Since there seems to be a lot of interest in how the website redevelopment is going, here’s an update:

After reviewing everyone’s excellent feedback, and incorporating and lot of it, checking out the competition (not much!), and considering the sheaf of notes I took about Scott’s ideas when we visited last and talked since, I’ve finished writing the Design Document, which is a comprehensive description of the site as it is and what it will become. This includes a determination of what new content needs to go into the site, what kind of design and colors will be presented, and how the pages will be structured to make sure you can find everything easily. It’s the “roadmap” for building the new site.

Scott has the Design Document and is reviewing it with Carlyn’s input. They’ve got more ideas which will be incorporated, and I’m sure iwll be soliciting feedback from trusted friends and colleagues, which will also be considered for inclusion.

I’m currently finishing up the Design Concepts, which are the actual “pretty pictures” of what the site will look like and will send those along shortly.

Once both of those items are approved, we go into production of the graphics, writing the new programming, and filling the site with new content (although that will be an ongoing process).

In short, everything is proceeding nicely and a nice, new, shiny website is coming soon!

Keep those suggestions coming! It’s still not too late to make a contribution to the new site!

gary

Thanks for the update Gary

Gary

This all sounds very professional.  As a software engineer and I spend more time writing design documents than writing code.  I can’t wait to see your results. 

Please, please, please, at some point make the site Windows Mobile friendly.  I can’t wait to be able to bypass my PC to download the podcasts.

Give her a chance, Gary. Anything to get her away from the nasty PC (they are evil)! Maybe we should all chip in and get Paula a Mac.

Bree

Thanks for the thought, but no Macs, no iPods.  I just want to get away from iTunes and their nasty proprietary software that tries to start services I don’t need, create folders I don’t want, and sell me stuff I can’t play anywhere.  I’m willing to call a truce and skip the all out MAC vs. PC war.

I don’t blame you there. But its hard to find anything to tease you about. I’ll let it go.

Gary, what kind of merchandise is there going to be, or are you on that? How about a medical issues topic? There are so many people here with diabetes and other medical problems that we could use a place specifically to discuss that.

Bree

Windows Mobile friendly

Paula, sorry for the delay in answering. The subscription notification wasn’t working on this thread (of course, it would help if I put in a working e-mail in my profile!), so I didn’t realize anyone posted.

I don’t know much about Windows Mobile web development, so I’ll have to look into it. Phase Two of the re-development of the site will include such things as optimization for disabled users (including sight-impaired), so I can add researching the mobile web to that list.

...what kind of merchandise is there going to be, or are you on that? How about a medical issues topic?

Bree, same apologies for responding late. The merchandise selections are still in progress, but will eventually include apparel items, CDs and DVDs, published products (such as the book Scott is writing and calendars, posters. etc.), and fitness lifestyle-related equipment.

I’m not sure about how extensively medical issues will be covered; this is somthing Scott and I are still discussing. Information like this is important, but it’s also vital to: 1) be sure the subject matter relates to the purpose of MTM, and, 2) is accurate, meaning expert sources and editing. Some “hints and tips” are sure to be included. Longer, more authoritative articles, I’m not yet sure of.

Hope that answers your questions…

As a software engineer and I spend more time writing design documents than writing code.

Yes, that’s something I painfully discovered when I started working on larger sites: advance planning of every aspect is critical, and usually takes longer than the production portion of the job. I can design and produce a 32-page magazine in about 40 hours, but that’s just getting started with a web site. Not surprising, considering what goes into one: content planning, research and writing; architecture of the site — both technically and content structure; coding for the CMS, templates, and any interactivity; graphic design and production; search engine optimization ... the list goes on and on. Whew. But it’s fun!

Update Mon., Mar. 5

The work on the web site is proceeding well. Scott now has the Design Prototype of the home page. I skipped a step or two since we had a good understanding between us of what the site would contain, and went right to putting up a sample home page online (no, you can’t see it — it’s in a secret spot on the web and password-protected! — for him to review and comment on, which he’ll do over the next week or so.

As we’re going back and forth on layout issues and content planning, I’ll keep moving ahead with designing the sub-pages — section intros, story pages, etc. — to be in tune with the home page.

Then the fun part begins — producing the graphics and assembling the new content. The heavy XHTML and CSS coding (web folks will know what that means) will be outsourced to a web programmer in New York I’ve used on other projects who just happens to be familiar with the software that runs the MTM site. He’s excellent and will translate what I design into something that will actually work on the most browsers. (I know enough coding to produce a good prototype — in other words, just enough to be dangerous!)

We’re working away, so thing creative thoughts for us!

Oh man, now I’m all jonesing to see this super-secret website that you’ve got hidden away in your secret lair of the web.

On another note, your quote about B flat got me curious, and some googlage produced this very interesting story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7442915 I never had heard of that… how neat… thank you for getting me to learn something new.

...super-secret website…

We’re going to send out secret decoder rings to all premium members when the site is up. It’ll be the only way you can access the site! (yeah, right!0

I was totally delighted when I learned about the “key to the universe.” Such an elegant thing to be in existence. Most orchestras tune to the key of concert b-flat. Bass players have to be different, of course. We tune up to B, E, G, A or G (on a five-string bass).

paula9717 - 25 February 2007 07:53 PM

I just want to get away from iTunes and their nasty proprietary software that tries to start services I don’t need, create folders I don’t want, and sell me stuff I can’t play anywhere.

Pardon me for hi-jacking the thread. Paula, are you downloading the show from iTunes? Why not use a program like Juice, and download it directly?

I didn’t realize you played bass.. how nifty! I have been working on learning to play guitar (acoustic) and it’s given me a newfound, deeper appreciation of musicians. (Especially those who play stringed instruments… my fingers look insane)

LOL @ the secret decoder rings

That is very intriguing, I didn’t realize that orchestras tuned to B flat as well. Perhaps there is a ginormous planet in a galaxy far, far away that is just bumping some crazy music- all in B flat of course- and maybe here on Earth, we’re feeling the aftereffects from it. You know, like your rear-view mirror vibrates when your stereo is blasted all the way up.

Yep, that is my scientific theory on that subject. Now on to quantum physics!

I have a fairly unusual situation because of the work I do.  I only have 2 Gigs of memory on my system and that is very marginal when I am running software for work.  I need Oracle database, Bea - WebLogic application server, Java clients, web browser, integrated development environment, database tools, Adobe Acrobat for PDF documentation, Microsoft Word for capturing documentation, a Graphics editor and sometimes my email program all running at the same time.    I can’t afford to have any unnecessary services or programs running.  I try to run oracle for the database on a different machine whenever possible, but it’s still a lot. 

Any application that installs as a service or tries to automatically start when I start up my computer is a bad thing.  I’ve tried a few of the other feed readers for podcasts, but have the same issues.  The only advantage of iTunes is that you can get to the Podcast section to find podcasts and the others I’ve tried have limited search capabilities.  Most of the time I download the MTM shows directly from the web site.  By the time I start iTunes, kill the iPod services, disable the iPod and iTunes services (iTunes not only starts the services, it resets them to start automatically) so they don’t start with a reboot (fairly frequent in the development world), get the shows, then stop iTunes, it’s just as easy to go to the web site. 

Thanks for the suggestion though.  I’ll take a look at Juice and see if that one is any better.

I need Oracle database, Bea - WebLogic application server, Java clients, web browser, integrated development environment, database tools, Adobe Acrobat for PDF documentation, Microsoft Word for capturing documentation, a Graphics editor and sometimes my email program all running at the same time.

Now that’s a huge load on a system. At 2 gigs of RAM, no wonder you’re careful about starting something else up. I have 2 gigs on my Mac. Here’s what I’m running right now: TimeSlice (a project timekeeping utility, since I bill some projects by the hour), Microsoft Word, BBEdit Life (pure ASCII editor for when I want something without all the code Word puts in a document), QuarkXpress, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign (I work in Quark and InDesign both), Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Distiller, Firefox, Microsoft Explorer (to check my site design in two browsers), GyazMail (e-mail program), Spam Sieve, Suitcase (font manager), DragThing (an alternate Dock), and, of course, the Finder (file management).

Of course, every once in a while one application bumps into another and I have to force quit it and re-start. So I’m looking to max my machine out at 4 gigs of RAM until I can get a newer Mac with more capacity.

Remember the days, on Macs and PCs, when it was exceeding difficult to run more than one program at a time? Glad those days are gone.

I didn’t realize you played bass.. how nifty! I have been working on learning to play guitar (acoustic) and it’s given me a newfound, deeper appreciation of musicians.

Yup — long-time player, all sorts of music. My daughter plays three kinds of guitars (electric, acoustic and classical), and Jackie is writing a guitar method we intend to publish, so we’re all kinda into guitars in one way or another.