Welcome to My CA and the new site
The main innovation is in the My CA section. For the first time we have the ability for members to take part freely in the members' area of the web. We've incorporated an open source management system (Drupal) that is a lot more flexible than the PmWiki system we've been using for the Regional Sections over the last year. It provides the capabilities of user forums, logs, comment and easy updating for staff. In particular, every member can have their own password so that they can confidently have access to sensitive information. We hope that this will carry us forward forward for the next few years.
An important feature of My CA is that you can keep your own information up-to-date on our database. If you register for MyCA using your email address or membership number, look in "My Account". It has your personal contact details as recorded on our database. If there are inaccuracies - you may have changed your mobile phone number or email address or even moved house - then updating these will update our records too. We're in the middle of updating our database system, so we can't say at the moment how quickly that will happen. But soon it should happen almost instantaneously.
We've also moved physically. After a number of years using the Clara system we've moved to another web provider called "1 and 1". As well as freeing us from a number of technical limitations, it gives us almost unlimited capability to expand - storage, email addresses and bandwidth - so that we can work at realising a number of the ambitious plans that have been discussed in the last year.
We have a number of other innovations that we will be working on as we sign off this project. But that's enough for the time being.
The Team
The CA web site is being supported by a number of people apart from Chris Moss, the webmaster. Some are staff members and others are volunteers. Here is the list of those currently involved:
- David Teall - Forums manager also working on Sections.
- Ian Barker - General Manager, updates the CA House and Shop
- June Huang - CA Librarian, manages Library and Information sections.
- Fred Barter - advising on design issues
What's new
There's a new item on the top line called My CA. If you click on that you'll get to the new part of the site. It's early days yet and you shouldn't be surprised if the format changes substantially over the next few days and weeks.
But already you can take part in forums, post comments on items already published, start your own log and publish other stories. How these appear depends on the settings that we make: they may appear on the front page or only in another setting and we'll be configuring this as people get used to the system.
New Directions
We're working to make the Cruising Association more useful to cruising sailors wherever they are. It stems from a recognition that London isn't the centre of the world for the cruising sailor! The web provides a basis for a much better service and we are working on some exciting new services.
We making the web much more direct, so you can use it to communicate with other members either directly or by sharing information about cruising grounds without the inevitable delays that traditional methods have incurred. Both email and the web can be used for this, together with newer technologies including WAP and RSS and more established methods such as text messaging.
An example is the sharing of cruising reports. We are working on a way of presenting these using Wiki technology so that all recent information about a particular place is presented on one page. In addition, you as a CA member will be able to add to that page based on your own experience. So when you've encountered something not covered in the Almanac or Pilot, you can immediately check to see whether someone else has reported it and then either confirm it, or report it if you are the first person to do so.
As part of this programme, we are going to make all the old and relevant cruising reports that members have made available via the web so that you don't have to travel into CA House to check on them. Some of the regional editors are already starting to process the regional files to make this possible.
These proposals are outlined in a report entitled "Information Flows in the CA" (members only) which reviews the current flows and makes proposals. It is available for download in PDF format. Parts of this have already been accepted by the Information Executive Committee for action and others are under consideration.
Feedback Please!
Until these changes are implemented, if you are missing something you need and I will try to see how it can be provided. Any other reactions to the new format or these proposals are welcome.
Chris Moss