<<chuckles and more plugs>>

My chapter site is CMS managed as well, using Coldfusion, and we too are
willing to take on more chapters. One major SAI chapter will be adopting our
software, which does Chapter Management stuff as below. Feel free to contact
Fred Kingsbury at Fred Kingsbury (fkingsbury@...) We will shortly
be compiling a video that we can send.

To all: CMS is the way to go. It enables the chapter web site to perform up
to the max, with team work. With CMS, your site can become a busy hive of
people updating and visiting.

For those of you who might be wondering about CMS, this is a software
approach to building your site. You don't need local software like
Dreamweaver or FrontPage to build your site, so the chapter does not have to
buy additional software for the webmaster. The software is on the server, so
if your webmaster(s) "disappears" for any reason, the site lives on. The
team all use the same software, which is web-based, so it is easy to
maintain. Instead of filtering all information through one webmaster, the
information management is performed by the same people who are responsible
for that information. Like all good web-based systems, you still get a lot
of flexibility to maintain your site, with your graphics, your logos, etc.
You do the customizing to your taste. Once you determine the basic design
specs, you get a consistent look throughout your site.

So.... it is worth looking into! BTW You may find that the cost is much less
than you think, and less than buying multiple copies of local software for
site managers.

8-)


-----Original Message-----
From: BbshopWebGuild@yahoogroups.com [mailto:BbshopWebGuild@yahoogroups.com]

Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2005 5:58 AM
To: BbshopWebGuild@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [BbshopWebGuild] Digest Number 204


There are 2 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. Another shameless plug... Thinking of updating your chapter
website?
From: "Anderson, Taylor" <andersot@...>
2. "Content Feeds" (RSS)
From: "Anderson, Taylor" <andersot@...>


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 08:51:07 -0800
From: "Anderson, Taylor" <andersot@...>
Subject: Another shameless plug... Thinking of updating your chapter
website?


<shameless_plug>

If there are other chapters out there thinking about "updating" their
sites, please feel free to post your Request for Proposal to this list.


There are several of us out here who already help maintain multiple BHS
chapter websites (at very reasonable rates), and could easily take on
another.

I always go through an extensive discussion process with each chapter to
determine the site direction and the look-and-feel each chapter wants to
portray to their members, fans, patrons, and potential customers.

The Masters of Harmony (California) and Heralds of Harmony (Florida)
sites both use the PHP back-end I wrote specifically for managing BHS
chapter websites. The front-end display can be easily customized to
match the look-and-feel of your current chapter marketing materials, of
course.

http://www.mastersofharmony.org
http://www.heraldsofharmony.org


Features for the "Site Admins" include (so far):

Password-protected chapter site "admin area"
Browser-based Content Management System (CMS)
WYSIWYG editing of articles
Photo uploading with no FTP required Browser-based administration
of chapter roster/assignments
WYSIWYG editing of all member info
Photo uploading with no FTP required All databases administered
through easy-to-use browser forms
(no SQL knowledge required)
Browser-based admin of all mailing lists and discussion groups
(with no banner ads... These are YOUR lists.) Membership status
reports Download tracking reports for royalties reporting

...and individual site areas can securely be administered by different
individuals using the current "division of labor" in your chapter.


Features on the "public" side include (so far):

CMS-driven articles and show reviews
CMS-driven dynamic RSS feeds
CMS-driven public FAQs
Pages where visitors can sign up for mailing lists Pages where visitors
can leave comments or complaints Patron e-mail mailing lists Public
photo galleries CD sales with audio clip previews Site Search Public
newsletter archives Automatically rotating image content displayed on
pages ...and pretty much any other content you've got. :-)


Features on the "members only" side include (so far):

"Members Only" area protected by individual passwords Database-driven
Chapter Roster
individual contact info
member photos
member bios
Dynamically generated chapter photo rosters
by voice part
by membership status
with formatting options
Database-driven Chapter Assignments database
(automatically cross linked with Chapter Roster) Learning Music
Library
(mp3s, pdfs, Finale, etc.)
Rehearsal Videos
Multiple Activity Calendars
(displayed combined and/or separately) Newsletter Archives Members
Only photo gallery
(Separate from the public gallery)
CMS-driven Members Only FAQs
Members Only bulletin board message area File upload areas for chapter
programs
Singing Valentines
"Rookie" programs
Barberpole Cat programs
Convention Info programs
Barber-wives groups
Uniform requirements
Chapter mailing lists and internal discussion lists


Feel free to drop me a line any time. :-)

</shameless_plug>

--Taylor
_____________________________________
Taylor Anderson
Product Manager
NX Knowledge Fusion and Validation Tools
UGS - Transforming the process of innovation
http://www.ugs.com/
taylor.anderson@...
Phone: (602)441-0683
Fax: (602)441-9941
_____________________________________


________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:11:28 -0800
From: "Anderson, Taylor" <andersot@...>
Subject: "Content Feeds" (RSS)


"Content Feeds" are probably referring to RSS, or "Really Simple
Syndication".

This is a relatively easy mechanism for making content from one site
easily displayable on another site.

For instance:

1. A district website might want to automatically display upcoming show
information for all of its chapters.

2. A chapter website might want to automatically include district events
on its website.

3. An individual (barbershopper or fan) might want to have an updated
list of upcoming shows for his
favorite chapter(s) appear on his Google homepage, or in his RSS
aggregator.

In each of these cases, the key is having the original creator of the
events (the chapter or district website, in these cases) publish an RSS
feed on their website. If the site is already using a Content
Management System (CMS) to drive its events and articles, this is pretty
trivial.

(about creating) http://make-rss-feeds.com/making-an-rss-feed.htm

(about creating)
http://www.tiffanybbrown.com/articles/viewarticle.php/66

(one of many RSS validators) http://feedvalidator.org/

For individuals wanting to view RSS content, using an "RSS Aggregator"
is common. This is a little software application that collects updated
RSS feed information and displays it in a list, where it looks kinda
like e-mail. My personal favorite is my Google homepage, which lets me
collect and display the RSS feeds I want to see.

Webmasters who want to display someone else's RSS feed on their website
will write a little bit of code to "consume" the feed and format it so
it will "look pretty" on their site. As the feed is updated on the
original site (when a new article or event is added, for instance) the
new information is automatically displayed on the site consuming the
feed.

(about consuming with PHP)
http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2004/03/24/phpws.html

(about consuming with ASP.NET)
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/102903-1.aspx

Feel free to use your favorite aggregator to test the MOH feeds at:
http://www.mastersofharmony.org/rss/moh_news.xml
http://www.mastersofharmony.org/rss/moh_shows.xml
Remember, these MOH links are only gonna look good if you use an RSS
aggregator to view them. :-)
Hope that helps... Good luck!

--Taylor
_____________________________________
Taylor Anderson
Product Manager
NX Knowledge Fusion and Validation Tools
UGS - Transforming the process of innovation
http://www.ugs.com/
taylor.anderson@...
Phone: (602)441-0683
Fax: (602)441-9941
_____________________________________




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