WOW! Pushbutton Websites Steve Johnson DSO-CS

What You Will Hear Today Unit Website rationale The WOW project: “pushbutton” websites A WOW walkthrough Caveats/Restrictions/Limitations What to do next

WOW Target Audience Units without FSO-CS/SO-CS Units with no Website Units with neglected Websites FSO-CS/SO-CS without Web experience Experienced Website designers with no time

Reasons to Have a Unit Website? Attract new members  a “touchstone” for candidates. Attract students to Public Education events Share information among unit members Unit pride Many more…

Reasons to Not Have a Unit Website? Programming is arcane, difficult to do well Easy to do a bad job; hard to do a good one Bad website is worse than none –Makes the unit look bad; discourages visitors –Makes the Auxiliary look bad Neglected website worse than a bad one –Tells the world “you don’t care”

D11S Website Status in January Divisions –All have websites (100%) 72 Flotillas –55 have known websites (76%) –17 do not (24%) –Over 27 of the 55 are neglected… 44+ units – 61% – need a “pushbutton” solution!

“PUSHBUTTON” WEBSITES The WOW Project

The WOW Project: “Pushbutton” Websites Any unit: an instant site Personalized to your unit –Staff Listing –Contact and meeting info –Public Education Course Calendar Zip Code Course Finder Instant “Flyer” Stop now, add later…

How “Instant”? 1.Open a web browser 2.Type wow.uscgaux.info 3.Enter your Aux credentials 4.Enter your unit 5.Press “Log In” Elapsed time: 15 seconds

Very “Instant”… 6.Click “Configure Site” 7.Click “Enable Site”

HOME PAGE: About the Auxiliary CONTACT & MEETING INFO UNIT’S STAFF LIST And were done… PE COURSE LIST BY ZIP CODE Elapsed time: 25 seconds

But wait! There’s more… 1 st 25 Seconds: Home page Flotilla meeting & contact info Current staff list Public Education Course Finder Links to –Division Site –District Site –National Site Log on for staff contact info Every 5 Minutes: Unit calendars Rolling announcements Members Only (passwd) Unlimited Custom Pages External links Feeds –AIS –Weather –Twitter –Anything else Prospective Member Program Form (coming) Much, much more…

Bottom line – WOW Websites Basic site in 25 seconds No excuse for any flotilla or division to not have a basic, always up-to-date Web presence. Trivial to expand site with no computer skills So easy, unit’s elected officers can do Help fill your PE classes, attract members Aux-04 Website C-School being streamlined; students want only WOW. CHDIRAUX has approved.

ONLINE PE CALENDAR DATABASE The WOW Project

National PE Calendar Database What is it? Central database with (potentially) all PE courses in the country Maintained by PE officers at the flotilla level Entered courses show up on all WOW websites (unit or Zip Code searches) Entered courses may show up on other sites “Instant” Course flyer with time, date, details Entry generates an electronic “Notice of Intent to Teach” form (7023), s to District

How does it work? A WOW Website is not required to participate

The “Online” 7023 Form…

DSO-PE

Zip Code Class Search – Any WOW Site

“Instant” Printable Color Flyer Meeting Details and Contact Info Zoomable location map Course Syllabus

Bottom Line – National PE Course Database – Flotilla Perspective Fill out your 7023 Form online, and you’re in. Generates the District paperwork and sends via . You’re done. If you don’t use it, nearby flotillas who do will siphon away some of your students due to the Zip code search. Paper 7023’s can be entered for you by an SO or DSO, but…how last Century…

WOW Takeaway It’s to your advantage for your unit to have a modern Website that is current. Those without can have one in less than a minute. WOW sites are important as public portals into your PE course offerings

The WOW “PE Webkit” A software tool for FSOs-CS and SOs-CS Purpose: Add PE Database + Zip Code Course finder to any Website! Takes minutes, tops!

The WOW Project: “Pushbutton” Websites NOT a template… A true, data-driven (content-driven) site The website is already built – The unit just puts in the content (words, occasional images)

Demo (to follow) Logging onto the WOW website “Enabling” the site Reviewing your default site –Logged in versus logged out Adding a public education page Adding a PE course Viewing a PE flyer Customizing a home page, add photograph Link to another site More…

Live Demo Site

What Else Can You Do? Links to other Websites Custom Pages (unlimited) Re-order the menu items Announcements/items that expire Upload photographs/artwork (within reason) Upload documents to link/serve

What about images? Images are uploaded to WOW Stored on WOW server “in the cloud” –Folder for each unit is supported –Photos are “bit reduced” when uploaded Be prudent: Use images to sweeten web pages only. Put “photo galleries” on commercial sites –Embed with an iframe tag National reserves the right to limit photos at any time.

What if You Know HTML? Use it on any page Accomplish any fine-grained task Except for workarounds, not recommended, because you will not always be the CS officer

Public Access to Your WOW Site

VIRTUAL SERVER wow.uscgaux.info WOW Application DOCUMENTS & IMAGES UNIT TABLES Under the Hood WOW DASHBOARD WOW II Application

Early returns… “You enabled me to create a website for my flotilla... Thank you so much. I am truly grateful….” Marti Bright-Jordan, Flotilla Commander Flotilla SR Palm Desert "As SO-CS for the San Diego Division, I gained sufficient knowledge during a single WOW seminar to quickly create and customize websites for three flotillas that have never had one.” Randy Houk, SO-CS Division 1 11SR San Diego

Summary WOW-II offers an immediate Web presence to units without Websites or webmasters; WOW sites are built around content, not around computer coding; Ordinary mortals such as Flotilla Commanders can maintain; WOW sites can be tailored easily by such mortals to the unit’s specific needs.

Questions?

Access to District 085 WOW Site