APG85 wrote:
Is an update so hard to do?
You've hit a very sore subject with me. So if anyone asks, it's your fault that I'm venting
. Using your website as a "dynamic tool" is becoming a bigger deal at Yankee. Trying to push that idea to people has met with resistance, since surprisingly enough, no one wants to own up to "knowing anything about computers."
(It's your fault Gary, you with your cursed tale of Diamond Lil! You're making others realize areas they could improve the job they're doing. From Mishawaka's heart, I stab at thee!)
(OK, So my department are the ones who've been trying to push improving our website, since we do many of the same things that Gary's done and there's been such a positive response to his efforts. I'm still going to blame it on him.)
You need people who are willing to accept that a computer is a tool. Not a tool like CNC Milling machine or a dyno tester, It's not something that you need to spend a lot of time figuring out. You need to treat it like a hammer. Pick it up, swing it, (not literally) and get done what you need to do. Sure, some people are better than others at using one, but so long as you can make it do what you need, you're doing just fine. Once you accept that, you can move into doing bigger and better things.
We (myself and cohort on site at Yankee, Tim) are really trying to get people sold on how keeping the website up to date with interesting news items, stories, etc, can benefit the organization. We've been pounding our heads against the wall since Oct. 10th 2004 (Tim even longer than that.) At the last staff meeting I presented the 2006 web site data for
http://yankeeairmuseum.org. When I asked the assembly of every dept. head and all of our board members how many people they thought visited the site in a year, the first guess was 12,000. Someone trying to be a smart [donkey] said 50,000. The actual number was around 95,000. The site that referred the most visitors last year? WIX. (4-6000 'hits', probably somewhere in the thousands of individual users). I pulled a lot of the data I presented and the meaning behind it from what I've observed between the technically adept warbird community (Wix, flypast, fencecheck, et. al.) and what was happening on our site.
Many of these organizations just don't see it yet. Part of it is due to member age. Those in charge or doing day to day stuff just didn't grow up around computers. Part of it is also that it's a shift in the way business is done. No one calls for information anymore (ok, occasionally the phone still rings), no one writes letters. We go online and check the website. It's an uphill struggle trying to get people to realize the benefits of technology that they'd just as soon ignore (not out of malice, it's just something that is new and/or different.)
Gary's work and the response here has made an impact with us. How deep is yet to be seen. We've added a section to our site covering some of our other restoration projects,
http://yankeeairmuseum.org/restoration/index.shtml, and hopefully in the semi-sorta near future we'll have some areas up where we can present "content" (I sound like a marketing guy) similar to what Gary has done to our visitors that keeps them coming back.
The biggest part to that is getting convincing those that are staunchly dedicated to being non-techies that they A. have something interesting to present B. people are very interested in what they / we have to say and C. they are fully capable of doing it on their own with only a bit of technical guidance. Anyone who can figure out WIX is capable of providing a degree of tech help to a warbird group. (Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not.)
So getting back to "Doc." How hard is it to keep a website updated? A helluva lot harder than you think. Especially when you're only one or two people. Maybe they don't have anyone that feels they can do it, Maybe they don't understand the audience they could be reaching / are missing out on. Or maybe they really just don't care.
_________________
Phil K.
Yankee Air MuseumSystems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner
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