[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Our New Site Has Launched
Lia Kiessling
kiessling at isoc.org
Mon Dec 19 00:49:27 PST 2011
Hi Klaus - this is wonderful feedback and we're very thankful you took the time to send such great input! It's fantastic that the web is an ever evolving medium so much of this feedback can be easily implement by the new year.
It's great that in the design process we had so much input from our Chapters during our special preview sessions for Chapters and will continue to do so.
Here are some answers to your questions below.
> From: Klaus Birkenbihl <Klaus.Birkenbihl at Isoc.de>
> Date: December 18, 2011 3:01:48 PM GMT+01:00
> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org, webfeedback at isoc.org
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Our New Site Has Launched
>
> Dear all,
>
> I took a second glance and sorry to say this: it is not only
> "a few items that need to be addressed" but severe issues that
> should have be addressed before release. These are mainly in
> three areas:
>
> 1. As lined out below, the new site breaks the Web. Bad if it
> is the "Internet Society" who does it. You are not alone in
> space! There are people who learn about ISOC by subscribing to
> http://www.isoc.org/headlines/rss.php . They even didn't get a
> notice that there is a new release of the Website cause it was
> not disseminated on this feed. Neither
> you can read it in places where the feed is sydicated like
> http://www.isoc.de/ or to mention a company site
> http://www.ict-media.de/. People may use feed burners that in
> turn use it as input. Same holds for documents: people
> have bookmarked things. Any concept how to fix it? Redirect
> for all old document URIs as soon as the document is moved?
> For what its worth - this is how the Web works and its sad
> that it is ISOC that didn't take care.
> Even worse (as said below) http://www.internetsociety.org/rss
> says "Find our more about RSS feeds and how you can use them
> to keep up-to-date on Internet Society activities (LINK)"
> But there is nothing to find.
> By the way: the homepage contains a line
> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
> title="Internet Society RSS"
> href="http://www.internetsociety.org/rss.xml" />
> but http://www.internetsociety.org/rss.xml cannot be accessed.
>
That's unfortunate you missed the stories about the launch and you're correct - it wasn't on our RSS feed and we'll keep this in mind from now on.
Here's where it was broadcast:
- Our newsletter
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Homepage
- Paper.il
- Scoop.it
- Press releases
- Workshops
- 3 Chapter previews in this calendar year (six in total to account for respective time zones).
- Staff previews
In terms of the RSS feed on the website page, it should be working now. Please let us know if something isn't working for you and send us a screen shot. Again, thanks to the flexibility for the web these are typically easy-fixes.
> 2. Accessibility. "The Internet is for Everyone". Is the Web
> part of it? Let's agree on "yes". Two important instruments
> to make the Internet for everyone are accessibility and
> internationalization. While full internationalization can
> be tricky and is hardly to achieve (though there are some good
> instruments in place) accessibility is relatively easy. There
> are well accepted standards around that provide requirements
> and criteria. The most famous are from section 508 or more
> specific the WCAC 1 or WCAC 2 from W3C. ISOC does great in
> teaching the world on accessibility. Events like INET Sri Lanka
> earlier this year address the topic. Many Governments and public
> institutions all over the world are legally obliged to conform
> to at least to a certain level of accessibility (as of today
> mostly base on WCAG 1). So what about ISOC itself? Would it be
> fair to ask what level of accessibility you aim for? Please
> let me know.
>
We 100% agree with you and are very passionate about creating a FULLY accessible website!
There are two parts to this:
1) We will continue to make improvements to the current site to continue to meet W3C standards - and eventually exceed them.
2) We're looking at a number of options to make the site is not only design accessible via the highest W3C standards - but also accessible content - an area that's often overlooked by the majority of organizations. Unfortunately (and you will know this) - most people's understanding of accessibility relates exclusively to visually impaired users - to the point, in fact, where these two terms are often used interchangeably.
Here are some way’s we’ve worked to increase our accessibility exponentially in the transition from the old site to the new site:
o Our website behaves as consistently as possible and has a consistent appearance/look-and-feel (e.g. all links and buttons should look and behave in the same way)
o We avoid using words in their non-literal sense (e.g. “it's raining cats and dogs”)
o We avoid using abstractions (e.g. provide a link to a telephone number rather than to ‘Contact us’)
o We provide clearly signposted, simplified summaries of pages' content at the top of the page
o We are working to provide an audio version of the site's content
o We break information into small, simple chunks and illustrate them visually wherever possible
o Always provide an obvious way for users to get back to simpler content if they find themselves on a page above their reading level
o We increased the spacing between lines of text
o Increase the spacing between paragraphs
As we go down the road of further improvements, we'd love it if you could sit on an advisor panel for more of these changes - please let us know your availability and we'll schedule a call.
> 3. Internationalization. Go to the home page. Click on
> "繁體中文" (traditional Chinese). Surprise: shows you the home
> page in simplified Chinese. Click on "become a member"
> brings you back to English, hm. But in the main menu
> you get an offer for "繁體中文" (traditional Chinese). Click.
> the address bar now changes to http://46.43.36.213/zh-hant/...
> what!? Content is "加入互联网社区" (meaning "how to join" in
> simplified Chinese). The page hold two underlined texts:
> "了解更多" (more) and "现在加入" (join now). Would you assume a
> link? Everybody would. Click it. Nothing happens. Inspect
> the element (look at the source). It says: "<u>了解更多</u>"
> hu? Nice trap (export control?). Click on "home". Shows
> the home page in simplified Chinese. URI is
> http://46.43.36.213/zh-hant. Click on "English". Home page
> in English. Address bar shows you the URI: http://46.43.36.213/.
> Littlish things only? But quite a few. And there is more about
> internationalization. But other than for accessibility there
> are rather not many standards or levels that can be applied
> directly. But HTML provides some help and the community
> provides best practices. It might be a good idea to make
> good use of it.
>
We are currently working on the multilingual pages so hopefully the URL issues will be fixed shortly (thank goodness for the flexibility of the web!)
We had the Chinese section translated by professional translators and proof read by native speakers. If you have alternate suggestions for native-tongue vocabulary please let us know! This would be welcomed input.
> I assume "Internet Society" should be committed to Website
> quality beyond a wow-generating layout. A few more topics
> than the ones above should have be addressed in this context:
> e.g what about semantics or meta-data? The events calendar for
> example doesn't hold any. Would increase the re-usability and
> value significantly. Not much meta on the home page. (Search
> engines will cry!)
We are always committed to not making search engines cry :) We'll be running our site through various optimization tests on a regular basis and make all changes. Feedback like this is so valuable so thank you!
>
> Enough for today! I don't even know if you want to read it
> (and I usually get paid for giving this kind of advice).
>
> Klaus
>
Thank you Klaus!
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Klaus Birkenbihl <Klaus.Birkenbihl at Isoc.de>
> Date: December 18, 2011 3:01:48 PM GMT+01:00
> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org, webfeedback at isoc.org
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Our New Site Has Launched
>
> Dear all,
>
> I took a second glance and sorry to say this: it is not only
> "a few items that need to be addressed" but severe issues that
> should have be addressed before release. These are mainly in
> three areas:
>
> 1. As lined out below, the new site breaks the Web. Bad if it
> is the "Internet Society" who does it. You are not alone in
> space! There are people who learn about ISOC by subscribing to
> http://www.isoc.org/headlines/rss.php . They even didn't get a
> notice that there is a new release of the Website cause it was
> not disseminated on this feed. Neither
> you can read it in places where the feed is sydicated like
> http://www.isoc.de/ or to mention a company site
> http://www.ict-media.de/. People may use feed burners that in
> turn use it as input. Same holds for documents: people
> have bookmarked things. Any concept how to fix it? Redirect
> for all old document URIs as soon as the document is moved?
> For what its worth - this is how the Web works and its sad
> that it is ISOC that didn't take care.
> Even worse (as said below) http://www.internetsociety.org/rss
> says "Find our more about RSS feeds and how you can use them
> to keep up-to-date on Internet Society activities (LINK)"
> But there is nothing to find.
> By the way: the homepage contains a line
> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
> title="Internet Society RSS"
> href="http://www.internetsociety.org/rss.xml" />
> but http://www.internetsociety.org/rss.xml cannot be accessed.
>
> 2. Accessibility. "The Internet is for Everyone". Is the Web
> part of it? Let's agree on "yes". Two important instruments
> to make the Internet for everyone are accessibility and
> internationalization. While full internationalization can
> be tricky and is hardly to achieve (though there are some good
> instruments in place) accessibility is relatively easy. There
> are well accepted standards around that provide requirements
> and criteria. The most famous are from section 508 or more
> specific the WCAC 1 or WCAC 2 from W3C. ISOC does great in
> teaching the world on accessibility. Events like INET Sri Lanka
> earlier this year address the topic. Many Governments and public
> institutions all over the world are legally obliged to conform
> to at least to a certain level of accessibility (as of today
> mostly base on WCAG 1). So what about ISOC itself? Would it be
> fair to ask what level of accessibility you aim for? Please
> let me know.
>
> 3. Internationalization. Go to the home page. Click on
> "繁體中文" (traditional Chinese). Surprise: shows you the home
> page in simplified Chinese. Click on "become a member"
> brings you back to English, hm. But in the main menu
> you get an offer for "繁體中文" (traditional Chinese). Click.
> the address bar now changes to http://46.43.36.213/zh-hant/...
> what!? Content is "加入互联网社区" (meaning "how to join" in
> simplified Chinese). The page hold two underlined texts:
> "了解更多" (more) and "现在加入" (join now). Would you assume a
> link? Everybody would. Click it. Nothing happens. Inspect
> the element (look at the source). It says: "<u>了解更多</u>"
> hu? Nice trap (export control?). Click on "home". Shows
> the home page in simplified Chinese. URI is
> http://46.43.36.213/zh-hant. Click on "English". Home page
> in English. Address bar shows you the URI: http://46.43.36.213/.
> Littlish things only? But quite a few. And there is more about
> internationalization. But other than for accessibility there
> are rather not many standards or levels that can be applied
> directly. But HTML provides some help and the community
> provides best practices. It might be a good idea to make
> good use of it.
>
> I assume "Internet Society" should be committed to Website
> quality beyond a wow-generating layout. A few more topics
> than the ones above should have be addressed in this context:
> e.g what about semantics or meta-data? The events calendar for
> example doesn't hold any. Would increase the re-usability and
> value significantly. Not much meta on the home page. (Search
> engines will cry!)
>
> Enough for today! I don't even know if you want to read it
> (and I usually get paid for giving this kind of advice).
>
> Klaus
>
> Klaus Birkenbihl wrote on 2011-12-16 17:41:
>> Sorry, I was obviously also a bit fast in releasing this.
>> Missed to mention the URI for TimBL's quote metioned below:
>> http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html
>> Sorry for sending twice ...
>>
>>
>> Klaus Birkenbihl wrote on 2011-12-16 17:29:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> would it be appropriate to join to chorus of acclamations?
>>> Those of you who are in this business know that judging the quality
>>> of a Website is more than just checking the design and following
>>> a few links. So for now: congrats, yes its looking great.
>>>
>>> A few question already pop-up now:
>>> - first of all (and I saw a contribution of my ISOC.DE board fellow
>>> Peter Koch on this) who had this absolutely crazy idea to change
>>> URI? I mean having internetsociety.org as an alternate would be OK.
>>> But changing the URI is ...
>>> I should abstain from insults and be constructive. So what did you
>>> do with the Web developer (I hope you had one), who reminded you on
>>> the implications of such a change, who maybe referred you to an
>>> article of Tim-Berners Lee from 1998 that gives damned good reasons
>>> not to do so - in your own interest.
>>>
>>> - A bit of related: ISOC.DE proudly syndicates news from the ISOC
>>> website. As do many other chapters and maybe others too. To have
>>> some advance alert on the change of the RSS feed would have been
>>> nice. But stop: there isn't any? Clicking RSS leads you to a page
>>> containing
>>> "Find our more about RSS feeds and how you can use them to keep
>>> up-to-date on Internet Society activities (LINK)"
>>> I assume you mean
>>> "Find out ...".
>>> Anyhow there is nothing to find (2011-12-15 15:18 UTC) out - no
>>> link no nothing. So many places in the world still syndicate -as we
>>> do- the old outdated feed at http://www.isoc.org/headlines/rss.php.
>>> Can you imagine a better organized transition?
>>>
>>> - Internationalisation of the page is a mess. It is absolutely
>>> unpredictable what you will see when you click on the
>>> link for another language. A bit tricky to resolve properly but
>>> well ISOC - sorry the Internet Society Claims to be an international
>>> organization. So if you do internationalisation links should produce
>>> predictable results.
>>> Minor issue: for somebody who has come a bit to age and is not a
>>> native English speaker the teasers on the homepage change way too
>>> fast. To have to stop it by mouse over this is not very accessible.
>>>
>>> So congrats again and best wishes for fixing issues faster than they
>>> pop-up.
>>>
>>> Good luck, enjoy your holidays and have a successful 2012 for the
>>> wealth of ISOC.
>>>
>>> Klaus
>>>
>>>
>>> Dan Graham wrote on 2011-12-15 16:44:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> Our new site has launched! Check it out: www.internetsociety.org
>>>> <http://www.internetsociety.org> (depending on where you are in the
>>>> world, you may still see the old site for the time being. If so, keep
>>>> checking).
>>>>
>>>> Needless to say that this has been a huge project, and as I've said
>>>> before, this only the beginning - not the end:
>>>>
>>>> * As with any new website launch, there will be a few items that
>>>> need to be addressed such as broken links, formatting issues,
>>>> bugs...etc. Please bear with us as we iron out these issues over
>>>> the next few days.
>>>> * We will continue to migrate content, add pictures and videos...etc
>>>> to the new site over the coming days (after all, a website is
>>>> never really "finished").
>>>> * At the moment, there's only a small amount of multilingual pages.
>>>> More will be added throughout the day and tomorrow as our
>>>> translators needed to do some final proofreading given some last
>>>> minute changes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to all of you who provided your valuable time, ideas and
>>>> guidance throughout this process!
>>>>
>>>> As mentioned, if you have feedback, ideas or questions about the site,
>>>> please contact us using: webfeedback at isoc.org
>>>> <mailto:webfeedback at isoc.org>
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Dan
>>>>
>>>> PS: I'll be in touch with you soon about templates.
>>>>
>>>> Dan Graham
>>>> Internet Society
>>>>
>>>> Office: +41 22 809 0368
>>>> Mobile: +41 78 757 9943
>>>>
>>>> www.internetsociety.org <http://www.internetsociety.org>
>>>> www.twitter.com/internetsociety
>>>> www.youtube.com/internetsocietyvideo
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Chapter-delegates mailing list
>>>> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Chapter-delegates mailing list
>> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>
> --
> Klaus Birkenbihl
> Internet Society German Chapter e.V. (ISOC.DE)
> http://www.isoc.de/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Klaus_Birkenbihl.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 293 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20111219/d9ac3b22/attachment.vcf>
-------------- next part --------------
> _______________________________________________
> Chapter-delegates mailing list
> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
Lia Kiessling
Editor, Online
Internet Society
kiessling at isoc.org
www.isoc.org
+41 22 80 90364
www.internetsociety.org
www.twitter.com/internetsociety
www.youtube.com/internetsocietyvideo
More information about the Chapter-delegates
mailing list