[APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/05/25th Meeting Minutes
Smith, Robert
Robert.Smith at crowncastle.com
Fri Jul 13 11:54:48 CDT 2007
Folks - sorry to chime in, but I just ran across a short but meaningful
book that I think we all should consume -- it's less than 100 pages, but
worth the read and has some traction here as the site design is
considered...
The laws of simplicity
John Maeda
Available at amazon for less than $20.00
RES
-----Original Message-----
From: apa-infotech-bounces at list.planning.org
[mailto:apa-infotech-bounces at list.planning.org] On Behalf Of
pi at spatiallink.org
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 12:35 PM
To: APA-InfoTech Division Leaders
Subject: [APA-InfoTech Leaders] APA-IT DIVISION: 2007/05/25th Meeting
Minutes
Please find attached/embedded the minutes from our last conference. I
will not be able to attend today's call, but here are my thoughts:
* Ken/Lyle,
I am linking the 2 wireframes from my earlier work with MIG in 2005:
- http://www.spatiallink.org/images/apa/img_it_mainpage.01.jpg
- http://www.spatiallink.org/images/apa/img_it_mainpage.02.jpg
You may use these as starting blocks. MIG uses some robust opensource
tools like MapServer/PostgreSQL+PostGIS, and this project could also
result in some good articles on 'Opensource in Planning'- our earlier
newsletter theme.
* Ken/Milton,
I had met with some ESRI representatives at this year's conference to
see if ESRI would continue its planning sponsorship. In that regard,
Terry Martin [tmartin at esri.com] could refer us to somebody.
Personally, Google is a bigger fish and their presence at the conference
and their continuing push of Google Earth indicate that they may be
interested in a planning sponsorship.
And all 1-year free membership papers were mailed in early June.
Thanks, Harsh
PS: If somebody is doing a write-up on our booth at this year's
conference, I have some pictures. Also, I am embedding below 2 previous
discussions on our website for pointers-
[1]*************************
----- Original Message -----
From: hvp
RE: [apait-leadership]
team-
good talk earlier mike. as discussed, here are some links as ""food for
thought"":
* the yale ""bible"": [http://www.webstyleguide.com/]
* richness-of-features/speed-of-navigation:
[http://www.nyas.org/]
[http://www.cancer.gov/]
[http://news.google.com/]
* article submission, page views and response tracking:
[http://slashdot.org/]
[http://www.dbforums.com/]
[http://www.devshed.com/]
...but let's keep in mind that the proposed TOWNSQUARE plug-in would be
text-intensive for quicker download, stressing more on usability than
looks.
mike-
here's the link to adsense that i had mentioned we look at to subsidize
our efforts: [https://www.google.com/adsense/].
dan-
i tried your network solutions link. however, the process assumes that
we are going to keep the domain with network solutions. if it is OK with
the team, i suggest we transfer to godaddy. some plans offer emails,
forums, discussion boards, polls, blogs, all built-in along with the
usual mysql, php and mambo [if we do go ahead, i suggest we transfer the
hosting before the domain, but there still might be some downtime].
rob-
we are in the embryonic stage right now WRT TOWNSQUARE, but feel free to
offer any suggestions. once we complete our transfer, we should be able
to create a sub-domain just for your SIG.
also, here's a link that you may want to spread about:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/business/01towers.html].
harsh
[2]*************************
----- Original Message -----
From: hvp
RE: "
...great! also, a lot of creative analysis that slices website designs
is out there for use as a possible starting-point. in the meantime, i'll
add this information about possible host/maintainer to our spreadsheet:
DIVISION
--WEBSITE
--HOST/MAINTAINER
Transportation Planning Division
--http://www.apa-tpd.org/
--Renaissance Planning Group
Federal Planning Division
--http://65.23.142.31/
--http://www.parsons.com/
Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy Division
--http://www.apa-enre.org/
--WebGraffix
Gays and Lesbians in Planning Division
--http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/lobby/7016/galip.htm
--Yahoo
Planning and Women Division
--http://www.urban.uiuc.edu/APA-PW/index.html
--UIUC
Regional and Intergovernmental Planning
--http://www.homestead.com/intergovernmental/
--Homestead
Resort and Tourism Division
--http://www.tourismplanning.org/
--Richard Stephens
harsh
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: JENNIFER COWLEY <cowley.11 at osu.edu>
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:41:43-0400
Given all of our current time constraints I developed a very simple
Excel template that we can use and each examine two division websites
and then later figure out who has the the time to write up the report
and recommendations.
Please use the attached template and just send a note to all stating
which websites you'll review. If you see anything extra just add it to
the special features cell and I'll create a column if more than one
website has it.
I've attached a first stab at an evaluation spreadsheet, look and see
what you think and feel free to add to this.
Also, think about what would be your recommendations and best practices.
I thought of two
1) You must have an up to date website, if you don't have the resources
to keep it up to date don't add extra information.
2) The website should be viewed as a recruiting and informational tool
with much of the information available to the public, rather than
restricting most items to members only.
Please add to this list.
Thanks,
Jennifer Evans-Cowley, PhD, AICP
Assistant Professor and
Planning Education at a Distance Program Director
City and Regional Planning
Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture
The Ohio State University
275 West Woodruff Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1138
(614) 247-7479
cowley.11 at osu.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: hvp
Date: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:04 pm
>
> mike,
> i did some thinking after our phone conversation and realized that
> i would be spreading myself too thin on this one. but i am happy
> to serve on the committee and pick-up the retreat on the east coast.
>
> i agree with chris with regards to jennifer's suggestions. i hope
> that the end-product is best-practices ""with some teeth"". this
> could be done by tying it in with funding etc. having a
> representative from each division, as jennifer suggested, would
> greatly help in that regard.
>
> regards, harsh
>
> Harsh Prakash
> Spatial Planner & Website Administrator
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: ""Chris Steins"" <steins at urbaninsight.com>
> Reply-To: <steins at urbaninsight.com>
> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 10:45:02 -0700
>
> I like Jennifer's recommendation a lot. I think a somewhat systematic
> analysis of the Division's websites (where they are hosted, what
> content is provided, what is public/available to members, etc.) would
> be an outstanding approach, and a nice lead-in to best practices
> recommendations. The Division would build a lot of ""street-cred""
> within APA for doing this.
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Gritz [MGritz at LasVegasNevada.GOV]
> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 10:34 AM
> To: 'JENNIFER COWLEY'; Mike Gritz
> Cc: 'hvp'; 'Chris Steins'; 'Milton Ospina'; Tjiong, Judy; Robert Smith
> (E-mail 2)
> Subject: RE: FW: APA Divisions Website
>
> Will do Jennifer. Thanks for participating. Harsh, are you ready?
>
> Chris, Any comments?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: JENNIFER COWLEY [cowley.11 at osu.edu]
> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 10:24 AM
> To: Mike Gritz
> Cc: 'hvp'; 'Chris Steins'; 'Milton Ospina'; Tjiong, Judy; Robert Smith
> (E-mail 2)
> Subject: Re: FW: APA Divisions Website
>
> Mike,
>
> I'm really pressed for time right now. I would be happy to serve on
> the
> committee, but perhaps Harsh could chair it. I think the committee
> should
> have at least one representative for each division.
>
> I think we could develop a divide and conquer mentality by reviewing
> all of
> the division websites, identifying what we think is good and then
> putting
> together a best practices kind of memo that can be distributed to each
> of
> the divisions letting them know the kinds of information they should
> be
> providing.
>
> Sincerely,
> Jennifer Evans-Cowley, PhD, AICP
> Assistant Professor and
> Planning Education at a Distance Program Director City and Regional
> Planning
> Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture The Ohio State University
> 275 West Woodruff Avenue
> Columbus, OH 43210-1138
> (614) 247-7479
> cowley.11 at osu.edu
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mike Gritz <MGritz at LasVegasNevada.GOV>
> Date: Friday, July 29, 2005 1:14 pm
> Subject: FW: APA Divisions Website
> >
> > Jennifer and Harsh,
> >
> > Clyde Forrest, Divisions Council Chair needs our help. Jennifer,
> > I'm
> > not sure if you have the time to chair this committee. I'm
> > happy to
> >
> > serve on it. I'd like to offer it to you since you have done so
> > much
> > web research in the past. Is this something you would be interested
> >
> > in? Harsh, Would you be able to provide assistance to Jennifer, or
> > if
> > Jennifer is tight on time, either Co-Chair or Chair this committee.
> >
> > I'm willing to help too.
> >
> > Let me know if you have time available for this and maybe we can set
> >
> > up a conference call on it. I'll assist with gathering any
> > resources.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Mike
> > 702-229-6889
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Clyde Forrest [cforrest at express.cites.uiuc.edu]
> > Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 9:19 AM
> > To: mgritz at lasvegasnevada.gov
> > Cc: dglosser at insightbb.com; michael.delk at myclearwater.com;
> > mdmld at msn.com;wblanton at citiesthatwork.com;
> > afreund at mail.co.washoe.nv.us;MWelch at planning.org;
> > STurner at planning.org
> > Subject: APA Divisions Website
> >
> > Dear Mike;
> > The divisions could use the expertize of one of your members to
> > to
> > improvethe content of the Divisions site on the APA. This is to
> > request that you appoint a Chair of a working group for this task.
> > The Chair might need a small budget and should be willing to
> > spend
> > time on a regular basis to improve the role of Divisions in the
> > national planningmovement.
> >
> > Of course close coordination with Susan Turner in the APA
> > national
> > officewill be required.
> > Improvement Ideas I have had include:
> > -links to other information sources
> > - information about Scholarships ( see the Chapters site for
> > information)- information about the Divisions Council -
> > information
> > about the elections cycle and leadership opportunities -lack of
> > fresh
> > information about Division current accomplishments,(the news
> > letter
> > examples are from 2003)
> >
> > Let me know if you will take this on as a task and who you have
> > designated.--
> >
> > Clyde W. Forrest, FAICP
> > Chair Divisions Council
> > Professor Emeritus
> > Urban and Regional Planning
> > 111 Buell Hall,
> > Champaign ILL. 61820
> > 217-344-6331
****************
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Information Technology Division of the American Planning Association:
Executive
Committee Meeting Minutes
25th May 2007 [1:00 - 2:00 EST]
1-888-245-4141
X 394006
Attendees
1. Ken Snyder, Chair
2. Jennifer Evans-Cowley, Vice-Chair
3. Harsh Prakash, Secretary/Treasurer
4. Judy Tjiong, Division Coordinator
5. Milton Ospina, Communications Chair
6. Robert Smith, Telecommunications SIG Chair
7. Gordon Hansen, Policy Chair
8. Lyle Hornbaker, Website Chair
Ken called the meeting to order shortly after 1:00 PM and
brought up
the following meeting agenda for review:
1. Approve Agenda
2. Welcome New Chairs
3. National Planning Conference (APA 2007) Highlights:
Leadership Meetings
Division Booth
By-Rights Sessions
Reception
Division Awards
4. Newsletter Update
5. Planning for By-rights Sessions
6. Website Opportunities
7. Next Steps/Next Meeting
8. Other
Ken kick-started the Executive Committee meeting by proposing to
convert email addresses on the division's website to their image
representations so as to prevent spammers from harvesting those
addresses. Harsh mentioned a scripting alternative to obfuscate the said
addresses, if required.
Ken informed the members about his promising discussions with
Steve
Kokotas of MIG (http://www.migcom.com/) at the 2007 National Conference,
and the possibility of working with MIG on the division website. Harsh
mentioned his earlier interactions with Steve in 2005 that left him
impressed with regards to MIG's professionalism, and strongly
recommended MIG. Ken added that he would talk with Steve about their
next steps.
Then Harsh requested the mailing addresses of the luck-draw
winners so
that he could mail their 1-year free memberships. Ken promised to email
the requested information.
Later Ken welcomed Gordon as Policy Chair, Lyle as Website
Chair, Gene
as Membership Chair and Jason as Conference Chair, and described his
experiences as Division Chair at the 2007 National Conference. He talked
about his leadership meetings that went over the business items for all
divisions. He informed the committee that according to APA National,
there were approximately 14,000 registered members at this year's
conference, and the divisions were witnessing an average drop of 3% in
their memberships, except for the regional ones. He said that in general
the divisions gave APA National an unsatisfactory rating because of what
they saw as a lack of proactive assistance in attracting new members.
Milton interjected by questioning the total number since he remembered
that the 2005 National Conference had about 7,000 registered members.
Ken promised to double-check the total. Milton suggested giving away
1-year free memberships to attract new members. Harsh added that since
their membership dues showed a significant drop in the 3rd quarter of
every calendar year for the past 2 years, that would be a good time for
the new membership chair- Gene, to ramp-up his outreach. Lyle asked to
confirm possible correlations between the national membership trends and
the division membership trends.
Then Ken brought up their report evaluation. He said that some
APA
divisions had failed their evaluations and were punished by having some
privileges taken away. He was pleased to share that the Technology
Division was 1 of 2 divisions graded exceptional. On Report Projections,
Harsh informed that their last report (prepared under Chris Steins) did
not include any projections. Ken replied that a simple summary would
suffice, and promised to get in touch regarding the projections.
Ken also shared his experiences at the division booth. He said
that
their booth enjoyed a good location and thanked everyone for their help
in manning the booth. He requested the committee to offer a 1-year free
membership to Jason Lally for his hard work as a booth volunteer. The
committee readily agreed and Harsh promised to mail the necessary
papers.
Ken took an opportunity to thank ESRI (http://www.esri.com/) for
its
assistance with their banner printing. He also formally confirmed the
division's name change to 'Technology' by APA National.
Then Ken informed the committee about the success of their 2
by-rights
sessions. He also said that he had expressed his displeasure at the
conference's furniture arrangements with APA National. Gordon and Harsh
shared Ken's displeasure with the "inflexible" furniture layout. Robert
agreed that it was not implemented right and would be a
point-for-improvement in the future.
Later Ken proposed a project to assess divisions' websites. He
said
that it would entail talking with the respective chairs with regards to
their website functionalities. He added that since APA National was in
the process of revamping its own website, the project would be
well-timed, and asked for interested volunteers. Harsh offered his
expertise to work with Lyle. Lyle offered to begin drafting letters to
the chairs. Ken suggested using Google Docs for any collaborative
editing. Harsh added that another service- ThinkFree
(http://www.thinkfree.com/), offered some extra functionality like
creating, editing and sharing presentations, and could also be used.
Ken also informed the members about a division-wide conference
call on
06/05th/2007 (3 PM EST)- organized by APA National, it would go over
booth-related contributions. He said that he would ask Jason to take
that call. Jennifer was also nominated to represent the division for the
call.
With regards to the division awards, Jennifer suggested reducing
the
number of categories. Ken said that that could also increase the
individual prize money. On prize money, Milton reminded the committee
that given his departure from ESRI, he could no longer promise ESRI's
sponsorship of their awards. In turn, Harsh proposed making all of their
4 newsletter issues digital, and thus saving on some exorbitant printing
costs. Judy replied that she would prefer to have 1 newsletter issue
remain as hard-copy for distribution at conferences. Harsh suggested
printing some special copies for conferences, and added that the fewer
numbers would still save them money. Ken cautioned that as the division
shops for sponsorships, it should remain cognizant of the many
registration deadlines. Milton suggested reserving the booth first and
cancelling it if their sponsorships do not come through. Harsh suggested
approaching PCIA (http://www.pcia.com/) for more sponsorship.
Ken also informed the members about the theme of their next
newsletter-
Environmental Management and Technology. He said that Jocelyn Hittle,
Newsletter Editor, was looking for articles.
Then the committee scheduled its next meeting on 06/08th/2007 (1
PM
EST). Jennifer offered to email her report on the division-wide call
since she would not be able to attend their next meeting.
Finally, Ken adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully recorded
Harsh Prakash
Secretary/Treasurer
-------------------
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