BC Bonsai Society Web Site Concept

This page promotes volunteerism! Enter at your own risk!

This page discusses how the BC Bonsai Society Website can evolve with minimal cost. Feel like getting involved? Contact me!

Current state of the BCBS Website.

The current site fulfills the basic W5 needs of the BCBS, by answering:

who we are
what we do
when we do it
where we do it
why we do it
how we do it (Links and Tips pages provide some how-to info)

The pages are maintained on a private server owned by a BCBS member. The pages are maintained by another member. The only cost is the periodic renewal of the URL. The site is cost effective and can be maintained with little effort. It doesn't need to be any more than it is. But....

Ideas to grow it.

Event Gallery - photos of our events, shows, meetings, workshops, field trips
Tree Gallery - photos of our trees
Articles - written by our members
Library and Book Reviews
Task schedule - annual Bonsai task schedule
Projects - seems to me, I've heard of a sub-group working on pines?
Membership page
Individual Member's pages - bonsai Blogs - be creative, your background, Bonsai musings, show your trees, ask questions,
For Sale Page
bonsaiCam - the technology exists! This could be used to broadcast our events on a page, including meetings, shows, demos, etc.

Proposed Structure

Servers - Multiple pages can be set up over multiple servers using members' space, at no cost to the BCBS. Members use internet access service providers that offer webpace as part of their service, such as Shaw and Telus. Free webspace is also offered on line by a variety of sites.

Common Navigation Tools - With the same Header on each page a common navigation bar can be included at the top of each page, regardless of the server on which the page file is stored. Instead of pointing to a file within a directory on the same server, the element on the NavBar would point to a file on another server.

Wikipedia states: "A webring in general is a collection of websites from around the Internet joined together in a circular structure. A good example of a Bonsai Webring is Shohin Bonsai Webring.

Example

The NavBar at the top of this page, and this page only, includes a Library link. It doesn't really point to our library, but it will open a sample page on another site that looks like a typical BCBS Web Site page. If you click on any other item on that sample page NavBar it will bring you back to this site.

Alternate between your Browser's Back and Forward buttons. Seamless, isn't it? What you are seeing are pages on 2 different servers, one a UNIX and the other an APACHE.

Responsibilities

Webmaster

maintain the BSBS URL password and URL fee
maintain the Header, including the Nav Bar
e-mail edited Headers to members so they can update their pages
maintain the W5 Pages as a minimum
e-mail members to notify them of updates to the site

Other member's site

any page they want to host and/or maintain, except the basic W5 pages
their own personal Bonsai themed page if they wish

Page Format

The format and appearance is entirely up to the individual member, whether it be the main site or sub-sites/pages.

BCBS e-mail addresses

Members can create one with their own service provider! For example, with Shaw I can create up to 10 e-mail accounts. I could create one that could look something like:

bcbonsaisociety_webbie@shaw.ca
bcbs_webbie@shaw.ca
bcbs_webmaster@shaw.ca

There is no rule that says you have to have the organization's name in the suffix rather than the prefix!

This way, anyone needing to post an e-mail address on the site could create one. Frankly, any member could create one just for the fun of it.

info-bonsaisociety@shaw.ca
library BCBC@telus.net
bcbs_forsale@shaw.ca
bonsai_fanatic@telus.net

Web Tools

If you want to get involved, you'll need some tools. You can buy tools like Front Page or Dreamweaver, but they can be expensive. Free tools are available. Go to Google and do a search on all of the words:

free html wysiwyg editor