WOW! Pushbutton Websites

1
WOW!Pushbutton Websites

• Steve Johnson
• DSO-CS

2
What You Will Hear Today

• Unit Website rationale
• The WOW project pushbutton websites
• A WOW walkthrough
• Caveats/Restrictions/Limitations
• What to do next

3
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

4
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

5
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 dont care

6
D11S Website Status in January 2012

• 9 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!

7
PUSHBUTTONwEBSITES

• The WOW Project

8
The WOW ProjectPushbutton 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

9
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

10
Very Instant

1. Click Configure Site
2. Click Enable Site

11
And were done
12
But wait! Theres more

• 1st 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

13
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, units 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.

14
ONLINE PE CALENDAR DATABASE

• The WOW Project

15
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), emails to District

16
How does it work?
A WOW Website is not required to participate
17
The Online 7023 Form
18
(No Transcript)
19
Zip Code Class Search Any WOW Site
20
Instant Printable Color Flyer Meeting
Details and Contact Info Zoomable location
map
Course Syllabus
21
Bottom Line National PE Course Database
Flotilla Perspective

• Fill out your 7023 Form online, and youre in.
• Generates the District paperwork and sends via
  email. Youre done.
• If you dont use it, nearby flotillas who do will
  siphon away some of your students due to the Zip
  code search.
• Paper 7023s can be entered for you by an SO or
  DSO, buthow last Century

22
WOW Takeaway

• Its 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

23
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 10-15 minutes, tops!

24
The WOW ProjectPushbutton 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)

25
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

26

• Live Demo Site

27
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

28
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 photosat
  any time.

29
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

30
Public Access to Your WOW Site

• http//axxxyyzz.wow.uscgaux.info
• http//a1141204.wow.uscgaux.info

31
Under the Hood
WOW II Application
http//axxxyyyzz.wow.uscgaux.info
32
Early returns

• You enabled me to create a website for my
  flotilla... Thank you so much. I am truly
  grateful.
• Marti Bright-Jordan, Flotilla CommanderFlotilla
  11-10 11SR 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-CSDivision 1 11SR San Diego

33
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 units specific needs.

34
Questions?
35
Access to District 085 WOW Site