAConnect & Blogs & Wikis & ITTS Update meetings & Second Life | No Comments »

1. Website (Louise)

Critical things you need to know about:

a. You need to fill out the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) metadata fields because they are now required; if you get an error message on check-in about a required field not being filled out, it’s probably a metadata field

question – we can use phrases, too?
answer – yes, just separate them by commas

need congruency between the metadata title field and the actual title field – they have to match for the alphabetization to work properly on the listings pages

b.  Some listing pages are still blank (eg, “Government Documents,” even though we have a whole Round Table devoted to this topic) and need content. Karen Muller will tag the things she knows are applicable, but it’s going to take a coordinated effort – everyone needs to pitch in to the areas that are relevant to them, because if we don’t add the content, we need to take down the aggregated pages.

c. We’re seeing some problems with Firefox 3 – Collage won’t let you upload anything (images, etc.). We also think we’re having transaction problems on the site with FF3, so if you receive a complaint, please ask the user if they are using this version of the browser. We’re trying to determine if we have a systematic “superbrowser compatability problem” or if it’s an isolated issue.

Please help us track this issue and let us know when you hear about problems with slow pages, authentication issues, etc.

2. Web Editorial Board (Louise)

Louise noted a handout about the purpose of the Web Editorial Board Tag Team, a group that has rights to the entire site and can make quick fixes without requiring permissions first. These are considered “Tier 1″ changes, and the Team will always communicate changes to the owning unit, even if it’s afterwards. The charge empowers the team to handle these types of issues.

Tier 2 fixes will have the Tag Team contacting the owning unit before making the suggested changes.

Tier 3 would be things the Team discusses with you and you then change.

The approach will be an ad-hoc one, although we may split up the work to handle specific sections of the site.

If you have questions about any of this, contact Louise or Karen Muller.

3. ALA Connect (Jenny)

Jenny showed the prototype, pre-alpha testing site for ALA Connect to give staff a sense of how the site functions

4. Keeping up with developments (Sherri)

Blog w/RSS Feed – http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage  ;  http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

5. Q&A / Wrap up

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1. Website Redesign/IA Rollout (Sherri and Karen)

the website is a work in progress
we’ve been focusing on stability issues with the ActiveMatter server (forms, ecommerce transactions, etc.)
- updated the Access databases to Microsoft SQL databases, restricted access to a small number of IP addresses to help address this issue
- this also let us restrict search engines from indexing old content
- got rid of tagged pages from the old ActiveMatter server

we’re in the process of upgrading to a new server with more disk space and a faster processor
- hope to have that done in the next week

working with Duo on tagged content displays, division news feeds, and RSS feeds on the home page

a few weeks ago, a few of us met with Michael Stephens, the current chair of the Web Advisory Committee and came up with two objectives for the site
- for current information (this requires a systematically consistent approach for tagging, etc.)
- a marketing tool

the Web Editorial Board will try to lead several initiatives in these areas
- encouraging staff with web responsibilities to add keeping the site current as a goal on their evaluations
- need some quality control to achieve this; will allow us to set goals (”get your shadow assets down 10% from where it is today,” etc.)
- revamping the Web Editorial Board into two separate teams
- “tag team” – will review the site structure, will consult with offices on restructuring content; create standards; review and finalize the web style guide; examining the website to determine to what extent it should be used as an archive; examining advantages and disadvantages of decentralized site management; tagging items for listing pages; checking for ALT text on images; proper page headlines; use of transcripts for audio and video files; procedural documentation; etc.
- “communications impact team” – encourage use of images, pods, etc.; consulting with units to develop individual areas of the site for maximum effect; optimizing pages; accessibility issues

the Web Editorial Board is going to expand and add more members

2. ALA Connect (Jenny)

just got back from vacation yesterday so hasn’t had a chance to check in with the development site to see recent changes made to the functionality
Urban Insight has successfully imported the active committees from iMIS and categorized them into “communities” (currently divisions), “committees,” and “events”
hope to have a demo to show on November 18, as we are hoping to alpha test in November and beta test in December for a roll out before Midwinter in January

3. Wiki Migration (Matt)

all wikis currently hosted at wikis.ala.org will be moved to Dreamhost domains because the wikis.ala.org server was never really intended to house these applications
Matt will be able to migrate 6-8 wikis each week without requiring the wiki owners to do anything
he’ll send out a message about this today or tomorrow
he’ll change nothing about your wiki, other than the beginnings of the URL (”wikis.ala.org/acrlwiki” will become something like “acrl.ala.org/acrlwiki” in the domain unless you specify otherwise) – basically, “wikis” just becomes your acronym

migrating the wikis to Dreamhost has some other benefits, including the addition of an audio captcha for spam control

all of this will happen over the next 4-5 weeks, and Matt will notify you when this is happening for your site
while your wiki is migrated, it will be down for 1-2 hours

everything in your current wiki will get migrated, including content, users, blocked users, images, files, etc.

4. Virtual Private Hosting (Matt)

if you already have blogs, wikis, or Moodle on Dreamhost, you may have noticed that it slows down from time-to-time
but earlier this month, we upgraded to “virtual private hosting” service, which means we’re now paying a monthly fee for reserved processor time and more importantly, memory

this means we’ll no longer be throttled back when other users overload the server, so speed and response time should improve dramatically and should be more consistent
we also have no maximum ceiling now, as our usage is burstable

if you do encounter problems, let Matt know right away because he has more options for troubleshooting now (such as rebooting our virtual server)

Moodle chat now works (insofar as Moodle chat works)

Matt also noted that when you use FTP on Dreamhost, make sure you’re using your domain name (eg, rusa.ala.org), rather than a server name

5. Meeting room resources in Outlook (Sherri)

coming soon – we’ll be implementing the ability to book meeting rooms in Outlook
just have to get this set up and will then send out a tech tip about it

6. Keeping up with developments
Blog w/RSS Feed – http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage; http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & Blogs & Wikis & ITTS Update meetings & Online Communities & Web Editorial Board & Web Planning | No Comments »

1. Web

* Website Redesign – http://staging.ala.org/preview (Karen)
Change in where you’ll post information to within the website
Might not be “under your office” by default anymore – might be where it best fits by topic
Membership units vs. organizational units – organizational units might have reduced number of pages under “their” section; instead, content from all units will get mashed together by topic
Showed “contact us” as one new, revamped area

Toured the various left-hand navigation menus and explained what is now in each of them (eg, scholarships are now in “education,” not “awards”)

Have broken the news up into 3 main categories
- National/International Views – regular news from American Libraries
- Inside ALA = our press releases
- Legislation & Advocacy

* Knowledge Management System (Karen)

The KM system has a new look!
Toured the new interface
Showed list of magazines checked in today
Showed how you can search databases without having to log in to each one
Site now shows a tag cloud of resources the Library is bookmarking in del.icio.us

* Website Redesign (Rob and Louise)
Some of the new IA is going to be created by staff tagging via a new tagging system
The tagging matches the IA exactly – it’s only available on “ALA live” document type
Showed how to tag items in Collage
Question about rolling up an ACRL event up to Upcoming ALA Events – will check on that
Division sites may become smaller as their resources are located in more main areas
If a division uses this, the page will appear branded elsewhere in the site, not just within the division’s pages

* New Google Search Features (Rob)
Just before Annual, Rob installed some code behind the search box on the home page of the preview ONLY
Google Search Appliance doesn’t do pagerank, so we’ve been working with a consultant to improve the SERP – Search Engine Results Page
First hit (if available) will be an “ALA suggestion” that we configure (example, Newbery)
We can put in any number of these
Next set of hits will be “results from Google” that do use pagerank because the search is run from the big Google search engine; set is limited to ala.org hits
Last section is results from content on our server, which has been cleaned up considerably
- this content is more granular; it just doesn’t have the same sheen of authority that Google or the direct keyword match give it
This customized SERP will eventually be the default for every results page
Have the ability to customize sections for searching and to brand search results for divisions/units
Still have to work with the consultant on including search results from blogs and wikis

Will present two options for implementing the redesign at the unit manager’s meeting tomorrow; decision will be noted in the meeting minutes

** Note that the decision was made to freeze the site for 30 days to do the migration
** Watch for more details about this here on the blog

2. Association 2.0

* Online Communities Update (Jenny)
not much to report yet but work is continuing
Drupal has been installed for about a month, and Urban Insight is installing modules and implementing the interface
work is beginning on the iMIS authentication
the response at Annual was very positive – many members are looking forward to using the new service
Jenny will be doing a task analysis for each module/tool and will post the steps to this blog – please have your committees provide feedback on these! thank you

* New Capabilities (Matt)
Matt will be providing instructions soon for how to migrate your b2e blog or wiki from the ALA server to Dreamhost

* Demo of how to use OPAL (Sherri and Jenny)
Sherri and Jenny logged into an OPAL room with member Aaron Dobbs
Sherri spoke with Aaron via voice over IP through the computer while Jenny communicated with Aaron via a text chat window

ALA has 4 OPAL rooms available for staff and members to use – 2 rooms with 25 seats each, 1 with 50 seats, and 1 with 100 seats
ALA staff and/or members can use these for meetings, discussions, presentations, and other ALA-related activities for free right now
members can reserve a room by contacting their staff liaisons

Louise sent out documentation for how to book these rooms in Outlook back in March and they are loaded in the KM systemOPAL offers text chat with the option to save the transcript, co-browsing, audio discussions, a whiteboard, and uploading of files for a meeting
the audio portion can be saved to your desktop as an MP3 file you can then post to a blog as a podcast
- or you can post the audio file to a web page so others can download or listen to it (this is not called a “podcast,” though)

you can password-protect a room for private discussions
you can have one way audio for just the presenter

staff are encouraged to purchase a headset to use with OPAL if they are going to use it more than once or twice, as it’s much easier to hear and be heard this way
headsets are not very expensive and can be purchased for around $25 – Maribeth has information if you’re interested

3. Keeping up with developments (Sherri)
Blog w/RSS Feed - http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis – http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage ; http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

4. Q&A / Wrap-Up
No questions at the end this time

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & IA Implementation on Website & ITTS Update meetings & KMS & Online Communities & Web Planning & Website Search | No Comments »

1. Enhancements to current services (Sherri)
* Outlook migration
Down to just a few people left
Louise will do training on the calendaring function in March
Reminder you can schedule meetings in Outlook without having to share calendars
Louise discussed two levels of access for sharing calendars: full access (includes) editing, viewing only capabilities; can schedule meetings without sharing calendars
Can also create a group calendar within Outlook, all without having to display any details about individual appointments
Working on feature to allow meeting room booking via Outlook

* New GiveALA form
Showed new version of the form
Also includes a printable version
New online version charges the user’s credit card automatically and puts record in iMIS automatically
“Eye” icon on the form gives you more info about the individual fund for that donation
Can also add categories, including divisions (working with the Development Office to do this)
Also handles paying pledges

Question: where is contact information if someone wants to ask a question?
Answer: Development Office info is on the main GiveALA page

2. Web issues (Rob)
* Donavan Vicha has joined ITTS

* Collage implementation
Kudos to ALSC for their work on the most painless migration yet
All of the divisions are now live in Collage
Since Midwinter, we’ve had an issue importing files, but have an open ticket on the issue with Serena and are pushing to have this fixed
Working on a plan to pull all of the remaining units over en masse; 85% of the ActiveMatter site is live in Collage
Have to put an end to this endless migration! Have to just migrate the last of it and then clean up any problems
Have a couple of roundtables that will go live and then will do everyone else at once

* Next steps
UserWorks is currently reviewing the comments on the final graphic design and they will have a report for us next week; most are highly positive, and the ones that aren’t tend to be helpful, a few are just snarky and not helpful

Last big push is to get the information architecture survey online so that we can then push on combining the IA and the design

Question: is the design template still up somewhere?
Answer: no, but we can probably get a copy of the files

3. New Capabilities
* Intro to Dreamhost services (Matt)
(See Matt’s slides here for the “easier to read” version)
New hosting service is called “Dreamhost” (name of the company)
Problems we were trying to solve
- Limited applications
- Limited flexibility
- Limited to b2evolution and a shared installation of Mediawiki
Advantages to the new hosting service
- Move certain more open, interactive services offsite
- Provide more flexibility and control to units and member volunteers
- More nimble software installation, customization, and upgrade
- Wider range of software options
- Scalability
Dreamhost gives us
- A lot of disk space and bandwidth that allows hosting of file uploads, podcasts, and video
- Automated installs and upgrades for a range of free, open source packages
- With some minor limitations, freedom to install and run a wide range of LAMP applications
- Optional scalability (for cost)
Other Dreamhost advantages
- Isolation of services on a per domain/per unit basis
- Ability to give out a range of powers and privileges to meet unit needs: application admin, ftp/shell access, or full blown Dreamhost panel control (more on this at next month’s meeting)
How to get started
Email helpdesk, not Matt
- Let us know what application you’d like to install (wiki, blog, bulletin board, etc.)
- Tell us where on the web you would like it to appear (http://yourdomain.ala.org/direction)
- If requesting a wiki, include the wiki security levels
Important data points
ALA staff member must request an application (just like with Sympa)
Application admin passwords should be changed and carefully guarded
Attend a wiki workshop

Question: is there an automated conversion process for migrating blogs and wikis to Dreamhost?
Answer: automated, not yet, but working on it; for wikis, have to export tables and then import them into the new location

Question: so URLs will change? What happens if someone clicks on links to our posts?
Answer: links would take them back to the old blog; can choose to leave old content there; URLs won’t translate from b2e to Wordpress

Question: timeframe for migration?
Answer: on an ad-hoc basis based on requests from units/divisions because ITTS can’t just arbitrarily move all of the content since URLs and skins will change

Note that if you have a Wordpress blog that Matt set up for you, it’s already on Dreamhost

Question: have you heard of Semantic Wiki and can we use it?
Answer: we have no exposure to it, but almost anything can be installed offsite; becomes a matter of priorities and resources to install software for one unit

Question: will past blog entries be migrated?
Answer: they can be using a special skin on b2e that lets you grab all of the text of your content, which you can then import into Wordpress

* Sympa upgrade (Rob)
Getting close – end of the month
Have a significantly improved landing page as a result
Someone (probably Rob) is going to have to go into the software and assign a category to every list
We have more than 1,000 lists, but only about 400-450 display on the “view all lists” page because the owners don’t make them visible
“view all lists” and the search box will be at the top of the page, with options for browsing by unit below these
Have freed up services on the Sympa server, too, so performance should improve

Question: if we want to have a read-only list with subscribers, will it be easier in Sympa? (members have asked for this)
Answer: yes, definitely; can also make your archives publicly viewable, which is another way for folks to follow the posts

Question: do “closed” lists show?
Answer: well, there’s “open” and “closed” and “visible” and “invisible” and it all depends on how the owner configured it; we’ll have to help our users understand what all of these terms mean

* Instant messaging (Jenny)
while IM was prohibited in the past, it no longer is
ITTS can install software for you, but suggested that staff might want to try using Meebo instead since it’s web-based and can be easier to use
just sign up for a free IM account with one of the big services (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, etc.) and then log in to Meebo using that info

4. Association 2.0 (Jenny)
* Online Communities
ITTS issued a RFP last week, with responses due yesterday; we received five proposals with a possible sixth one on the way
Will go through them this week and select a vendor fairly quickly
Dates have slipped a little because of the RFP, but still hoping to beta test in late March or early April
Target is still to have first phase live is still Annual

Question: will we be connecting the new Communities to iMIS
Answer: that is certainly the intent; the question is how, but there is a whole Drupal community dedicated to figuring out that connection, so it’s not just us working on this

Question: are web edits of information being synchronized back into iMIS? is this working now?
Answer: yes

* ALA Staff wiki – http://wikis.ala.org/alastaff/
we are currently locking down the staff wiki so that only staff can view and edit it
slight delay while we connect the wiki’s authentication system with our network so that staff can just use their network logins and passwords (instead of creating new ones) – should be done this week
once done, staff should feel free to post whatever they want there

ITTS has moved the publicly-oriented tech support help for blogs, wikis, podcasting, etc. to a new Tech Support wiki at http://techsupport.ala.org/
will be fleshing this out more in the coming months

Questions: how do we get to all of the staff wikis?
Answer: there is a link to the staff wiki in the lefthand navigation of the KM system; from there, we can create a cheat sheet on the staff wiki that links to any others

Question: how do we clean people up off the network and remove their logins?
Answer: send a request to helpdesk and we’ll take care of it

* ALA Universe page – http://netvibes.com/ala
if you want to try to stay current with what’s happening with ALA overall, feel free to visit the ALA Universe page that updates automatically
you can also create a free account on this site and customize this page to also show your unit/division’s blog(s) or wiki(s)

5. Training (Louise)
* iMIS
Will be adding iMIS refreshers for the Handbook process; will not make them mandatory in order to get your Handbook pages in
Documents are in the KM but will post them from the wikis, too
Trying to find a way to make it easier to search the KM system for them by file type

* Collage
“Collage-a-Rama” fest – all Collage, all the time training at some point in the near future
Learning Collage wiki has been revamped (http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage/) and should be easier to use
Louise will send out a request to the Collage information list asking people to let her know what they’d like to see added to the site

Noted the need for instructions on how to ftp and add logo for wikis on Dreamhost

6. Next meeting: April 1, 2008 (no fooling!) in the Carnegie Room
Don’t forget you can track news from ITTS on our blog, which has just moved to http://itts.ala.org/update/

Posted by Jenny under ITTS Update meetings | No Comments »