The NEW Standard in ASIS Chapter
Website Design SFASIS
Webmaster updates members about the newly designed site
The all new SFASIS.org Web site is a
state of the art product. Active server pages and a dynamic database
drive this site giving both the chapter officers and you, the
member, more control of the website. For the member, you will have
the ability to instantly update your profile, add achievements,
certifications or recognitions to your public record, and sort thru
the membership directory with ease. For chapter officers and
committee members a Content Management System control panel and
"Chair Tools" driven by the database "backend" allows them to update
most parts of the site instantly without having to know HTML or to
rely on the Webmaster (who does like to sleep occasionally).
Maybe you noticed that the images
change randomly on each page and on each reload of a page? Or that
the Certification Spotlight on the homepage is different each time
you visit the site? Or perhaps that the all important sponsors have
a significantly more prominent placement on each page, with their
images and hyperlinks randomly loaded so that all sponsors can get
"top billing". New Internet technology and lots of coding make it
happen.
This site is designed with the
future in mind: a navigation system that is expandable or
contractible, depending on Chapter needs; on-line registration for
many events, with instant database output to Chapter officers; a
career center with job placement listings that is divided into
public and member only areas; and an easy to access and easy to use
Member Only area.
Way back in 1998 a then non-member,
Steve Duell, had a revolutionary idea... a Chapter Website. He
started a revolution to which many other chapters joined in by
creating their own Chapter websites. Over the years he added many
useful features to the SFASIS Website. SFASIS.org became a
"household" name in the ASIS circles, becoming the first Chapter
Website to receive ASIS International recognition and to be held up
as the model for all other Chapters to follow.
In 2004, the SFBA chapter hired my
company, Utkaduck Design, to take that website to "the next level".
We incorporated many cutting edge techniques and technologies into
the new site. During the first version of our website, we discovered
that the Internet quickly became a very useful tool for our members
because of its 24/7 availability and our ability to keep our website
updated with the latest information and useful features. The Chapter
volunteers also benefited from the website through the online forms
gathering information that helped them with event registrations,
online payments, and answering common questions. The Chapter saved
money because operating the website has never cost more than what it
used to spend on just the monthly printed version of the newsletter.
And perhaps most importantly, we proved that Chapters CAN use a
website to improve their Chapter's efficiency and effectiveness.
Since then we have added an online
election process, a safe and secure credit card processing system,
greatly expanded the capabilities of the sponsor display, modified
the database and related code to significantly reduce the changes of
rogue SQL Injection hack attempts, added a "drop-down" feature on
the home page to display urgent messages, and created a process
where vendors could sign up and pay for booth spaces at the yearly
conference. Other enhancements included coding the site to ensure
that only members who paid chapter dues were entitled to event
discounts and access to the member only area.
We spent the first 5 months of 2009
planning and designing this new site. We incorporated a variety of
design ideas and suggestions that we received in the past couple of
years. Though much of the "text" content is the same as it has been
for the past 5 years, the way in which it is displayed, updated and
archived has changed dramatically. Several of the enhancements in
this new site include a full site search feature (which also
searches and indexes PDFs, Word docs, etc), all previous HTML based
monthly newsletters were converted to PDF, and an improvement in the
flow of the member only data - from the way it appears on the member
only welcome page to the way that you access the info in the member
area. Finally, for enhanced security, all member only area content
is secured by SSL.
In the coming months we hope to
make this Chapter Website even more popular and useful. Your input
is important -whether it be a suggestion for improvement, or the
submission of photos to use in our new "What Have I Missed" section
of the website.
Alex Dourov
Utkaduck Design
Livermore CA
http://www.utkaduck.com
adourov@utkaduck.com
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