[Nfb-web] Minutes from Webmasters meeting at National Convention

Fri Jul 24 04:15:39 UTC 2015

*National Federation of the Blind*

*Webmasters Committee*

*Meeting Minutes – July 7, 2015*

*Convened:* @ 7:00 PM

*Attendance:*

Gary Wunder - Chairperson, NFB of Missouri

John Fritz - National Board, NFB of Wisconsin

Chuck Buggs - NFB of Wisconsin

Mike Hansen - NFB of Nebraska

Arthur Jacobs - Blind Educators

Milton Ota - NFB of Hawaii, NFB of North Dakota, NFB of Kansas

Susan Stanzel - NFB of Kansas

Jack Mendez - Louisiana Center for the Blind

Marcus Soulsby - NFB of West Virgina

Steve Green - NFB of Massachusetts

James Daniel - Blind Inc.

Scott - NFB of Indiana

George Hernandez - NFB of Florida

Eric Burggraaf - NFB of Nevada

Kurt Wagner - NFB of Oregon

NOTE: A few people’s names are missing because they weren't audible on the
recording. If your name is missing please let me know and I will be happy
to add it.

*Welcome:*

*What is the Internet Support Team:*

We are a group of NFB members working to develop a central IT support group
for all parts of our organization.

*Who are we:*

§  John Fritz                  NFB of Wisconsin

§  Gary Wunder                        NFB of Missouri

§  Jeremiah Beasley    NFB of Wisconsin

§  John Berggren         NFB National Office

§  Chris Danielsen       NFB National Office

§  Ross Pollpeter          NFB of Nebraska

§  Chuck Buggs                       NFB of Wisconsin

§  Mike Hansen                        NFB of Nebraska

§  Initial Guru’s

·         Kelly Coleman          NFB of Nebraska

·         Stephanie Waggle   NFB of Nebraska

NOTE: Robert Newman with the NFB of Nebraska has worked with us for most of
the last 15 months but has recently stepped down.

*What have we been up to:*

The year has been spent developing ourselves as a group. Trying to help as
much as we can while developing the ideas and infrastructure that we hope
will allow us to grow the group and support a wider portion of our
organization

·         Contact with several Affiliates

This past year we have worked with several affiliates on everything from
logo updates and accessibility issues to lost website passwords. We have
more work in this area then we have the people to do it, so we would love
to hear from anyone with html skills that would be interested in assisting
other parts of the organization.

·         Website Nomenclature (URL Standardization)

While it isn’t terrible difficult to find one of our affiliate website by
using your favorite search engine we are hoping to make it even simpler.
Recently we started to point new web addresses at each of the affiliate
websites. These don’t have to replace whatever you currently use but are
meant to supplement them.

Ie. http://wi.nfb.org (Wisconsin)

Ie. http://ne.nfb.org (Nebraska)

While many of these URLs are up and running there are a few that are not
working properly and require a slight tweak on the side of the web server.
Over the next few months we hope to work with those affiliates to finish up
this project.

NOTE: It is important to note that there is no cost to the affiliates or
the national office for this service. The cost falls under the standard
fees that are already paid for the nfb.org name.

·         Continued Development of Toolboxes

Last year at this meeting we introduced the idea of Toolboxes are a
document and supporting files that explain best practices and document
resources available to entities of the NFB. Shortly after convention we
distributed to via the State Presidents email list our Facebook and Twitter
Toolboxes.

Currently we have Toolboxes available on the following topics.

§  Facebook

§  Twitter

§  Email

§  Websites

Toolboxes topics currently being considered include PayPal, YouTube and,
Streaming.

·         Created a system for documenting and storing information about
Affiliate and Division internet points of presence

If we hope to grow our group to be able to support entities within our
organization spread across the country we needed a central place to
securely store shared data. Modifications that we have made to the
http://webmasters.nfb.org website is the basis for this system.

·         Thinking about Drupal 7 / 8 templates

This past winter we twisted Chuck Buggs’ (NFB of Wisconsin) arm to being to
develop the long awaited Drupal 7 template. Chuck began to formulate his
ideas and get a game plan together of not only how to tackle this project,
but also how he might be able to improve upon the templates that have been
offered in the past. Not long into this project we learned that National
had made a decision not to move to Drupal 8 when it rolls out its new web
design next year but instead stick with Drupal 7. After we found this out
we spoke with John Berggren and got some assurances that Nationals
contractor who is developing the new Drupal 7 template for National will
produce a useable version for Affiliates and Divisions as well.

Chuck Buggs has since compiled his thoughts and ideas about template
features, custom Drupal distrobutions, standard modules, etc.. and passed
them on to the National Office.

·         Went through a Discovery process looking for all the NFB’s points
of presence on the Internet

If we are going to begin to try and support the various part of our
organization we needed to have some idea what we have out there on the
internet already. So we scoured the internet looking for the NFB on
websites, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and, YouTube to name a few. This
information went into the central information system we created on the NFB
webmasters website.

This data is now allowing us to begin to

·         Have a publicly available list of where to find us on the internet

·         Document points of contact for different sites

·         Find old “dead” content that should be removed for the internet

·         Begin assisting groups with updating the branding that they are
using

·         Began assisting with Branding Updates

Some parts of our organization have gotten out jumped out there and gotten
there branding of their internet presence updated and then there are others
that have struggled a little with this.

This summer we began an effort to assist with this effort. Beginning with
Twitter we are going out and looking at each NFB Twitter account that we
are aware of (By the way there are about 65 of them). We are not only
looking at the branding but also noting things that they have done
exceptionally well at or offering suggestions for areas that have room for
improvement.

At this time we have sent reports on about 1/3 of the Twitter accounts to
their State Presidents and will finish the process shortly after
convention. Once we have completed looking at Twitter accounts we will move
on to Facebook and then to Websites.

Anil Lewis talked about web accessibility and hiring knowledgeable members
to assist with some projects.

Tony Olivero talked about nationals efforts creating a unified database of
(contacts, members ,etc…)

*Call for volunteers:*

We have more work than we have people to do it. So we are looking for
volunteers that are willing to step up and assist other parts of the
organization with their internet presence.

We are in need of Webmasters of all levels, Facebook Gurus and, Twitter
Geeks.

The idea is if we have enough help we would only need to ask each person to
work with a small number of groups to keep it from over whelming anyone.

*Change in Approach to encourage accessible web design*

Anil Lewis came and spoke about the NFB’s efforts to make the web more
accessible. In the past we have sometimes done this with a heavy hand but
in the end we might only get the most basic changes so that the company
meets the minimum requirements. This activism has made as a recognizable
name in this area. The Jernigan Institute would like to use our good name
to allow us to lead brain storming sessions on how we might be able to
change our approach on this issue and possibly gain better results.

One way approach they are working towards is to create partnerships with
different commonly used websites. Where we would assist them with solving
web accessibility issues that might they may be having trouble with. So
instead of just being a complainer or a heavy fist, we would actively be
part in helping them to find the solution.

For this reason the Jernigan Institute is looking for some good web
accessibility testers. If you know of somebody and would like to recommend
them please pass their name along to the Jernigan Institute.

*Unified Database:*

Much progress has been made regarding the Unified Database and access to
version 1 of this resource will be coming in the next few months. The
Unified Database will allow state affiliates to more easily access lists of
individuals in your state, whether they be Braille Monitor subscribers or
individuals who have requested a free white cane. Of course this will also
help the organization keep track of and stay in communication with its
members so that means that over the next several months some of us may be
asked to assist with updating some records.

*Steaming:*

There was a discussion about the technical ins and outs of streaming
conventions. A lot of emphasis was put on making sure that you have a good
reliable stable internet connection. It was also noted that while it might
be harder to find a service provider streaming audio only would be easier
because the amount of bandwidth needed would be less. Also using a service
on the net has your listeners connecting to the service instead of your
equipment at convention, this also reduces the bandwidth requirement.

There were lots of techniques shared ranging in cost from free to much
more. This is such a new process for many of us that there still doesn’t
seem to be a standard way of doing it. The groups that have done it have
all done it a little differently.

Lots of good discussion on this topic.

*Q&A:*

If you have any questions about the information that was covered at the
meeting or that are detailed here in these minutes please don’t hesitate to
contact us at isteam at nfb.org.

*Adjourned:* @ 9:00 PM

Available Resources:

NFB Webmasters Website - Has a list of NFB points of presence on the
internet

http://webmasters.nfb.org/

NFB Branding Guide Lines

http://webmasters.nfb.org/branding

Facebook Toolbox

http://webmasters.nfb.org/facebook-toolbox

Twitter Toolbox

http://webmasters.nfb.org/twitter-toolbox

Email Toolbox

http://webmasters.nfb.org/email-toolbox

Website Toolbox

http://webmasters.nfb.org/websites-toolbox

-- 

Mike Hansen
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