Author: Darren Puscas
Lynton Crosby: Stephen Harper’s new strategist
Walmart Strike! Links to background, analysis and action
Yunel Escobar, homophobia, and Major League Baseball.
5 Caterpillar talking points: Profits, tax breaks & relocation threats
Photos from London Caterpillar rally and picket
Here are a few photos I took at the rally and picket line on Saturday in London in support of the locked out Caterpillar/Electro-motive workers (click to pop up images and for captions):
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A union local web makeover: first steps
A reference page of ideas for your local’s new website.
If your local is planning a web upgrade, there are many things to consider.
Who is (or you hope will be) using your site and how they will interact with your site? From there it What on your current site should stay and what should go? What are your needs for your new site? How will it support your goals and strategic efforts?
Click here for this one-page fact sheet with a few questions and ideas to get you started!
[This fact sheet is adapted from an earlier blog post. I’ve also placed this ideas sheet in the resources section of the site where I will be housing various fact sheets and web ideas for union locals and others. Please download, use, and distribute any of them as they appear!]
5 simple ideas for union local web communication
A one-page web communication guide for your local.
There are so many possibilities for building your web communication and presence nowadays, that it is easy to become overwhelmed by considerations of ‘best web practices’ and, conversely, figuring out what should be avoided.
Following these 5 simple steps should do wonders for your web traffic and level of quality (and continued) interaction with your site.
Specifically, you should: (1) Keep your site up-to-date; (2) Keep it simple; (3) Focus on return traffic; (4) Use social media for conversation; (5) Set goals for your site. How to do all this is expanded upon on the 1-page guide.
I’ve also placed this ideas sheet in the resources section of the site where I will be housing various fact sheets and web ideas for union locals and others. Please download, use, and distribute any of them as they appear!
How does Canada’s 1% compare to other countries?
Reasons to use WordPress for your union local’s website.
I do all of my web production & content management using WordPress. I love it. Your union local should consider it too.
1. Ease of use/training
When I set up a new site for an organization, The WordPress dashboard interface is what administrators of the site look at every time they go to update their site (have a look at the WordPress dashboard interface). Once they get used to all the functions (which may feel a bit overwhelming at first), they invariably find the dashboard to be very user-friendly.
On a day-to-day basis you can mostly concentrate on 3 areas – posts, media, and pages – even non-computer savvy users generally find this very easy to manage. And because of the simple set up, if a volunteer admin moves on it won’t be a big problem for the next person to take over.
2. Cost savings
WordPress is open source, meaning it is downloadable for free. Costs are accrued in the initial development, but on-going costs are quite low for simple websites. Basically, WordPress’ ease of use means that the day-to-day workings of the site can be done in-house, while you save only the really heavy lifting (eg. programming, updated design, etc… for consultants.
3. Community support
WordPress.org is filled with tutorials, forums, guides if you have a problem with WordPress, there is likely a solution that someone has worked on elsewhere.
4. Extends with ease
WordPress acts as the central nervous system that focuses on ease of use, simple design and doing a lot of the heavy lifting for you. But it is the ability to easily add-on to the WordPress core that brings uniqueness to your site. You do this through plug-ins and widgets which you add as needed.
5. Cutting edge
Here is one example – much of the WordPress effort is focused on ensuring compatibility on multiple browsers and on smart phones, iPads, etc… It is currently on the cutting edge of ‘responsive design’. which works to ‘respond to the user’s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.’ Mobil platforms are the future of web use (and, in many ways, the present). WordPress’ responsive design has it covered.
6. Beautiful
WordPress sites are clean, organized and well designed.
Convinced?
- 14.7% of websites use WP as their Content Management System (CMS).
- 22 of every 100 new sites are using WordPress.
- Many major, innovative websites are based on WordPress such as CNN, Loolapalooza, the New York Times blogs, Jay-Z’s site. WordPress has come a long way from the days that it was mostly used for personal blogging.
This represents significant growth from a number of years ago.
For me, WordPress hits all the right notes. WordPress enables union members to simply and easily run a website with blog posts, forums, news updates, polls…anything. It doesn’t take much to get a presentable WordPress site up that you can easily update. Gone are the days of needing to talk to an expensive consultant every time you need to update your site.
Your union could quickly and cheaply get up-to-date with the latest in web functionality by making WordPress your content management system of choice.
6 questions to ask your website developer
Many issues come up when you hire to have a website built or updated. Don’t hesitate to ask these questions of your website developer, the answers will go a long way towards ensuring a healthy start to the project!
1. What is their billing rate?
It’s a good idea to get this information upfront and in writing so there are no surprises. Billing can be based on an hourly rate or on a per project rate. It is often the case that designers will ask for up to 60% of the projected project costs up-front, with the rest billed later.
2. What maintenance will be needed (and maintenance costs)?
It is important to determine how much maintenance will even be needed on the site once it is up. Ideally, you will have been set up with a user-friendly content management system (CMS) and will have been properly trained in using it- thus lessening your need for ongoing maintenance.
Most small and short tasks such as adding new posts and pages, simple software updates, etc… should be easily able to be completed in-house, with infrequent bug fixes, hosting problems, and design overhauls being the focus of outside maintenance.
From there, it’s important to know the fees that will be charged for each maintenance needs. Usually, web developers will charge hourly rates for maintenance – including charges per call or request for work. Just make sure this is all clear in advance.
3. How much of the developer’s time will be taken up by this project?
Don’t forget to check to see how much time the developer has to dedicate to you on this project and how many other projects they are working on.
Obviously, they can’t focus solely on your website if they have other clients, but there should at least be certain times that you know they are dedicated to working on your site. If not, the work being done for you runs the risk of being put off as other, ‘more pressing’ work takes priority.
4. What are the best times to contact during development?
Specific times, usually coinciding with times that the developer is focused on your site, should be set aside for discussion. This could be once a week or even less frequently. It doesn’t matter when and how often this is, as long as you have agreed to it and you stick to it.
5. What happens when there are problems after the site is completed?
Ask the developer what will happen when something goes wrong with the website. How quickly will they be able to respond? If it is something major like the site being down, it is important that they are are quickly available. Thus, it is important to put a priority level on bugs and problems – is it an emergency or can it be dealt with later?
Emergencies, of course, are an exception, but emergencies should be real rather than every time you need some small change or you have a new idea for the site. This will allow the developer to focus on the work at hand and will save you money in not slowing them down every time you call/contact.
6. Is there a Statement of Work (SOW) available?
It’s a good idea to include statement of work created by the developer and signed off on by the client. This is the outline of all of the information discussed above, so it is clear what is expected of the developer and what is not. It should also include a timeline for completion of tasks.
— Parts of this post inspired by a highly informative talk at WordCamp 201 San Francisco: “How to Hire and Manage a Developer” by Steve Zehngut. Video from the talk will be up in the next week or two, check back at WordPress TV!