Introducing the Proposed New Website

Display as a slideshow

To be presented at the Board Meeting on January 30, 2006

1. GPDC Website Proposal

January 30, 2006

2. Current Areas that can be Improved

  • Making changes: Putting up new information on website requires a webmaster
  • Calendar: GPDC announcements are currently on a physical calendar only
  • Committees: Non-confidential Committee outcome information is only discussed during AGM
  • Memory: Committee work is not carried forward (no mechanism for institutional memory)

Committee work outcomes and learnings are not formally captured and/or communicated to parents. For example, regular maintence work done if captured in a calendar on this site can serve as a reminder to the next set of parents to take proactive action (such as overseeding in the fall to prevent grass erosion for next year).

3. Introducing Wikis

3.1. What is a wiki?

  • A website that users can edit online
  • Some sites can be edited by anybody, like Wikipedia
  • Some sites can require passwords for users

4. Introducing Wikis

4.1. How does it work?

  • Mostly, wikis look and act like ordinary websites
  • Click Edit link
  • Edit text (no special codes required)
  • Click "Save" button
  • Changed text is immediately available as the new version of the page
  • Page version history

5. Proposal for the GPDC Wiki

5.1. What will it be?

  • A website with GPDC information for the public
  • A calendar where events can be posted
  • A bulletin board for news and announcements
  • A collaborative tool for committees to plan work, draft documents and store information

6. Proposal for the GPDC Wiki

6.1. GPDC Information

  • ease of changing posted information
  • ease of adding new pages
  • ensures information is current and accessible

7. Proposal for the GPDC Wiki

7.1. Calendar

  • community can find out details about events
  • ease of posting events
  • linking calendar events with business
    • e.g. The entry in the Calendar for this Board Meeting could link to its Agenda (available only to Board members), Minutes (available to everybody), and other reference documents (policies to be discussed, this presentation, etc.)

8. Proposal for the GPDC Wiki

8.1. Announcements

  • ease of posting announcements
  • use of announcements to disseminate information

9. Proposal for the GPDC Wiki

9.1. Collaborative Tool for Committees

  • centralization -- a central source means everybody has access to current documents
  • organization -- committee members can see current work and advance committee business
  • collaboration -- one version of documents is available to everybody at once
  • openness -- where appropriate, documents can be made available to the community
  • closedness -- where appropriate, documents can be restricted to only those privileged to see them

10. Other Benefits

10.1. Web presence

  • A website should
    • be our face on the internet
    • bring the community together
    • reflect the excellence of the GPDC

11. Other Benefits

11.1. Web presence

  • Current GPDC website
    • is low quality
    • does not present a good face on the internet
    • does not bring the community together
    • has never been refered to on the internet
    • it is not available in Google

12. Other Benefits

12.1. Web presence

  • Proposed GPDC website
    • will be a good face on the internet
    • will act as a portal for GPDC staff and parents -- and kids, some day!
    • Enable new parents looking for quality daycare to gain an accurate and favourable impression of the GPDC
    • Here -- take a look: http://glebeparentsdaycare.ca/

Note: the current address for the wiki site, while it is under development, is actually http://glebeparentsdaycare.ca/wiki/ . It will be moved to the above address when it goes live.

13. Other issues

13.1. What will this cost the centre?

  • Nothing

This update to the site will not add any additional cost to the centre. Over time the ease with which it takes in adding information to the site will result in fewer common questions coming in to the front desk, thereby reducing staff workload.

14. Other issues

14.1. What about people who don't use the internet or have computers?

  • They can continue to use traditional tools
  • The website is an additional tool

The mandate of the website is to make GPDC information that has traditionally been in print or on bulletin boards accessible through a more common means. Therefore, information is generally already available to parents via traditional means. For example, notices are usually posted about events on an easel in the main centre front hallway. This update to the GPDC site will enable quicker updates of information on the website through calendars, public committee minutes and resources that would typically take a trip to the daycare to find. As well, free use of internet is available at public libraries and there are even freely avaiable dial-up internet services offered through the National Capital Freenet.

15. Other issues

15.1. How would committees use this new site/portal/wiki?

  • Secure access for committee members
  • Collaborating on committee work
  • Enabling contribution
  • Publicizing committee work

Individual committees members can be set up to have authenticated (secure) access to their committee pages. These sections would require a userid and password and therefore would not be visible to the public. Non-confidential Agenda items and minutes could be posted for effective communication and corporate memory of committee work. Periodically, committee work outcomes (again, non-confidential) could be shared through the public section of the site.

16. Other issues

16.1. What about confidentiality of information?

  • Policies are needed

Some essential policies must be agreed to around public content and safeguards for private content. For example it is recommended that no directly confidential information of any type be put on the portal even if put within secure committee sections. As well, it is recommended that a formal, but not overly beaurocratic process be put in place to 'vet' public content before posting to the website. A strawman proposal is to have the communications committee review new content before it's placed on the public site.

17. What To Do Now

  • Replace old website with new website
  • Allow administration to use it for calendar and announcements
  • Allow committees and the Board to use it for business
  • Create Web Policy
    • public posting of announcements, calendar events, agendas, policies, other information
    • website administration: manage committees, users, organization and look of site

18. Questions?

19. Thank you