P2RX WEB CALL
Thurs Sep 24 at 9 PT, 10MT, 11CT, 12ET
Next Call - Thurs Dec 17 at 9 PT, 10MT, 11CT, 12ET

Attendees:
Jean Waters - P2Rx, Erin Bass - P2Rx, Michelle Gant - Peaks to Prairies, David Webb- WRRC, Zac Fowler - P2RIC, Tyler Rubach - GLRPPR, Jonathan Stumpf - PPRC, Beth Anderson - EPA, Nate Bisbee - NEWMOA, Andy Bray - NEWMOA, John Hanso - WSPPN, Cesar - WSPPN

News - Tyler was tasked with centralizing the news database onto one server. Centralized news makes it easier on all centers to not have to maintain databases and sharing becomes easier on a shared database. Since GLRPPR uses their news for several different websites, Tyler will host news on their site, so that he can serve all centers' news. He has finished the form so far and invited everyone to take a look at it to get feedback (www.glrppr.org/p2rxnews). He is working on getting information into the database. In order to publish news, people will have to log on to the glrppr site to add news to their own site. There was some question about whether people were using beginning and end display dates. Some people are using them so it was decided that the date feature would be included in this new centralized system, but the length of display (7, 14, or 30 days) has not yet been decided. Keywords were also discussed as many people use them so that news can be archived by subject. With Andy's suggestion, Tyler can create a folksonomy of keywords for people to select when publishing news so that there are synergies among centers. News editors need to have a good understanding of how they are labeling their news so that it's picked up by the right feeds. Centers can give permission to others to be able to add news to their site, and the new system will ensure that updates are made to both the centers' and the national news. By default everyone will be able to add news to their own site, and to the p2rx national news. Funding news should be developed and discussed further. Also, a consensus on what regional news page should look like is needed. A feature is being added so that centers can remove irrelevant shared stories. Tyler also suggested that news is added to both the national site and the centers' sites before the change takes place so that the database can be populated. Tyler will have the framework done and worked with NEWMOA by Dec 17.

Programs Directory - Jean needs to talk with the center directors about proposed change of each center having a list of core programs in their programs directory. Additionally, programs that are only there for help (not p2 programs) need to be prevented from being displayed in the programs directory. These changes can be made by simply "flagging" the core programs and the non-p2 programs. This change was initiated from complaints that so many programs are listed, and that it's difficult for a user to find help. Center directors need to decide which programs are core programs. Also, in the programs directory, NPPR should be able to designate who their members are with the NPPR logo because they redisplay our programs directory on their site. Everyone agreed to do this.

Topic Hub - When the topic hubs were done in the past, all of the things that were part of the narrative was written as a .txt file. In the past the topic hub would retrieve that .txt file, causing a lot of server traffic. Since then, it has been decided to embed the links from the topic hubs in the database. There is a great way for checking links in the database; however, the links that were embedded in the narrative were not getting checked. NEWMOA found a total of 900 dead links. If it was a dead link, they tried to fix it. If it was a live link, they tried to see if that link was already in the database. If so, the link was rewritten as a reference to the record in the database. There are a handful of the links that NEWMOA couldn't figure out where they go. Centers need to check them and either delete or replace the link. The easiest way for new hub links is to hard code it with hrefs, then the system will recode it with the new database reference. New links for existing narratives can be added with the link manager. Html can be edited in topic hub admin or pulled out and edited in dreamweaver. Centers should delete their topic hub files on their server. Andy will look at Tiny MCE as a way to see where people go from looking at a topic hub but also to help with web measures.

Web Measures - These used to be done as semi-annual reports that were both activity- and web-measures. They were reported to Jean so that she could create a comprehensive report. It was a painful process because of software issues but also changes in staff. When the admin group met in February, they made a decision to not do web measures anymore. This has been revisited because there is some value in knowing the level of activity, even if we cannot identify who is visiting the site. Currently Andy is exploring some type of information capture of website traffic in a way that's not such a rigorous standard because P2RX is still interested in user sessions and page views. It was decided that web trends no longer needs to be used, any software that keeps track of web activity will suffice. This will allow centers to report their own numbers with whatever software they currently use, which will be qualified by P2Rx the report. It was also suggested that some centers could directly share their analytics with Jean (i.e. Google Analytics).

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