Website Sustainability

To read more on about the Web sustainability project at  http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/  . The project is essence was to consider ways to rescue websites that are at risk and make them available sustainably - in effect at no cost, easy to maintain and transfer to a new host/user. A. Migration to Google Site 1. Introduction The project started by looking at 'rescuing' a site (www.emkn.org) by copying content to a Google Site version. The advantages and disadvantages have been found for this approach, and some suggestions have come out of the project. 2. Why Google Sites? Google Sites (www.google.com/sites/overview.html) was investigated initially as a suitable platform for several reasons: • It is a freely available resource, allowing this approach to be replicated with other at risk resources. • It allows changes for individual pages or the entire site remotely by subscription • It supports native RSS feeds for: o Announcements pages ...

Previously I looked at using other tools    to host sites sustainably (or even free)  such as:  Dropbox  (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/alternative-hosting-approach-1-dropbox.html )  Google Sites (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/google-sites-for-sustainability-week-3.html  ) Hosting options: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hosting-how-to-get-it-out-there-for.html Free tools: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-best-free-tools-for-website.html Amazon S3 (see: http://websitesustainability.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/thoughts-about-using-amazon-s3.html ) In this post I look at a real web site being moved to being hosted on google Drive as a case study of moving sites that need preserving on to Google Drive as a hosting option. 1. First step is to capture the static HTML files. We need to copy all the files we want, this has been discussed previous see ...

Some of the work from this web sustainability project has been summarised in a recent blog entry at:  http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/expertsatnorthampton/2011/09/27/web-sustainability-its-gone/ The importance of sustainability of publicly funded web resources is considered. This work has been supported by funding from JISC. The site can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/site/emknorg/ or http://www.web-sustainablity.net/emkn/ Survey about this material can be found at: http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=67775a0a-336f-45a5-a222-2f1a6615752c please feel free to fill it in or http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=cec22f0a-e467-4c15-a319-74d96bb8ed9d

A central feature of the site is the 'Tube map',  a graphical representation of the services on offer.  So a survey of these features on the site  http://www.web-sustainablity.net/   was carried out. Overall the respondents were satisfied or held no strong views with they way it looks. People seemed reasonably happy with the ability to find what they wanted on the site. Most people either thought the layout was right for them or didn't have strong views either way. From those that disagreed there were not further comments to help find out what the problem was. Most people thought they would use the site. The person that stated they strongly disagreed went on to say " Site contains lots of useful info that I was not aware was available " and on all other aspects of the survey had been positive about the site. These are results are indicative only as the sample size is small (10 respondents) When asked improving the navigation of the tube map ...

The site has been copied to www.web-sustainablity.net  a site specifically for hosting 'at risk' but relatively small web-sites that have valuable information for a wider community. This version of the EMKN site can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/emkn/ There is also a mobile version available at:  mobile.web-sustainablity.net   This work has been supported by funding from JISC. The site can be viewed at   http://www.web-sustainablity.net/emkn/ Survey about this material can be found at:  http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=67775a0a-336f-45a5-a222-2f1a6615752c   please feel free to fill it in or  http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=cec22f0a-e467-4c15-a319-74d96bb8ed9d

The website under-development is currently completely separate from the www.emkn.org site and is hosted on a Google sites site with connections to a Dropbox site (used as at temporary measure) Main page: sites. google.com/site/emknorg/home Three examples of other pages are shown below: Example 1: Networking and Good Practice :  sites.google.com/site/emknorg/services/networking-good-practise Example 2: Technological Services: sites. google.com/site/emknorg/services/technological-services Example 3: Enterprise Development:  sites.google.com/site/emknorg/services/enterprise-development The flash based Tube image has been converted into a more search engine friendly image map and HTML links and ALT tag describing the link aiding accessibility. Click here for the image map Content is being migrated from the dropbox to Google Sites Google analytics has been added to the site both Google sites and Dropbox to capture that information. Analytics is also add...

Sites like The East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) site are worth saving for many reasons (including but certainly not exclusively: return on the investment both in terms of money and time; and as an information source). The site " The Universities of the East Midlands contain an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise but it’s not always easy to navigate to the sources of support that could make a real difference to your business. The East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) website will help guide you to the broad range of services that are available to help grow and develop your company ." EMKN (2011) The 'rescued' sites can also be later be taken over by others at a future date or taken as a starting for similar site. Perhaps one that is not immediately clear is their value in their own right as a record. Even if these sites are never added to, maintaining them means potentially a snapshot of the activities of partnerships, issues, the kind of activitie...

One of the hope for goals of the project is to make it easier for search engines to find the site, especially one of the key features of the site - the nicknamed 'Tube Map' which can found at sites.google.com/site/emknorg/home/map . This map provides a route through the services the partner universities provide.  "The services are divided into eight categories, or  tube lines . You can navigate these by clicking on the menu of services above, or by looking around the map, and clicking on the  tube stops . This will reveal the services that our universities offer, along with contact details and case studies." EMKN website So one of the elements that has been consideration to improve the chances of picking this important feature of the site,  is using image maps instead of Flash from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) point of view. Two key reasons for moving over to an image map instead of an interactive flash version: 1. Searchbots  such as Google s...

East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) is an online resource which is currently at risk, due to the demise of regional development agencies, the imminent closure of the company upon whose server it sits and the uncertain future of the East Midlands Universities Association (EMUA), who created the resource. However the information held on within the site (technologies, business services and facilities within EMUA’s institutions is valuable. Site statistics indicate that EMKN is well used in the region, considering the small target market (BLAs) and attracts significant interest from further afield. Feedback from users has been very favourable, and the site is valued by both member HEIs and brokers (see attached letters of support). EMKN is therefore ‘at risk’ and the issues are these •EMKN brings together valuable resources that will promote and assist business community interaction, in line with government policy both on HE-business engagement and on-line information...