ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Web Site development
• be up to date, accurate, with the focus on news and not opinion • make information about events in all States more widely available, thus enhancing the concept of a national sport • lead to an expectation that we can go to the site for news on major events with links to the detailed results and other information
Robin Uppill – OA Director (Special Projects)
H
OW many dedicated orienteers recently had late evenings to watch and listen to the live 2006 World Orienteering Championships coverage for those days with the later events extending beyond midnight Australian time? Those of us who didn’t know that we can now go to the Orienteering Australia website, as I did first thing on Wednesday August 2nd to get the latest news, in this case for the fantastic news about Hanny Allston’s gold medal in Denmark. Redevelopment of the Orienteering Australia website over the past two years or so, and the involvement of orienteers as contributors, has helped make this possible. Many orienteers now regularly log on to the Orienteering Australia site for the duration of major international carnivals to get the latest information. One of the most obvious changes from the previous version, and a model that is now being used by some other States, is the dynamic nature of the site, primarily due the use of the home page for current news about major State, National and International events. This presence of up to date news also leads to a high revisitation rate, and hence more opportunities to look at and make use of the other content areas, or revisiting older news items (expand the News link to get to the archived news items). The aim of the news items is for them to:
For those of you who regularly view the news at the site, you will have noticed that these items are contributed by many people, so the key is that anyone can contribute by putting content on the site. This means that the site is becoming the “property” of all orienteers. As well as the news area, other parts of the site are also not static, but are constantly being added to both with additional content in current areas and development of new areas. The site has become increasingly important to Orienteering Australia as a vehicle for information and communication as well as providing a professional and virtual “shop-front” for Orienteering Australia with respect to government bodies, potential sponsors, other sporting organizations with whom we may wish to establish relationships, the international orienteering community, and the media. It has also merged or made transparent the links to the other content that is part of the OA’s activities e.g. National Orienteering League and the National Rankings. “Googling” orienteering (limiting to sites from Australia) brings up the site at the top of the list, followed by sites of the various State associations, hence it is also going to be visited by newcomers to orienteering. Experience at a State level indicates that this is now the primary means by which new comers get information about orienteering. The presence of a link for “Newcomers to Orienteering” at the top of the home page is essential, as are the obvious links to State associations as these contain the details of orienteering events and activities. However the “Newcomers to Orienteering” area is one targeted for improvement, so if you have any ideas on content and presentation, please contact the Director (Development). Many of us in the work environment have become accustomed to the corporate intranet which provides us with company policies, newsletters, forms, photos, and organisational structure amongst other things. The Orienteering Australia web site is the orienteer’s “corporate intranet”. Hence the site is also a resource for orienteers, it is used to provide information on Orienteering Australia’s main business areas and related topics e.g. Administration, Technical, Mapping, Development, High Performance and National League. With Orienteering Australia’s aim to increase the role of is committees, the site should become increasingly
16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER OCTOBER 2006
