Belated Birthday Wish
Mon, 6 Mar 2000, 07:33 pmGrant Malcolm8 posts in thread
Belated Birthday Wish
Mon, 6 Mar 2000, 07:33 pmDid anyone else realise that the website's second birthday passed without notice?
The ITA website was formally launched on the 1st March 1998. Since that date the site has recorded more than 18,000 hits - an average of 24 per day. A hit is recorded each time someone visits the website. Over the last few months that figure has been closer to 40 hits per day.
The busiest section on the ITA website is the Green Room Gossip area. Altogether there have been more than 2,300 messages posted on the message boards; they're currently growing at something like 5 posts per day!
All this has been accomplished with great assistance from the ITA committee and Informed Technology but, i'm ashamed to say, very little support from most clubs. To date, i've only seen three club newsletters that have listed the ITA web address. I'm yet to see a club reproduce the address in a programme for a show.
connect with your local theatre
www.theatre.asn.au
Two lines on each programme or newsletter; it's not much to ask. My birthday wish for the site is that more clubs will get directly behind this endeavour and support it.
Cheers
Grant
The ITA website was formally launched on the 1st March 1998. Since that date the site has recorded more than 18,000 hits - an average of 24 per day. A hit is recorded each time someone visits the website. Over the last few months that figure has been closer to 40 hits per day.
The busiest section on the ITA website is the Green Room Gossip area. Altogether there have been more than 2,300 messages posted on the message boards; they're currently growing at something like 5 posts per day!
All this has been accomplished with great assistance from the ITA committee and Informed Technology but, i'm ashamed to say, very little support from most clubs. To date, i've only seen three club newsletters that have listed the ITA web address. I'm yet to see a club reproduce the address in a programme for a show.
connect with your local theatre
www.theatre.asn.au
Two lines on each programme or newsletter; it's not much to ask. My birthday wish for the site is that more clubs will get directly behind this endeavour and support it.
Cheers
Grant
RE: Other Wishes
Tue, 7 Mar 2000, 02:54 pmhehe thanks guys!
while i'm on a winning wicket here...
i'd like to suggest that the ITA committee move internet connectivity for the ITA office higher up on the priority list. I've got several good reasons why this should be pursued with some urgency.
Already significant amendments to season dates and audition information are appearing on the ITA website sooner than the information is sent to the ITA office. Yet staff in the office are unable to access this up-to-date information because they don't have an internet connection - although they have the computer equipment capable of doing so.
As corrections or notices of new events arrive at the ITA office there is an inevitable delay of a few weeks before being published in the Link. If the office were connected to the internet, the information could be added or updated directly on the site making the information instantly available to members.
Norma, Kim and others frequently respond to calls for help posted on the web site's message boards. They might be able to provide even more timely and accurate information if they could respond to requests directly from the ITA office where they have the necessary information at hand.
The team of librarians has been busy cataloguing the script library to the point where the on-line version available on the website is always out of date. If the ITA office had an internet connection, the librarians would be able to update the catalogue information directly on the web database. The latest information would not just be available in the office, but to all members and visitors to the website.
According to the latest Link newsletter, the ITA has finally bitten the bullet and decided to commence work on a register of theatre resources. This mammoth undertaking might be more readily accomplished if as many people as possible can contribute directly to the resource - like adding their shows to the what's on section. What's one good way of encouraging people to assist in compiling and contributing information? Surely they will more readily commit to assisting if they can see that they can access it for themselves and derive immediate benefits - where better than at the ITA's own website?
David's editorial in the Link magazine (hehe now i'm picking up on some of David's comments - bit like the chicken and egg except that i know David was around a long time before me!) mentions the difficulty of disseminating ITA information to members of member companies. The editorial discusses a number of potential solutions - all very costly relative to publishing the information on the internet for free. Adequately promoted the ITA site has the potential to reach thousands more people interested in theatre.
So, am i suggesing we scrap the Link and stop answering phone enquiries at the ITA office? Absolutely not! Rather i'm suggesting a range of possibilities that would complement these vital communication links. Not everyone will want to access the information on the internet, as Peter Fry suggests. The Link should be maintained, not as a concession to the Luddites (Peter's word, not mine!), but as an important, accessible, tangible promotion and information tool.
A while back i attended an international symposium on Interactive MultiMedia where all sorts of new technologies were being touted as world beaters.
The final keynote speaker spoke in glowing terms about a brilliant device that has revolutionised the provision of information to millions of people. The speaker explained some of the remarkable functionality of the device: it is hardware independent, lightweight, intuitive to use, charging and battery problems are a thing of the past, what's more you don't lose its memory if there is a power blackout or the batteries run flat, the display is legible in a wide range of lighting conditions, you can almost instantly access any information contained in the device, information can easily be annotated using a stylus pen device, the devices are very cheap to produce and can provide information in a variety of languages. He described how he had used this remarkable device in number of environments traditionally hostile or downright dangerous to the current crop of laptop computers including while drinking coffee, lying in bed, flying on an aircraft and even taking a bath! He dubbed this remarkable feat of engineering the Binary Optical Organised Knowledge device. :)
Long live the Link! And let's get the ITA office online!
Cheers
Grant
while i'm on a winning wicket here...
i'd like to suggest that the ITA committee move internet connectivity for the ITA office higher up on the priority list. I've got several good reasons why this should be pursued with some urgency.
Already significant amendments to season dates and audition information are appearing on the ITA website sooner than the information is sent to the ITA office. Yet staff in the office are unable to access this up-to-date information because they don't have an internet connection - although they have the computer equipment capable of doing so.
As corrections or notices of new events arrive at the ITA office there is an inevitable delay of a few weeks before being published in the Link. If the office were connected to the internet, the information could be added or updated directly on the site making the information instantly available to members.
Norma, Kim and others frequently respond to calls for help posted on the web site's message boards. They might be able to provide even more timely and accurate information if they could respond to requests directly from the ITA office where they have the necessary information at hand.
The team of librarians has been busy cataloguing the script library to the point where the on-line version available on the website is always out of date. If the ITA office had an internet connection, the librarians would be able to update the catalogue information directly on the web database. The latest information would not just be available in the office, but to all members and visitors to the website.
According to the latest Link newsletter, the ITA has finally bitten the bullet and decided to commence work on a register of theatre resources. This mammoth undertaking might be more readily accomplished if as many people as possible can contribute directly to the resource - like adding their shows to the what's on section. What's one good way of encouraging people to assist in compiling and contributing information? Surely they will more readily commit to assisting if they can see that they can access it for themselves and derive immediate benefits - where better than at the ITA's own website?
David's editorial in the Link magazine (hehe now i'm picking up on some of David's comments - bit like the chicken and egg except that i know David was around a long time before me!) mentions the difficulty of disseminating ITA information to members of member companies. The editorial discusses a number of potential solutions - all very costly relative to publishing the information on the internet for free. Adequately promoted the ITA site has the potential to reach thousands more people interested in theatre.
So, am i suggesing we scrap the Link and stop answering phone enquiries at the ITA office? Absolutely not! Rather i'm suggesting a range of possibilities that would complement these vital communication links. Not everyone will want to access the information on the internet, as Peter Fry suggests. The Link should be maintained, not as a concession to the Luddites (Peter's word, not mine!), but as an important, accessible, tangible promotion and information tool.
A while back i attended an international symposium on Interactive MultiMedia where all sorts of new technologies were being touted as world beaters.
The final keynote speaker spoke in glowing terms about a brilliant device that has revolutionised the provision of information to millions of people. The speaker explained some of the remarkable functionality of the device: it is hardware independent, lightweight, intuitive to use, charging and battery problems are a thing of the past, what's more you don't lose its memory if there is a power blackout or the batteries run flat, the display is legible in a wide range of lighting conditions, you can almost instantly access any information contained in the device, information can easily be annotated using a stylus pen device, the devices are very cheap to produce and can provide information in a variety of languages. He described how he had used this remarkable device in number of environments traditionally hostile or downright dangerous to the current crop of laptop computers including while drinking coffee, lying in bed, flying on an aircraft and even taking a bath! He dubbed this remarkable feat of engineering the Binary Optical Organised Knowledge device. :)
Long live the Link! And let's get the ITA office online!
Cheers
Grant