Aug. 17, 2006
Location
Antioch Justice Center, 8500 Antioch, Overland Park, KS.
Attendees
Chris Audano, City of Overland Park
Susan Waters, Mid-America Regional Council
Sonya Fendorf, City of Shawnee
Dan Davis, Jackson County, MO
Anthony Oropeza, Johnson County Parks & Rec
Randy Ellis, City of Overland Park
Rich Lovett, City of K.C., MO
Sean Demory, City of K.C., MO
Jeff Hershberger, City of K.C., MO
Jim Clarke, City of Smithville, MO
Leslie Ensign, Clay County, MO
Eric Gruber, City of Lawrence, KS
Discussion Topics
Google Mini Search
Randy Ellis did a presentation on Google
Mini Search. He said the cost for his organization was $6,000 to search 200,000
pages. Following are some of Google Mini’s capabilities:
- Webpage enabled – define URLs you want it to crawl
- Arrives in hardware “box” form – ready to use
- Can exclude pages (page exclusion capacity) you don't want searched
- Can search selected servers and “collections”
- Can be instructed to follow links outside your server
- Can be used with Internet and intranet
- Search presently maxes out at 300,000 pages
Randy said that Firefox is gaining market share as a web browser
The group was informed that Google Analytics analyzes web-users web and search habits for free.
E-Newsletters and Listservs
Susan Waters did a presentation on e-newsletters.
Susan discussed using third-party vs. in-house e-newsletters. It was recommended
to use both text and HTML versions in e-newsletters. It was also strongly suggested
not to use graphics in text. Short decks (small descriptive paragraphs – one
sentence or two – linked
to the full article or text on the website) were recommended as a beneficial
format for e-newsletters. Use of hyperlinks was suggested. Always provide Unsubscribe
information and follow-up and respond to Unsubscribe requests. You should always
include your logo in your e-newsletter so the subscriber is aware of the newsletter’s
producer. You should not include attachments in your newsletter.
A list of 20 words and phrases that may get your e-newsletter trapped in spam filters was provided. A few of the terms are:
“this is not spam”
“congratulations”
“dear friend”
“free (including toll-free)”
“unsubscribe”
Susan provided handouts for Critical Questions for ListServs.
Following are some third-party, out-of-the-box and in-house/programming listserv and e-newsletter software and support systems. (These options were presented at the 3/5 meeting and provided again at the 8/6 meeting):
Third Party
Bravenet (www.bravenet.com)
- 9,000 subscribers for 12 months is $299.
NTarget (www.ntarget.com)
- $99/month for 5,000 e-mails.
Emfluence (www.emfluence.com)
- KC based company
Out-of-box Software
Absolute Newsletter (www.xigla.com/absolutenl)
- $199 Microsoft environment only.
L-Soft’s Listserv and Listserv Lite
(www.lsoft.com)
- Free trial downloads.
In-house/Programming Required
Mailman (www.list.org)
- FREE! Requires incorporating into your Web site.
Downloads Center (www.freedownloadscenter.com/Network_and_Internet/Mail_Server_Tools) Can find tools for ASP, ColdFusion, PHP, etc.
It was suggested that Merriam, KS, has a good e-newsletter. A link is provided to Merriam E-News: http://www.merriam.org/topics/updates.htm
Anthony Orepeza shared some publications of interest with the group. These publications were titled “Creative” and “Layers”. Contact Anthony for details on these publications.
Rich Lovett suggested web tips as a topic for a future meeting.
Next meeting
10 a.m. Thursday, September 21, at Mid-America Regional Council (MARC),
600 Broadway, K.C., Mo..