austraLasia
#1840
The new look ANS - please
take a look at www.infoans.org
ROME: 6th May 2007 -- The launch date for the new look ANS, completely
redesigned and restyled, was set for 6th May, and even though in Rome it was
still the evening of the 5th, in fact in the EAO and South Asia Regions it was
already very early morning of 6th May - so completely
appropriate.
There is no doubt that the new approach for
ANS is both professional and pleasing to the eye. It has been designed
following extensive investigation of some of the top online news products
worldwide - as for example most of the major dailies which now have online
access. News items are coupled with photos and where no news item as such
but only a caption's worth came with the photo, then the photo-cum-caption is
available in a separate photonews section. In due course - later this
month in fact - an entire image bank of ANS photos going back over the year,
will be available and this will naturally contain all future
photos.
It would be good for people to know that all of
this sits on a Salesian-owned server but not at the Pisana. Many
mistakenly think everything is hosted here. Not so. Edulife,
the Salesian server referred to, is a company in Verona, but Salesian owned, and
that is where www.infoans.org is now situated. We have also moved
www.sdb.org to the same server. Currently (ie in the moments I am writing
this news item) we are endeavouring to successfully connect the two sites so
that sdb.org 's usual representation of several ANS news items pulls correctly
from the same database. Not quite there yet, but we will get it there
shortly. Behind the scenes a number of code changes have occurred and
while at one level it is simple enough, at another level it approaches rocket
science!
Another development which is moving along
gradually, is the transferral of much regularly sought documentation in sdb.org
to the new sdl.sdb.org (this time with no www in front of it) - in other words a
subweb of sdb.org. It just so happens that this web is not sitting at
Verona but on a simple single computer server at the Pisana. In due course
it may be moved across too. The process is long and detailed - that is,
the gradual moving of documents across, because the 'secret' of SDL is its rapid
and effective search mechanism, and this depends entirely on the accuracy of the
metadata entered in for each item, hence the long timeline in moving the five
official languages across for each document. But of course SDL offers
another possibility - it is not restricted to five languages. Currently,
Korea has offered a stack of its translated Salesian material which it wants to
give wider access to. China is nibbling at the bait, and Fr Compri is
considering making his thousands of letters of Mons. Cimatti likewise
available. There are also several Bahasa Indonesia documents
available. English is largely complete. Italian has just begun with the
availability of all the letters of Fr Vigao's period of office. The other
RM letters will follow over the next few weeks. SDL will operate in parallel to
the 'documents' section on sdb.org for a long time yet. We need to
absolutely sure the system works well before linking up the two directly.
Readers of austraLasia already have easy access to http://sdl.sdb.org
Communications delegates in the EAO and South Asia
regions will have received an email and attachment inviting them to a meeting to
be run by ANS at Cebu in October (from 18-21st). This is also intended for ANS
correspondents. As everyone realises, in both regions, the system works
differently. For EAO it is austraLasia, and for SA it is BIS. And
both these communication realities tend to encourage a broader 'citizen
journalist' approach. I cannot speak for BIS but I can for austraLasia,
and it is clear that the 'every confrere is a correspondent' slogan has worked
well, progressively, over ten years. The news comes in. Many of these
items then become 'formal' candidates for ANS publication. The system
works well. In any year austraLasia has some 60-70 individual
'correspondents' who have sent in an item of news. We can hardly expect
them all to turn up to Cebu in October!! But at least one from each
province would be a real bonus. That will depend on discussions at the
local, provincial level, obviously.
Final point - after
all this, expect a break in service this week - am on the road until Thursday
with only casual and brief opportunities to connect; that may not allow time for
publication.
_________________
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