Thursday, February 24, 2011

Where is the new Longmeadow website?

At the SB meeting last November 1 Rob Aseltine announced that the Town Manager's Website Task Force had decided to use the WordPress "open source" Content Management System (CMS) platform for the town's revamped website. He also announced that the new Longmeadow.org website would be at least partially operational by January 1 with some additional components being rolled out at a later date. At the SB meeting on February 7, he announced a 2-3 month delay because more time was needed to transfer the archived meeting minutes to the new website format.

A recent look back at the July 26 meeting last year during which the Longmeadow Select Board discussed the forward plan for development of a new town website was pretty interesting.  Mr. Barkett called it right.... he didn't want the plan to fall into the category of "analysis- paralysis".  Below is a short video clip from this meeting with Mr. Barkett's insightful remarks...



At the SB meeting this week there was a short discussion of the need to create a website masthead that was more reflective of Longmeadow.  I'm not surprised that the new "free" Wordpress website "right out of the box" will require some modifications.  A typical theme for Word Press is shown below...


After a little Google searching (I simply searched for "Longmeadow + fiscal year + 2011"- click here to view results) I was able to find the new Longmeadow.org website and was surprised to see a masthead almost identical to the WordPress theme shown above.

I'm sure that there are creative people in Longmeadow who can provide a more imaginative masthead for the new improved Longmeadow website and which would be more reflective of our town.  Perhaps the Select Board should sponsor a contest!

Mr. Barkett had it right... we don't need "analysis-paralysis".... we need a functioning town website with updated information.  It shouldn't be that difficult!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or at least they should display an actual photo of something in town.

Christine Swanson said...

Jim, The site you found is a test site and the masthead used on this test site is not the one that will be on the live site.

Thought I would clarify this for you.

Chris

alan said...

Changing the masthead in the Wordpress default theme involves about three mouse clicks after the administrator logs in. That your complaint focuses on this completely trivial issue suggests that the new website is right on track.

Jim Moran, LongmeadowBiz said...

Alan... you must be kidding when you state that "the new website is right on track".

We are now 10 months into the building of this new website and it still looks like it is "right out of the box". An update at a recent SB meeting stated that it would take up to 2 months of time to move documents (meeting minutes, etc.) from the old website to the new one.

You and I both know that it shouldn't take this long to create a new website including transfer of archived documents if you know what you are doing.

BTW... it took you a month to respond to this posting.