Month: January 2012

One step forward…

Firstly I’ll admit that I’m starting to feel a bit like a fool. I’ve been close to getting the new ISTC website launched for several weeks now, only for an subtle twist or unforeseen working process to scupper my plans.

I realise now, of course, that what I should’ve done was revisit the usage models of the website and finessed those first, rather than trying to shoehorn a somewhat antiquated set of processes into what is a fairly standard membership model. Oh well, live and learn.

That said, it’s not been the legacy processes that have really slowed me down, “life” hasn’t been particularly helpful either although quite how I’m sitting here in January when I’d hoped to have the new website launched in September last year is beyond me. My sincerest apologies, and please trust that I’m hugely annoyed by these delays.

The main reason for the delay has been making sure the membership functionality work, making sure that the processes for applying for membership, as well as renewing existing memberships, has been tricky, as has considering non-member access. The latter is something that only came to light at TCUK (in Sept) this year, Area Groups are not attended only by ISTC members so the website needs to be mindful of that as it will have, in the future, specific areas for Area Group attendees.

As such, there are essentially five levels of users for the new website:

  • Administrators – essentially myself (webmaster) and the team at ASL
  • Editors – anyone with the ability to post new content to the website
  • Members – access to content for ISTC members only
  • Attendees – for those who attend Area Groups but aren’t ISTC members
  • Guests – anyone visiting the website that isn’t logged in, or isn’t a member

It’s a more complex setup but in the long run it will make the new website much more flexible. A lot of the ground work I’m doing at the moment is in the background, with the hope that, this year, new features will be much easier and quicker to roll out.

And, just to prove that the new website does actually exist, here’s sneak peek of what will be launching soon: http://46.183.9.143/

Thanks for all your patience.

January 5, 2012

Full steam ahead for 2012

I’m a creature of habit, of routine. I’m not the greatest at handling change so it has taken me a little by surprise when I realised that in the past few months I’ve made some changes. Mostly based around how I use my computer; I’ve changed my main browser from Firefox to Chrome, dumped Delicious and moved to Pinboard, ditched Remember the Milk for Wunderlist, and I’m currently looking at leaving Flickr and taking (a smaller set of) my photos to a different service, probably 500px.

Elsewhere I’ve been slowly changing things, as well. Trying to find more time to read, making more of an effort to cook healthy meals, doing a little more exercise. A large chunk of the year has been spent, I now realise, in rediscovering myself, finding out more about who I am. A completely honest appraisal of me. It was painful at times, I got a lot of it wrong but now, now it all feels right.

All of these changes have been subtle, and weren’t part of any grand plan other than a general theme of ‘better’, but it seems to be working for the most part and I hope to continue this approach in 2012.

That said, some things didn’t change the way I thought they would as I didn’t do much in the way of writing in any form, either here or anywhere else. I kept a private diary for a while, sporadically still do, and I could blame Twitter, or Facebook, for this but as neither of those are places I would use to publish any form of ‘writing’ I just have to admit that I’ve lost the joy (need?) of publishing. My “social media interactions” have moved on, it seems.

This post isn’t about resolutions, I don’t really do them although there are ‘themes’ for this year but as I’m still getting over the vestiges of my Hogmanay cold I’m not yet willing to admit it’s 2012 proper.

So, for me, 2012 will be about ‘better’ and most definitely about ‘happier’.

2011 was a year of highs and lows. Unfortunately the lows ruled the day but then, without them, I wouldn’t be set to have, what I’m determined will be, an awesome 2012.

January 5, 2012