Dec. 18, 2000
Six brave souls attended the second meeting of the group. It was chaired by Susan Waters, Overland Park, and took place at the Overland Park Fire Training Center on a very yucky, snowy day.
Names for the Group
It was suggested at the September meeting that "government" and "area" or "metro" should
be part of the name to distinguish us from other Webmaster groups and to imply
a regional focus. It would also be nice if the acronym makes a word. Several
suggestions were made and the group voted to use MAGWeb (Metro Area Government
Webmasters).
MAGWeb now has a listserv hosted by MARC (webmasters@lyris.marc.org) and administered by Ken Davis, Mayor of Countryside, kdavis@kumc.edu. A Web site was discussed at the Sept. meeting and we will reopen discussion on this at the meeting in January.
Breakaway groups: We believed it would be a good idea to spend the last 20-30 minutes of our meetings in small sub-groups. Ideas for topics can be published to the listserv or sent to Susan Waters, sjwaters@opkansas.org. These topics could include: ColdFusion users, Internet policy, FrontPage users, Dreamweaver users, Photoshop and graphics issues, Web site decentralization, Server issues, Emergency Operations Web site issues, etc.
Topics Discussed
New release of Dreamweaver 4 and new version of Dreamweaver
UltraDev.
Of those in attendance, most tailor their sites for 4.0 Netscape and Explorer browsers.
MARC is working on a redesign for its homepage. They would appreciate input.
MARC is also developing a GRC, Government Resource Center that will include links to municipal codes, surveys, purchasing agreements and other documents that are beneficial to share among communities. For more information contact Jody Craig, jcraig@marc.org.
Rich Lovett suggested that we let him know what software we are familiar with and use. He will add this info to the member database for easy reference.
Carl Slaugh, carls@merriam.org, would like to know what kind of software or programs cities are using to display their municipal code. He is looking into putting Merriam's code online.
Suggested Issues to Discuss at Future Meetings
- Ways to use the Web to cut costs.
- Examples: online permits, scheduling Parks & Rec. activities, replacing mailed reports with a web page.
- Interactive forms
- Funding, staffing
- FAQs to reduce phone calls
- Legal issues (panel discussion?)
- Legal impediments
- Open records, privacy
- Large site management
- Making web sites multilingual and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Domain name squatting and poaching
- Decentralization of site to multiple authors with publishing permission in PIO office
- Joint training possibilities
The next MAGWEB meeting will be Jan. 22, 10 a.m. at the MARC offices, 6th and Broadway. Carl Slaugh, Merriam, has volunteered to host.