OA WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

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)

HOW 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

important by hosting the material relevant to each of the committees’ activities. It will also provide resources for those involved in these areas in each State, and State representatives on the committees should use the resources in the these areas and also provide additional relevant contributions (contact your committee chair person if you can contribute). Some examples of the available resources are described briefly below. This list is not comprehensive but will give some indication of what is available. So please browse through some of these and you will get an idea of what the site can offer. For example in the development area, a number of resources are available to assist in both attracting and looking after newcomers. These resources are based on examples from successful State based and overseas activities. Previously this type of information was often discussed at development conferences and reported on to the States, but with changing personnel may not have always been available to those who might have been able to benefit from this information subsequently. Now it is available to anyone and should be especially useful to country based clubs which have less interaction with the city based State associations than the metropolitan clubs. In the Technical area, the most obvious essential resources are the copies of the current rules; however the sets of Powerpoint slides for Level 2 and 3 Controller workshops can be used both as refresher material for controllers, as well as a basis for State based level 2 Controller workshops (and were used in South Australia this year). Currently also under the management of the Director (Technical) are issues relating to land management and the environment, hence the Environmental area is being developed to make available resources and information to assist States in land management particularly where difficult requirements are imposed by government bodies, and to assist responses to land management plans. Orienteering Australia also has a number of policies and guidelines many of which are of relevance to individual orienteers as well as clubs and State associations. These were maintained on the previous site and have been migrated and added to here, with the available list ranging from the Constitution to Team Selection Guidelines to the various Orienteering Australia policies. And you will also find information on The Australian Orienteer to which the site should be considered complimentary (with the former remaining a more permanent record of some great orienteering moments), information for potential sponsors and advertisers, the National League program and current standings, and the elite rankings amongst other things. The High Performance area contains some examples of GPS tracking of orienteers, the live version of which added to the recent WOC coverage. Like the news items, the contributors responsible for these areas are to be congratulated for keeping them up to date with the latest results. The site also maintains links to all the upcoming major national carnivals. The structure of the site has enabled the separation of the management of the technical aspects of the site from the contribution of content. This is enabled by the use of a simple WEB Content Management System, software that automates the publishing of web content, and allows registered users to easily add and edit the content. Users are able to add text, images and upload documents. They need have no knowledge of HTML or other coding/scripting languages as the layout, customized styles, and maintenance of links to uploaded documents are managed by the CMS system. To contribute content, you will need to register as a user via the Register/Login box. Each user has a “My Articles” area where articles contributed by that user are available. The “Add Item” link allows access to a content editor component into which an article can be edited directly or added from another application such as a word processor. Photos and other documents can also be uploaded via this editing component. The news item can be maintained here in draft form or when completed, marked for approval. A site editor can then check the article and complete the upload process. A link to Help information is available here for content contributors. As indicated above, the site is continuing to undergo development and the addition of content. This will include the following areas: • addition of an archive of results from past national events, this has been maintained independently by Blair Trewin and will be incorporated in the site • a more comprehensive events listing (note that editors can add events to the current list and these are included in a format that can be imported into MS Outlook – Import Event link) • expansion of the Events area with the inclusion of searchable results initially from events on the national calendar • more interactive event information

• a service to manage online entries for events • extension of the results area to provide information on participation

Perhaps even further in the future, we may see real time video streaming of major events. For the sports fanatics amongst us we have been able to recently watch major international events such as the Soccer World Cup and the Tour de France. To be able to do the same for Orienteering with the real time video coverage of WOC 2006 on the internet for those of us lucky enough to have an adequate connection, has been a fantastic experience. The Orienteering Australia web site belongs to Australian orienteers, hence suggestions on content and features are welcome, please forward to Robin Uppill, Director (Special Projects) at oa_projects@netspeed.com.au.