Outing Perth revisited
Fri, 10 Dec 1999, 05:08 pmGrant Malcolm7 posts in thread
Outing Perth revisited
Fri, 10 Dec 1999, 05:08 pmThree months ago i was emailed by a staff member at Minister Foss' office and asked to provide information about community theatre in western australia. The Minister was looking at setting up a page on his website called Outing Perth that would list theatre and other entertainment around town.
At that stage, an otherwise blank page on the Minister's site, advertised that the page would soon contain information about what was happening around Perth.
It was made clear to me at the time that the Minister was under no obligation to publish any information provided.
A couple of emails later, i had provided links to all the relevant information, including the ITA home page, companies database and what's on details.
I went back to the Minister's website today to see what had happened with Outing Perth.
http://www.wa.gov.au/cabinet/foss/index.html
Draw your own conclusions.
Cheers
Grant
At that stage, an otherwise blank page on the Minister's site, advertised that the page would soon contain information about what was happening around Perth.
It was made clear to me at the time that the Minister was under no obligation to publish any information provided.
A couple of emails later, i had provided links to all the relevant information, including the ITA home page, companies database and what's on details.
I went back to the Minister's website today to see what had happened with Outing Perth.
http://www.wa.gov.au/cabinet/foss/index.html
Draw your own conclusions.
Cheers
Grant
RE: Outing Perth revisited - PS
Mon, 13 Dec 1999, 09:49 amHi Jeff
Jeff Watkins wrote:
-------------------------------
> Correct if I'm wrong Grant ;-) ---
you're right, of course. George is also correct in forseeing some potential issues here.
> The very good thing about the current setup for this Web Site is that most of the
> updating is automatic (in terms of Date Checking etc.) and that visitors are able to
> update information themselves. Takes a certain amount of pressure off Grant in a
> way.
Each page on the site is freshly built from live databases every time someone visits. Every event in the what's on database has an effective "use by" date - the end of the month in which it is being performed. When that date passes, the information is no longer displayed, but is available in the archive should anyone wish to look it up. The database only gets out of date when no fresh information is added. If the database gets out of date, the website starts displaying blank pages!
> If a majority of us are prepared to assist in keeping the site up-to-date, then there
> should be no reason why it should fall "out-of-date."
This is the vital one! There are plenty of examples of web sites where information is drawn from databases and displayed on a web page, but not very many where the community has a direct hand in adding and updating the information.
Maintaining the information is not a task entirely undertaken by either myself or anyone from the ITA office. As practically anyone can add and maintain their own information, the task for the ITA becomes more one of filling the gaps left by people not contributing their details.
With this in mind, negotiations are underway to endeavour to farm out responsibility for maintaining the details on professional productions in WA to another organisation. I don't want to pre-empt what may or may not happen, but it is a body with a strong vested interest in making the information available.
Adding other states to the website will be entirely contingent on there being an expressed need from people within the state. They will need to take responsibility for maintaining their own information. I'm anticipating that the website will default to displaying WA details. People will be able to select a preferred state. Their preference will be remembered the next time they visit.
I know that Stagewhispers magazine has been providing some listings for a few years now. I've been wondering whether they were planning to make these available on their website. Perhaps there's an opportunity for a fruitful partnership here?
Cheers
Grant
Jeff Watkins wrote:
-------------------------------
> Correct if I'm wrong Grant ;-) ---
you're right, of course. George is also correct in forseeing some potential issues here.
> The very good thing about the current setup for this Web Site is that most of the
> updating is automatic (in terms of Date Checking etc.) and that visitors are able to
> update information themselves. Takes a certain amount of pressure off Grant in a
> way.
Each page on the site is freshly built from live databases every time someone visits. Every event in the what's on database has an effective "use by" date - the end of the month in which it is being performed. When that date passes, the information is no longer displayed, but is available in the archive should anyone wish to look it up. The database only gets out of date when no fresh information is added. If the database gets out of date, the website starts displaying blank pages!
> If a majority of us are prepared to assist in keeping the site up-to-date, then there
> should be no reason why it should fall "out-of-date."
This is the vital one! There are plenty of examples of web sites where information is drawn from databases and displayed on a web page, but not very many where the community has a direct hand in adding and updating the information.
Maintaining the information is not a task entirely undertaken by either myself or anyone from the ITA office. As practically anyone can add and maintain their own information, the task for the ITA becomes more one of filling the gaps left by people not contributing their details.
With this in mind, negotiations are underway to endeavour to farm out responsibility for maintaining the details on professional productions in WA to another organisation. I don't want to pre-empt what may or may not happen, but it is a body with a strong vested interest in making the information available.
Adding other states to the website will be entirely contingent on there being an expressed need from people within the state. They will need to take responsibility for maintaining their own information. I'm anticipating that the website will default to displaying WA details. People will be able to select a preferred state. Their preference will be remembered the next time they visit.
I know that Stagewhispers magazine has been providing some listings for a few years now. I've been wondering whether they were planning to make these available on their website. Perhaps there's an opportunity for a fruitful partnership here?
Cheers
Grant