Tag Archives for problem statement

What’s missing and what’s next

What’s most obviously missing from a conference website is the SCHEDULE AND LISTINGS OF THE ACTUAL EVENTS AT THE CONFERENCE. And, you might note that there are no placeholder pages built out emptily and anxiously awaiting their schedule content as the organizers decide what it will be.

This is where agility comes into play — why build something before I know what the requests are for it, and how the data will come to me?

I will suggest to the people I am working on to build them in two ways:

  • Have each committee load individual workshops and performances into Google Calendar the title, time, and description of the event – then if they get requests to change it, they have access to it to change. This also allows participants to add the events to their personal Google calendars, something many people use. Perhaps I will also share <a href…> code with a link to the Bios page, and then build…
  • One Bios page on the blog that has all the photos and bios of all performers and presenters, listed alphabetically by first name because of course, fuck patriarchy.
  • I’m not sure yet if we will build pages for each individual workshop, seeing as how that text is subject to change. If its requested, we’ll use the descriptions as in the shared google forms so that no emails start flying around with content.

What else is missing? Finesse to the forums, including a Statement of Use [requested by the Collective] and then a community announcement via email lists and social media that there are forums to use, to see if people will actually use them for their intended purposes.

Resources and Fun Materials, like the entire Femme Bibliograpy one Media Team member collected and built, actual galleries, more videos on the YouTube channel [that’s displayed on the widget on the right-hand sidebar], and …

Selected Full-development resources like the sharing the Keynotes via UStream or Livestream, which then need Pages we want to set up. That will be developed in the weeks before the conference and does not need a home on the site yet, though I think they’d have a sub-page under Media and a sticky post on the front page of the site.

External resources, like more info in the Wikipedia page.

And, most importantly, we are missing a Magical CSS unicorn, like the alliedmedia.org folks have in the <meta> tags on their forums and message boards. Hmmrph.

Three similar conference sites

Other conferences also have web presences, and three that are relevant in terms of community to outreach to, size of conference, and media justice analysis are:

Allied Media Conference [annual, this would be an example of full-development ideal]

  • http://alliedmedia.org
  • made by http://theworkdept.com/#agility  in Drupal … of course.
  • In an ideal full build we’d have a drupal site that was mad fancy but it would take so much development and user-assistance admin that it’s not worth it for an all-volunteer event

Butch Voices [bi-annual, an example of agile or mid-range development]

Queer Yo Mind Conference [37signals-agile development example]

Problem Statement: Develop Collaborative Technology for a Conference

This project’s goal is to create an internal communications system as well as a public social media and web presence for an LGBTQ conference which can be maintained by many, and which is manageable by an asynchronous, all-volunteer organizing collective.

A major goal of this project is to create a collaborative and horizontal web presence which is decentralized and which many people have access to and control[s] over, instigates interactivity and buy-in, while maintaining the safety of personal data [email addresses, server logins] as needed. For political reasons, it is important to create a space where many types of users feel welcomed to post on the blog, and for other users to find accessibility information on the site.

For marketing and registration purposes, we wanted to create a site that attracts people to the conference itself .

Lastly, members have requested a rideboard and housing-share board for the site. Questions about need for monitoring and safety have come up, so these boards should avoid spam and lurking, while remaining easy-to-use for a range of users.