[Greennet-l] GreenNet Newsletter December 2005
GreenNet Support
support at gn.apc.org
Fri Dec 23 12:51:06 GMT 2005
GN Newsletter: December 2005
Dear GreenNet Members,
It's been a good, if challenging, year for GreenNet. We made it
smoothly through two important technical transitions, and completed
several large web projects. As ever, we're still working on
developing our services so that they make the most of new
technologies for strengthening and supporting your campaigning and
project work. We're looking forward to a busy 2006, with plans for
several exciting improvements and expansions into new areas. Once
again we'd like to thank you for your support.
We'd like to remind you that our support lines will be closed for
the period 26th - December - 2nd January, although the technical
team will be monitoring the system daily. If you have any urgent
problems, please call us on +44 (0)20 7065 0942 and leave a message
on our answer phone or email support. We will try to help you as far
as possible. Make sure you include any error messages that you are
getting and your email address.
Please do also remember to switch your computers off periodically,
and enjoy a peaceful, happy and healthy holiday time.
With warm wishes from all of us in the GreenNet Collective,
Anna, Cedric, Deepak, Ian, Janet, Liz, Marek and Michael
* Services <#1>
* Support News <#2>
* Projects and New Websites <#3>
* Staff <#4>
* Coming in 2006 <#5>
GN logo
Services
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Free Wiki
Wiki <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki> (meaning 'Quick' in
Hawaiian) is a simple tool for web publishing. Now increasingly
popular, Wikis allow people to create web pages collaboratively,
without any knowledge of HTML or the need for any special software.
Unlike other web management systems, they keep a history of all
changes made to pages, so you can roll back to previous versions at
any time. This allows for the pages to be editable by anybody, and
if something goes wrong, you can always revert to an earlier
version. The largest online encyclopedia Wikipedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia> has been built and kept up
to date using this tool.
Over the last couple of years, we've worked with Wikis for various
collaborative editing projects - workshop preparation and sessions,
project development spaces, simple and functional intranets,
collaborative documentation, and so on. It's been such a useful tool
for our work that we'd like to pilot an idea of installing wikis as
standard for all our web clients. If you are interested in getting a
free wiki installation during this pilot phase, please write to
support at gn.apc.org <mailto:support at gn.apc.org>.
Server co-location
In summer 2005 we moved all our server equipment from TeleCity
Manchester to Telehouse North (the best Data Centre in Europe) in
Docklands, where we have our own independent rack space, resilient 2
x 100MBps connectivity and the latest security and environmental
control systems. If you are interested in using our co-location
facility, we now offer:
* Unlimited data transfers (*)
* Remote powercycle facility
* 24/7 monitoring of your crucial services
* Hardware rental
* IP addresses
* Daily backup (system and data)
* Managed and unmanaged servers
If you are interested in co-location with GreenNet, please contact
support at gn.apc.org <mailto:support at gn.apc.org>
*/We may limit your speed to 4Mbs if your data transfers exceed this
more than 5% of the time/
2005 - A Dynamic year for GreenNet Web Sites
After 3 years developing tools for dynamic web site construction,
it's great to see the results in the content-rich sites
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/webdesign.php#egaa> we have online
now. Increasing numbers of GN members are choosing easy forms-based
dynamic web publishing to get their news and resources online. New
features this year have included online petitions, multi-lingual
(including multi-script) pages, quick campaign mini-sites, and
content sharing across sites, servers and continents. From small
organisations to big international projects - our users are keeping
their sites up to date and interactive. For more detail on the
individual sites, see below.
The range of services from GN Web Projects now includes: site
planning consultancy, stylish and accessible graphic design,
database management, content management system customisation,
advanced search functionality, archiving, RSS news feeding, blogs,
wikis, interactive calendars, discussion boards and petitions,
multi-lingual functionality, and much more.
If you have an idea for an online campaign or web site, and need
help refining the project, or shaping it up for a funding proposal,
we can help draft the plans, recommend technical approaches, and
write the technical specs for your funders.
Get in touch with Anna on 020 7065 0940 or gndesign at gn.apc.org
<mailto:gndesign at gn.apc.org>
Maxi membership
Maxi is a new membership deal for organisations with very complex or
large websites. We've designed it in direct response to the needs of
our bigger web clients. Maxi Membership includes a MySQL database
and up to 1gb of web space. It is flexible so that it allows you to
choose between having, for example, either 20 email (pop) accounts,
or 3 mailing lists included in the bundle, depending on your
requirements. If you are interested in finding out more about this
new membership deal, see the
http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#maxi Services section]
of the GN website or email support at gn.apc.org
<mailto:support at gn.apc.org>
Increased Web space
The web space allowance in all our other services has been increased
to 100Mb. This applies to Organisational
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#org> and Home/Activist
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#activist> membership
and Domain Options 2
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#option2> and 3
<http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#option3>. (Note that
our entry level subdomain service still provides 20Mb). Anyone who
want to check that they are paying the correct amount for their web
space should email billing at billing at gn.apc.org
<mailto:billing at gn.apc.org>
GN logo
Support News
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Support Forums web pageSupport forums
The GreenNet Support Forums provide a space where you can
participate in GreenNet's online community, answer other users'
queries, ask your own questions and and get help from GreenNet
Support staff. As well as loads of links to useful software
downloads and resources, you're bound to find discussions on topics
that are relevant to your IT queries - you may even find the answer
before you have a chance to ask your question! The forums can be
found at: http://phorum5.greennet.org.uk/index.php?2
Password protection on log files
Due to the increasing amount of so-called "referrer spam" incidents
we have decided to put password protection on the web statistics
(/logs) of GreenNet websites. We hope this doesn't cause too much
inconvenience. The user name and password is the same for all sites
(username:gn stats, password:web stats), and can be obtained easily
at any time by logging in to your site using FTP and reading the
README.txt file, or contacting GreenNet support. Referrer Spam is a
when a spammer fakes a large number of "hits" or visits to your
website in order to have their web address appear in your website
logs or statistics page. This is done in an attempt to increase
traffic to their website, as many sites now display automated links
to the most frequent or recent website taken from these statistics.
Also it can increase their site's ranking in some search engines,
because they measure the number of times a site is linked to from
other sites. For more detailed information see the following link:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/referer_spam/
New phone number for Dial-up connectivity
We now have a new, more reliable number for making dial-up
connections. The old number will not be withdrawn immediately, so
both numbers can be used for the time being. Look out for
announcements in the new year with news of when the old number will
be switched off. There will be no change to user names or passwords
as they will all work with both numbers.
The new number is: 0845 055 4030
To change over you need only change the number in your Dial-up
settings. For Windows users this means editing the properties of
your Dial-up Networking connection (via right-clicking on the
connection icon and choosing "properties"). If you are using another
operating system (e.g. Mac OS or Linux), and are unsure how to
change the number, please ring or email support at gn.apc.org
<mailto:support at gn.apc.org>.
GN logo
Projects and new sites
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catia 1a Home pageCatia 1a
In 2004, GreenNet was commissioned by the 'Catalysing Access to ICTs
in Africa' project (component 1a), to design a technical solution
for a telecoms licensing 'One Stop Shop' - basically everything you
ever wanted to know about telecommunications regulations and
licenses across Africa under one roof. 1 year on, we now have a
distributed database built on ActionApps
<http://www.actionapps.org/>, which compromises 64 independent
nodes. It streamlines the process of gathering up-to-date
information from each national regulator, and publishing it for
satellite service providers and researchers in a single location. So
far we have handed over about 30 installations to individual
regulators and taught them how to use the system in a series of
workshops in Western and Southern Africa. The data gathered in each
region can be viewed on the West <http://west.acreg.org/> and
Southern <http://southern.acreg.org/> regional sites.
Catia 1c Home PageCatia 1c
From Free and Open Source software to Intellectual Property Rights,
to Liberalising Community Radio Licensing, the 6 CATIA (1c) ICT
policy 'Animators' are working to engage local civil society
organisations in their local ICT issues. The Animators, based in
Ethiopia <http://catia.gn.apc.org/ethiopia>, Nigeria
<http://catia.gn.apc.org/nigeria>, DR Congo
<http://catia.gn.apc.org/drc>, Uganda
<http://catia.gn.apc.org/uganda>, Senegal
<http://catia.gn.apc.org/senegal> and Kenya
<http://catia.gn.apc.org/kenya>, all required accessible,
affordable, functional campaign sites. And they needed them fast! We
started by building a generic prototype site, which then worked as a
site generator, allowing us to spin off new sites as they were
needed. Each Animator has access to a simple control panel that they
can use to adjust the look, feel and campaign message of the site.
Adding new content is as easy as posting an online form. The sites
also have interactive calendars and public spaces for supporters to
send in their comments.
IWPR Home pageIWPR
The Institute of War and Peace Reporting <http://www.iwpr.net/>
maintains a vast multi-lingual website of conflict monitoring
publications, updated by authors around the world. This commission
gave GreenNet the opportunity to develop bleeding edge language
tools for the ActionApps open source content management system
project. The whole site is now dynamically driven by a database
backend, and can support a range of right-left and top-down
non-western scripts. There are simple and obvious routes to
different language versions of the same content, and management of
the site has been transformed by the move to forms-based publishing.
GTI Home PageGTI
The Global Transparency Initiative
<http://www.ifitransparency.org/> (GTI) is a network of civil
society organisations promoting openness in the International
Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, the IMF, the
European Investment Bank and Regional Development Banks. The GTI
brings together two communities of activists and experts from around
the world - one, those groups campaigning for full accountability in
the use of public power vested in the IFIs; the other, groups that
have been campaigning for the right to access to information at the
nation-state level. The website has just been launched and has a
calendar, database of resources and organisations, using dynamic
content and content sharing technology.
Whiteband Home Pagewhiteband.org
The Global Call for Action Against Poverty is the international
coalition which supports national White Band anti-poverty campaigns
such as the UK's 'Make Poverty History'. The GCAP
<http://www.whiteband.org/> website project was the result of a
collaboration between GreenNet and our sister networks - Choike
<http://www.choike.org/> in Uruguay and Laneta
<http://www.laneta.apc.org/laneta/> in Mexico. The site features
daily news updates in 4 languages, e-campaigning tools, poverty
stats mapping, and a photo gallery. We're also pleased to announce
that GCAP has been the recipient of the 2005 International
Achievement Award for Excellence in Communication given by Inter
Press Service (IPS) news agency.
GN logo
Staff
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome Ian!
We'd like to welcome and introduce Ian Macdonald - GreenNet's newest
member of the Collective. Ian started working in our Support team
this month. He joins us from our sister network in Mexico, Laneta,
and so brings a range of technical skills and experience working in
another community of NGOs. Ian is fluent in Spanish and plays blues
harmonica (but not usually during support calls). As an activist,
he's been involved in environmental community groups and campaigns
for change to US foreign policy in Latin America.
GN logoComing in 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
New website
The current GreenNet website is undergoing a total overhaul. The
renovations involve a complete graphic re-design, lots more more
dynamic content and interactivity, including a brand new community
space where GN users can get involved, and take their campaigning
work online. The new-look site will be unveiled early in 2006. Look
out for the new spaces to publish news of your campaigns, events,
job announcements and opinions.
Training
We continue to offer "Web design using Dreamweaver"
<http://www.gn.apc.org/training/index.html#dream> if enough people
are interested (we need a minimum of 3 to run the course). If you
would like to join a group for the training, please contact
adrian at gn.apc.org <mailto:adrian at gn.apc.org> (copying
info at gn.apc.org <mailto:info at gn.apc.org>) and let us know when suits
you best.
Other bespoke training courses are available on demand. GreenNet
trainers have extensive experience in running workshops on website
content mapping, technology planning with Open Source software,
using internet tools, using content management systems, and much
more.. If you are interested in ICT skills development work for your
organisation, give us a ring or email support at gn.apc.org
<mailto:support at gn.apc.org>.
Service & Billing Control panel
In 2006 we will be upgrading to a new improved billing system. It
will let you easily check the status of your account online, pay
online with a credit card, apply for new services and manage your
subscription. If you have any comments or suggestions for features
you think the system should have or which you feel are missing at
the moment, do let us know. Your feedback will be much appreciated!
Please email your wish list to billing at gn.apc.org
<mailto:billing at gn.apc.org>.
FLOSS
GreenNet is looking to take its long-standing passion for OpenSource
Software beyond the Old Street office and out to all of you! We'd
love to hear from any users that are interested in learning more
about kicking the Microsoft habit, and moving over to Free/Libre
Open Source Software (FLOSS). Whether you are up for a total
migration - switching to use a Linux operating system, or just
looking to make more use of open source programs on your Windows
computer (like Open Office <http://www.openoffice.org/> or Firefox
<http://www.mozilla.com/firefox>), we can offer advice and training.
Look out for resources, services and tips on the new website. Do
please get in touch if you would like to know more.
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