Internet Office Weekly Report #4 - 23 March 2005

Right, another "week", another "weekly" report. :P Clearly I'm including the word clearly in this report to make it absolutely clear to you that you MUST submit your sites to the EH Site Database, or else. All commanders, wing commanders, BGCOMS, SGCOMs, COs and everyone else with a site. All EH sites must be submitted. Details on the requirements of the submission can be found below in the projects section of this report.

Site of the Week is now an official competition, with each week's winner receiving an Iron Star Silver Ribbon. Remember this is open to the entire Emperor's Hammer, and hopefully this shiney will be an incentive to create useful, regularly updated websites.

I have created the Emperor's Hammer Site Database. All the requests received up until a day ago have been processed. The database stands at 58 sites at the current time. This is good, but I know there are many sites not submitted. I don't want to have to get nasty about it, submit the sites please.

News

The EH Site Database has been created, and is located at http://ehlinks.lenvik.org/. 58 sites have been added to the database as of this report. If your site doesn't appear on the database, it means I haven't added it yet, but I will soon.

Site of the Week

This week, the first Internet Office Site of the Week has been awarded during my tenure as IO. And the winner is:

Serin proves that PHP/MySQL is not required to create a great squadron site. Tonnes of info about Beta Squad, as well as very regular News updates make this site a great resource for Beta's members and people interested in joining the squadron. Remember a good & updated website is one way in which a Cadet may pick a squadron, so make sure yours is regularly updated with news and competitions. Congratulations to CM Serin Jansj, winner of an Iron Star - Silver Ribbon.

I ask you, the membership of the Emperor's Hammer, to submit sites that you believe are worthy of a site of the week award. To qualify as site of the week, a site should look alright (doesn't need uber graphics to win though), have plenty of relevant information about the particular unit or function, and is updated regularly. Sites must be in the EH Site Database to qualify for Site of the Week.

Internet Office Projects

• Operation: Audit
  
  To maintain the high standard expected of Emperor's Hammer websites, I will be running a continual audit of all Emperor's Hammer websites. I will post the schedule of the next week's audits on here and on the soon to be up audit site. No EH site will be exempt from this audit. Sites will be checked periodically (approximately once every 6 months) for link integrity (broken/outdated links etc), layout quality and content as well as regular news updates.

  As early as next week I will be displaying a list of sites that will be receiving an audit in the following week. Please check here each week to see if your site is scheduled for an audit.
  

• Talk to the IO
  
  I want to receive feedback from as many members of the Emperor's Hammer as possible over the coming weeks. You can email me with comments at io@emperorshammer.org or chat with me on IRC on Undernet in #emperor's_hammer or #tiecorps, PM me as Lenvik or Iodine (or variants of those nicks). I would like to know what you've thought of IO Projects in the past, what you liked and what you didn't, where you would like the EH Internet Office to head in the future, and any and all ideas you have.
  
  
• Imperial Senate Site Recode
  
  I am currently recoding the official site of the Imperial Senate subgroup of the Emperor's Hammer. Progress thus far includes the news system, dossier records, ID Line generator and I've started on the roster system.
  
  
• Project: Condor Datapad
  
  Can't share much on this except that I'm coding the datapad for Project: Condor. I put this here because Khadgar made me. :P
  
  
• Emperor's Hammer Site Database
  
  In line with my views that sites need to be more closely monitored for news updates, quality content and so links don't get out of date, I've set up an Emperor's Hammer Link Database. ALL Emperor's Hammer (including all subgroup sites) are required to submit their site to this database. Submit your sites, and request changes at io@emperorshammer.org or lenvik@gmail.com. The information required is:
  • Name of the Site
  • The link to the site
  • Subgroup it Pertains to
  • Unit type (Squadron, Battleteam, Wing etc.)
  • What units it falls under (eg. Odin Squadron is on Wing XIII of the ISD Greywolf in the Aggressor Strike Force in the Emperor's Hammer TIE Corps Strike Fleet.)
  • The current webmaster/maintainer of the site.
  • The commanding officer of the unit
  • Any and all scripting and database technologies it employs.
  • Description of the site and/or it's purpose. (Optional)

  Progress Update:
  

  • Site created.
  • The directory contains 58 sites (+58).
  
  

Internet Office Tasks List 2005

• Image Archive: The Image Archive will be re-released in the coming months.
• HoloNet awards: The HoloNet awards will be in May, if things go according to schedule. Look forward to some new categories for your site to win.
• Open sourcing IO projects: Most future Internet Office projects will be open source, ie. the source code will be available to download.
• More member-orientated projects: More on this soon. I shall be reviewing and making suggestions regarding the IO IWATS courses to Stuart and his related PROFs.
• Expansion and addition on projects that help members become more skilled about web design such as the Code Archive: The next release of SquadFirst will be modular, allowing PHP enthusiasts to write extra or updated functions for SquadFirst and upload them to a repositry of SquadFirst mods. Interested users will be able to download these and copy the file in and add the addition using the control panel of squadfirst. Also in the next version of SquadFirst will be a better install interface.
• Updating of SquadFirst code to take into account the new TIE Corps site URL: SquadFirst will receive an update soon including modularity (as above) and updated functions and links.
• Coordinate with Communication and Executive Offices in porting ELS system to ASP: Task suspended indefinetly.

Contact the Internet Office

Feel free to contact me relating any Internet Office related issues you may have, including ideas and feedback etc (see Talk to the IO project). You can contact me at io@emperorshammer.org via email, or with the nicks Lenvik or Iodine (or a variant of the aforementioned nicks) on most official EH channels on UnderNet. An Internet Office site shall be up soon where feedback can be given.

Internet Office Links

• http://ehlinks.lenvik.org/ - EH Site Database
• http://mb.emperorshammer.net/ - EH Message Boards

Closing Comments

Please participate in the IO feedback competition so as I can tailor projects to EH needs. Prepare your sites for auditing, and prepare for lots of useful and fun IO projects in the near future!

Submitted By:

Internet Officer Vice Admiral Lenvik

IO/VA Lenvik/CS-5/SSSD Sovereign
SS/BSx2/PCx2/ISM/IS-3BW-2BR-2SW-3SR-1GW-4GR/LoC-CSx4-Rx2/CoL/CoB/OV [ARCN]
{IWATS-AIM-BOT-CBX-FLA-FW-IBX-ICQ-IIC/1/2/3-JS-M/1/2-MP-PHP-SM/3-TLN-VBS}