vTools Presentation IEEE-USA Annual Meeting March 5, 2011 Dave Green, Bob Parro, Ron Jensen,

Key Messages Communicate what vTools is What are the products Encourage use 11/12/2018

vTools is a Mission Team Committee Products Brand 11/12/2018

vTools Mission Statement Providing tools to the volunteers and staff who support our members.

vTools Team Volunteers Howard Michel {1} Marc Apter {1} Bill Ratcliff {1} Charles Lord {1} Eva Lang {1} Ron Jensen {1, 2} Dave Green {1, 2} Gene Ressler {1, 2} Bob Parro {1, 2} Jim Isaak {2} Gustavo Giannattasio {2} Tania Quiel {2} Contractors- part time Jesse Marco David 2 prior contractors Staff Eugene Khusid Khanh Luu Tom Smith Vera Sharoff {1} < 2011 {2} 2011 (beginning 5th year, formal committee in mid 2010)

Terminology: vTools Team vs Products vs “Brand” We develop some products Meetings, WebInABox, Voting We buy some products DimDim, first pass of Voting, Survey Tool, Wordpress Volunteers to go to one place to find tool support 11/12/2018

Present Portfolio In Production: Pilot Recommended Tool Meetings, Production means SLA-based support after an IEEE QA acceptance process In Production: Meetings, Supports new L31 process 100+ sections involved (essentially 100% for L31) Credit card handling Credit cards for R1-7 for sections with Concentration Banking Section subunits can use CC wit section’s concentration banking WebInABox, File Storage (for presentation distribution, etc.) Voting DimDim (staff, branded) [We have ~7 months to replace] Blog tool – WordPress (staff, branded) Survey tool – FluidSurveys (staff, branded) Documentation: vTools Blog http://vtools.ieee.org Pilot Officer Reporting Student Branch Reporting Recommended Tool Doodle (just documentation, not branded) 11/12/2018

The Documentation Site http://vtools.ieee.org 11/12/2018

Meetings In production On-line registration Credit card support in production for R1-7 L31 Meeting report (only need to add attendee information, only IEEE Web Account necessary) RSS, iCal, and other feeds of meetings and L31s Calendar support  Badge printing, meal tickets Notice of meeting for display on a web site without webmaster involvement Feeds meeting information to myIEEE Other enhancements prototyped

Example Web Page 11/12/2018

What does Meetings mean? Easy to create a unit calendar Data that can be reused myIEEE RSS Easy to distribute meeting information Email with Link to meeting Solves the registration and many credit card problems 11/12/2018

WebInABox Basic Section web site “WebInABox” In Production Wizard-like interface for creation Data driven Enable a common look and feel Calendar for all units pulls from Meetings tool Pulls volunteer data from IEEE databases No webmaster involvement required Upload and distribute files

What does WebInABox mean? Web presence is important. Web usage is declining More unit web sites are out of date WebInABox allows a system that can be neglected http://webinabox.vtools.ieee.org/ 11/12/2018

Voting Electronic Election for local units In Production Supported all units for 2010 elections that chose to use it Can support elections for units other than Sections, Chapters, Affinity Groups

Blogs and Surveys Sections Congress 2008 Requests Blogs Surveys Wanted ability to publish a section leadership blog Eliminate need to write HTML Adopted WordPress Enterprise Can be used as a unit web site/CMS IEEE Branded Templates for GeoUnits and others available Hosted at IEEE Desire to move larger web sites off Joomla and Drupal Surveys Wanted ability to create easy surveys of members Adopted FluidSurveys 11/12/2018

What do Blogs and Surveys mean? Tools to allow engagement of member Don’t require html skills Allow them to be immediate. Have RSS feeds to allow members to pull data Display RSS feeds to add data to blog 11/12/2018

DimDim What it is Web Conferencing service to Geographic Organizational Units for online meetings, webinars, training, demos and presentations. (not an electronic meeting service) The service is available to Geogaphic Organization Units DimDim Enterprise Edition hosted by DimDim Our license allows multiple simultaneous teleconferences with up to 50 attendees Uses a scheduling interface More details available at http://ewh.ieee.org/mu/top40/

DimDim Challenges and Solutions Land line number is not toll free, DimDim software allows meetings to be overwritten by other volunteers without warning (same teleconference room only) We created FAQ Blog that goes over: Easy Start and Rules of the Road Ways of making toll free calls using Skype, Google Voice, and DimDim built-in VoIP Where to get help on DimDim Blog is updated as we learn more about what users need A new service vendor will be adopted prior to the end of the IEEE contract with DimDim (now owned by Salesforce.Com)

What does Web Conferencing mean? It supports unit webinars It supports electronic training sessions It doesn’t support electronic meetings without a conference call It allows recording of meetings for reuse It reduces travel costs It allows people to attend meetings that distance or time may otherwise not allow.

e-Notice Issues Large amount of staff time is dedicated to e-Notice mailings There is a wait queue for mailings Tool is lacking some features such as log of e-mail contents and RSS that can be consumed by myIEEE Unsubscribe functionality can be improved Process is lacking automation 11/12/2018

e-Notice Proposed solution Core functionality will be based on e-mailing code from vTools.Voting Aimed toward simple mailings: section, chapter, affinity Access will be based on volunteer role Will provide simple filters by status and grade Will restrict frequency of mailings Attachments restricted in size utf8 encoding for multilingual support Mailings will require quick and simple approval by staff Complex mailings will be handled by “old” e-Notice E-mails requiring approvals by volunteers from multiple OUs Custom mailings: society mailings, staff mailings, etc. 11/12/2018

e-Notice replacement Preliminary release feature request: Mail merge (Name, ID, Section, etc) Archive of messages (do we include attachments?) HTML support (Multilingual support) Moderation (Approve/Reject. Rejecting gives volunteer chance to edit) Click-thru tracking Limit # of message (3 per week max?) Scheduling Attachments (Limit size) Header & Footer (Unsubscribe information in footer) Future release feature request: Allow members to specify frequency of mailings from a list (Daily, weekly, monthly, etc) and specify text only or HTML only. HTML support with image upload (optimized by system) Move attachments to web storage and only send out links Bounced email module MS Word document support (Converts to HTML automatically) 11/12/2018

Geographic support Each Region has an Information Management Coordinator Plugged into the GeoUnit Operations Committee Plugged into the vTools Team Provide regional advocacy and expertise 11/12/2018

Product enhancement process Individual Product Prioritized list of enhancements for a product Feedback from Users and Staff List of enhancements Prioritization vTools Project Prioritized product enhancements Evaluate Costs, Benefit Evaluate Staff support Evaluate budget Possible new products Class or volunteer prototype Review with MGA Committees/ Staff Produce Roadmap 11/12/2018

Questions? 11/12/2018

A Little History: Developed as a result of SC 2005 Organized in 2006 Funded in 2007 Reported in SC 2008 Accepted two items from SC2008 Meetings was first tool 11/12/2018

How does a project work: Provide an opportunity for ideas to be considered Define a project that could be significant to volunteers (will make life easier) Determine requirements (volunteer and staff) Determine Buy vs Build Integration at the data level Develop a pilot and learn from it May use a student team to develop basics Could be volunteer developed Has been a commercial product May require services from IEEE systems Stretch our development $ by using most productive resources Refine and release into IEEE production environment Use paid staff Support and enhance 11/12/2018