Bob, I reviewed this, including the proposed contract language
that had been vetted by Chris Imlay, with the A&F Committee at the November
20 meeting. I provided an explanation in last week’s report but perhaps
the somewhat longer explanation I gave A&F will be helpful:
I mentioned earlier that there are
two enhancements for which we would like to contract with Fathom. Discussion of
three enhancements had been going on for some time, with Chris Imlay becoming
involved in the development of a contract form that Chris feels is suitable.
Chris had signed off on the contract on October 19, but I wanted to review the
projects with Jon Bloom before proceeding. The result of that review was that
we decided to eliminate one of the three projects and to scale back a second
one. Jon believes that the two remaining projects are within Fathom’s
capabilities, that they are better able to deliver them than our staff will be
in a reasonable time frame, and that therefore – somewhat exceptionally
– the best course of action for us to take is to enter into the contract.
The revised contract is attached. I have told Kim Mitola that I will let her
know whether we want to proceed right after this A&F Committee meeting.
They are listed on page 81 of the Proposed 2011-2012 Plan as two of three
examples of web enhancements for which we are budgeting some capital
expenditures for outside programming, but with the committee’s
concurrence I would much prefer to proceed with them now.
The projects are described as follows in the draft contract:
2.1.
Query Report. Fathom will develop and integrate into the ARRL website the
ability for ARRL Directors, Section managers and members to conduct for
themselves data queries (for example, event dates, times, club activities and
the like) and the ability to print the results of the query. Fathom will
implement this functionality as follows:
Users perform a search on the website the same way they
currently do. If the search returns results, a button, link or drop-down will
appear along with the results to allow the user to generate a report based on
the current search results.
Each type of data can have one or more fixed templates.
In the case where there is more than one template option, the user will be
given a choice of which template to use. A template may output any type of
format (e.g., HTML, plain text, CSV, XML…). Fathom will provide sample
HTML and CSV templates; ARRL will be responsible for modifying or creating additional
templates as needed.
This capability will be available for each type of data
for which a search page is provided if one or more templates are configured for
that search type.
The number of records that can be returned in a report
will be limited to a finite number. The limit will be configurable for each
kind of data.
2.2.
Audio RSS Feed. Fathom will design, implement, test and deploy an addition
to the PagesController that has the ability to read and display audio media in
an RSS format compatible with iTunes.® This will allow ARRL to feature
audio media content of any page-builder page within iTunes.
There is some urgency,
particularly with respect to the audio RSS feed, which we are being asked about
almost daily. What we expect Fathom to deliver in each case is a function within
the content management system, which at this point their programmers are much
more familiar with. This was Jon Bloom’s recommendation, despite his
strong bias against farming anything out, so he and his staff can deal with
other priorities.
I am still waiting to hear
back from Kim Mitola.
73,
Dave K1ZZ
From: Bob Vallio
[mailto:rbvallio@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 8:38 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: Re: Web project status report
Please see the over-sized red print
in the paragraph below. As near as I can tell from what I have
read, those two enhancements are not critical to our mission.. We have
spent, in my opinion, way too much money for a poor product from Fathom.
What is the urgency to spend even more money for Fathom to work on those two
items right now? I believe they are well within the capabilities of our
own personnel to manage at some time in the near future.
Bob Vallio, W6RGG
On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ <dsumner@arrl.org> wrote:
Officers, Directors and
Vice Directors:
Here is this week’s
website project status
report.
Last week Jon Bloom was
preoccupied with programming necessary to production
of the next edition of the
Repeater Directory and could
not devote much attention to the website. Partly as a result, just four Bugzilla tickets were closed. On
Monday, December 6 the IT and Sales &
Marketing staffs held a joint meeting to review e-store and membership issues.
While this led to a couple of
tickets being closed,
the net result was an increase in the bug list as we tried to capture
everything needing attention (including
desired enhancements). As of
now there are 68 items on the bug list, two of which are the enhancements that we would
like Fathom to do under a supplemental contract (I’m
awaiting a call back from Kim Mitola) and another 32 of which are staff-assigned
enhancements (in addition there’s
one enhancement currently assigned to Fathom that I expect us to take back). Of the
remaining 33, 15 are bugs that are assigned to Fathom and 18 are assigned to ARRL staff.
In the coming weeks, these two
numbers will be the
best measures of progress toward completion
of the transition. There may be some new ones added as we go along, but ideally we will see the two numbers
decline and ultimately reach zero.
I have sent a message to Section Managers
following up on the one
I sent on November 18 about the “big
club list.” I have made the same request of them that I did of you: to
make public at least the basic contact
information in their
Member Profile. I also asked them to make the same request of their section
leadership appointees. I hope the response is as good as it was among officers,
directors and vice directors.
73,
Dave Sumner, K1ZZ