Hello World,
After many months of thinking and putting off the work, I have bitten the bullet and set out to get our old web site replaced. While this new site is not perfect it is much improved content from our past site. One of the largest improvements is the addition of the “Members Only” section available fro the main page. While this section is not 100% complete yet and ready for member log in the heavy lifting is done and the database is up and running as is the MediaWiki software. The MediaWiki software is the same back end that runs the widely used Wikipedia. While it is not a WYSIWYG editor, it will allow any group member who wants to change the content of the site do so with nothing more than their web browser. I spent a lot of time building and linking to various help and instructional web-pages to assist people new to the wiki concept in learning how to manage a wiki.
What you are looking at right now is the CAS blog. Yes I know blogs are nothing new but this will be way for the CAS to promote it’s self to the world. We will announce meeting topics here (as well as on the list server and the wiki) as this information will be indexed by the search engines and help bring new members and presenters to our group. This blog also fully supports RSS so if you use RSS, add our feed to your browser. We will also have meeting summaries posted here along with links to presenter’s information and photos of meetings. I will be the gatekeeper for the blog making all posts on behalf of everyone. If any user has an announcement or message for the world from CAS, just send it to me in an email and if deemed appropriate for world consumption I will post it here. In the near future all members will be able to post any thing audio/CAS related to our member’s only area.
During the holiday party on Dec 2nd of last year, I asked for volunteers to help form an internet committee. Now that the website has moved to a new server and our new software has been installed I will call a meeting of the internet committee to help with creating content and managing the new member’s only back end. I wish to thank in advance the volunteers for the internet committee, your work will soon begin.
This will be the third wiki I have helped set up and get rolling. The start will be bumpy as members learn how to add content and edit pages on the wiki, but after a few months the site will begin to grow organically and the CAS will have a wonderful archive of all the knowledge we have acquired and the site will be maintained by all members. no central point of control, no bottle necks for edits or new content. If a members sees a typo, or an incorrect piece of data they will be free to edit the information right then and there. As the industry changes and members interest change so will the wiki.
Tim Neudecker
President of CAS
March 15, 2007
Welcome to our new Web Site
The Sound of CAS
