ISTC website

It’s official. I’m now the webmaster for the ISTC.

Before I start talking about my plans and ideas for the ISTC website, I thought I’d give you all a bit of background as to why I’m reasonably well qualified to be taking this on.

It all starts about 16 years ago…

I joined a small software company in the West of Scotland as a “Technical Administrator” and, as well as writing some user documentation, I was sent on a course to learn HTML and then charged with creating the company website, the first version of which is still available via the Internet Archive (search for ‘crossaig.co.uk’) and was launched in September 1996. Since then, I’ve created websites for charity organisations, personal projects, and several small businesses and individuals under the moniker of One Man Designs.

Throughout my profession the internet has been there, and it’s been a large part of my personal life as well. I ran a successful blog directory for a while (Scottish Blogs) and took great pleasure in organising several “meetups” of some of the members. I’ve meet some amazing people, who I now call my friends, via the internet and it continues to delight and amaze me at how well it functions to connect people, from all over the world, who have similar needs and interests.

So what does that mean for the ISTC?

Without going into great detail here (just yet), the main focus for me over the next couple of months will be to restructure the content based on feedback from last year’s Marketing Frenzy, move the current website over to a content management system, and tweak the design to allow a bit more flexibility to handle some of the new features.

I’m keen to bring some more activity to the website, and introduce some “social features” on the way. It will mean changing some things but just as the technical communications industry is learning how to deal with social media, so does the ISTC website.

Comments

  1. Congratulations, Gordon!

    I know the website will be in good hands with you, and I’m looking forward to the improvements. I fondly remember the energy of TCUK10 and look forward to TCUK11 – certainly that same energy can use an outlet on the 362 days when TCUK is not in session… 🙂

  2. Congratulations on your new role and good luck! I can’t wait to learn more about your plans. If you need help with testing new features you just have to ask.

  3. There’s certainly plenty of scope to improve it. Thanks for taking it on, Gordon.

    My first choice would be a proper forum (the Yahoo list is too horrible to use, though the LinkedIn one is a little better), but I realise that’s a bigger job than rejigging ordinary web pages.

  4. Thanks all.

    Cecily, there have been discussions about the mailing list/forum in the past. Yes it is a big job but many people still prefer the fact it is a mailing list (at heart).

    Open to suggestions of what to move it to but that likely won’t happen any time soon as my first priority is the website itself (adding a web based forum could happen once the new website is sorted out).

  5. Yes, I think I’ve discussed it with you before on Wave. I am amazed that anyone likes the Yahoo format, but given the time and effort to add an IP.Board or SimpleMachines type forum to the website, the Yahoo list may live to fight another year or few.

  6. Website, what website? It’s just a useless set of blank pages and it’s been like this since before Easter. It’s not a very good advert is it.

  7. Gordon. Problem solved. As I said in my email, now that I’ve seen the website I can say that it’s very good. It gave me all the information I needed and made it clear that I would benefit from joining. The information is comprehensive and succinct as I would have expected. Many thanks.

    Dave

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