Since sometime this summer there has been discussion now and again about the Borough web site.
Most recently, Mayor Keller noted that the Borough was working with a teacher at the NASD to revise/update the Borough site. Visiting today I did see that the snow emergency information replaced the fall update, but the Council page still read 2006, committee assignments weren't updated, the calendar only has information for January, and most pages had little to no information.
A reader sent an email asking why I didn't include Upper Nazareth in my hot links. Frankly I couldn't recall. When I looked I found that Upper Nazareth doesn't appear to have a web site. Another reader confirmed this and noted it had been discussed at the Supervisors' meeting and that there was money allocated to the project.
Since the Borough and the Township are both looking for a web solution and they both will have very similar if not identical needs from the site, this would be a great opportunity to work together to develop a site structure that each could customize with their own skin and copy.
Having recently been through a torturous web development project (that ended well I'll add), I'd be more than happy to help at the very least offer insight into areas of opportunity and pitfalls based on my experience. I'm sure there are others who could help as well. Mostly I'd suggest they have a firm and complete understanding of their business requirements before engaging a developer.
The biggest cost is development, by sharing this expense both communities could get more for their money and provide a great service to the residents.
4 comments:
I would start, a by hiring a consultant, to manage the effort for the borough and township. A consultant can capture the ideas of the supervisors and what they would like and need from a web site and the consultant can work with firms on technological solutions.
I would also add that this can be done fast and easy by getting a free content management system. Personally, I have setup Plone and have found it to be very easy from an install, maintence and usability standpoint. The consultant and support firms should be employeed in a fixed fee method as this is a very simple task. I would not suggest any organization pay for a web site from scratch. It wouldn't take much more than a web savy high schooler to customize plone or any CMS.
I developed my company's website using Microsoft FrontPage. Instead of learning how to use the design aspects of the program, I did a Google search for "FrontPage Templates". There are many different web developers who designed layouts for other costumers (including java, graphics, color palettes, etc.) that offer to sell you the design for a nominal fee. I paid $40 and downloaded the design into FrontPage. All I had to do then was just insert my text and upload it to my website. All in all, I only have about 10 hours into my website, although I had the content (text) already prepared in Microsoft Word.
I personally think the borough and the township should get some students or class project to prepare.
The project I referenced eventually used plone and zope. I too found the publishing system easy to use. As an open source product there is no license and the best aspect is once it is developed, individuals within the borough could easily make updates themselves (pending admin roles).
The Township can't even hold a public meeting properly and you would suggest that they assemble a public website?
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