Community Connect
Leading the Way in Rural Networking

Community Connected
Issue I - October 2002

Editor's Note

This document was originally released as a PDF file, but has been rendered into Web format for purposes of Accessibility.

Introduction

Welcome to the first edition of Community Connected, the Newsletter of the Community Connect project. Community Connected is being published to keep involved and interested parties abreast of the latest developments in the Yorke Peninsula's very own community information system. To spare our drought-stricken and fire-ravaged trees, this document is being presented primarily in electronic (PDF) format although, of course, paper copies are always available on request. For details on how to get on/off the distribution list, please refer to the end of this newsletter.

Pulling It All Together

The Community Connect web site1 will be providing more than just the community directory originally proposed; this information is being amalgamated with the Learning Communities directory, originally prepared by the Spencer Institute of TAFE, and information (resources pertinent to the support of young people ) required by the Department of Education and Childrens Services (DECS). The combination of the three works will create synergy: the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. It is the writer's ambition to make Community Connect nothing less than a one-stop-shop for information in the region. A feedback loop is incorporated into the design of the directory to allow the public to put forward new submissions and to report any errors or out-of-date information that they find.

Consultation

The Road Map for the Community Connect project has been established through the production of a consulation document "Community Information: Yorke Peninsula & Beyond", which has been reviewed by various people who have had involvment in the component projects. This document, along with others relating to the project, will be made available through the Community Connect web site in the very near future.

Current Status

The writer has data exported from the CISA system (District Council of the Copper Coast and some of the District Council of the Yorke Peninsula regions), and data that has been input through the offices of Kadina Community Library, that covers the District Council of Barunga West. This information is currently being tidied, checked and corrected; data from the Learning Communities directory is currently undergoing conversion, ready for integration with the other data. To meet all the demands of the three component projects and to provide a little "future-proofing" for the software, the database structures are being completely re-designed; althought the data structures will be different, data can be moved from the old to the new quite easily, and without the need for any re-keying. The new, single, database, "coco", will also accommodate Internet links to external sources of information (for instance, yorkepeninsula.com.au) as well as appropriate local government sites.

Accessibility

How accessible is your web site? This may sound like a strange question, but the word "accessibility" is taking on a new meaning: "accessibility by those with disabilities". The US amended Workforce Rehabilitation Act (1998) Section 5082 [generally referred to just as "Section 508"] stipulates that all government and publicly funded web sites must be accessible by all visitors - including those using assistive technologies such as screen magnifiers, screen readers, etc. Working on the premises [a] what happens in the US will eventually happen over here and [b] giving access to all is a sound policy anyway, the writer has been re-learning web coding methodology so that all goverment/public site that he works on are or will be suitably accessible; rather than following the US law, the WAI3 (Web Accessibility Initiative) guidelines laid down by the W3C (WorldWideWeb Consortium)4 will be used - the aims are the same. The Community Connect web site will be the writer's first major project to incorporate accessibility features; compliance; discussions with the Royal Society for the Blind in Adelaide have resulted in the Society being willing to assist in the evaluation of this work, from the point of view of assistive technologies - this should complement the various Internet-based evaluation services such as Bobby5 which are the standard tools used by the writer and other developers.

Publication Details

Community Connected is written by Matthew Smith, who is developing the database and software and acting as Project Manager, working on the integration of the Community Connect and Learning Communities directories.

To get on/off the distribution list or to enquire about the Community Connect project, Matthew may be contacted by any of the following means:

E-mail: info@community-connect.net
Tel: (08) 8821 2395 [office] (0438) 523462 [mobile]
AusPost: PO Box 150, Kadina, 5554

References

The URI of this document is http://www.community-connect.net/doc/2

Community Connect Leading the Way in Rural Networking

Community Connected Issue I - October 2002