Some fun for Christmas for those using ETINU as their web content management software... you can add a number of whimsical snowflakes to their web site.

See how it's done by reading this blog post.

Have fun!

Staff at Live Here Love Here have a never-ending task to manage all the activities the organisation's campaigns generate.

Recently a web training day was arranged—although it was mostly to bring staff up to speed on all the functionality that ETINU provides (the site's content management system), it also helped them to take stock of how the site was performing without interruptions.

Having had no distractions during the day, we were able to: review the many audiences the site caters for; explore different ways to present content; review the messages they wanted to reach each audience with and focus on the priorities for the site going forward.

Afterwards, as I reviewed the day, I believe staff felt more empowered and enthused—no longer feeling that managing the site was a huge task. During and after the training, changes were made that, they hope, will direct the different audiences to what they are looking for easily. And hopefully it's only the start...

Live Here Love Here is a positive, people powered campaign focused on improving our local environment and building a sense of pride in our local communities.

If you'd like to show your support, don't hesitate to add your signature to the growing movement of people who want a cleaner greener place to live and work.

With our web content and user management software, ETINU, so much can be done in a relatively short space of time.

Mark Cooper of Cooper and Lansbury specialises in helping people in business in the areas of customer experience, leadership and personal development. We met Mark over lunch (see our tweet 16 June 2017) to brainstorm what would be the next stage for the Cooper and Lansbury web site. Although the original site had fulfilled its requirement, after two and a half years it was ready for a change.

In a matter of days, even hours, a new unique and fresh style was created for this web site and was presented to Mark during a Skype call (using its Share screen facility) and made live on Tuesday 20. How was this achieved so quickly you may ask... every page of the web site is linked to one file (called a stylesheet) that determines how every element on a page looks. So, for example, when colours, font or any style is changed in the stylesheet for a heading, it changes throughout the site for that heading.

Throughout the week, work continued—a new dynamic look for the once wordy home page went live on Wednesday 21. We were on hand with useful tips to help Mark update the content using ETINU and improve titles and descriptions to optimise the site for users and search engines. We also adapted some styles in the stylesheet for certain content to improve readability.

Mark has great charisma and, from what we've learnt from meeting him, anyone who attends one of his workshops, will certainly benefit from his knowledge, enthusiasm and direction.

Whether you are an existing client who has a site that needs a facelift or a new customer whose existing web site has a lot of content, we can migrate its content, develop the site in ETINU and create a new stylesheet that encompasses your existing design (or create a new one)—we are here to help you through the process painlessly.

Just send us an email to contact@platypusconsultancy.com or give us a call on +44 79 6999 2552.

We have pleasure to announce that our client, Florida Manor NI, has been shortlisted in the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards 2017 (in association with DIAGEO Northern Ireland) in the category Non-Serviced Accommodation (Self-Catering).

Currently there are three self-catering traditional and modern styled apartments within the Florida Manor estate available for rent through their web site. They are set in a rural location within easy reach of Belfast, Comber and Bangor. Within the estates original stone perimeter wall lies 200 acres of extensive landscaped grasslands, private lakes, walkways and bridal paths presenting the perfect backdrop for a relaxing vacation.

Wishing Florida Manor NI every success at the Northern Ireland Tourism Black Tie Awards Presentation and Gala Dinner on Thursday 18th May 2017 which will be held in the grounds of Enniskillen Castle.

It's well documented there are companies who send emails to unsuspecting owners informing them that they should renew their name immediately before their domain expires, even though their domain has been renewed months before (and in some cases for several years).

If you're busy, it's so easy to skim read, pay and then regret afterwards!

Recently we've seen an uptake on emails requesting owners to register for SEO (search engine registration). Pay now for the year... example in screenshot. Text says something like...

"This solicitation is to inform you that it's time to send in your search engine registration for (your domain).

Failure to complete this order by (a date in a week's time) may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you, using search engines on the web)."

Please ignore... and note that as part of our service we will advise you on a quarterly basis how your site is performing. Taking in consideration:

• how headings and metatags are relevant to each page's content
• how your site is performing in search engine rankings for certain keywords
• the effect of your social media activities
  
• and generally give you advice on how to improve your site's SEO.

If you're unsure of any emails that you receive, forward them to contact@platypusconsultancy.com and we'll advise you.

With Belfast's Vespa World Days 2018 web site now launched, countdown has started to the largest Vespa event has ever witnessed. It will be based in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast and is open to all members of the Vespa World Clubs and its members.

A full programme has been organised from 14 to 17 June 2018 including rideouts to:

• The Giant's Causeway
• Ulster Transport Museum
• Ulster Folk Museum
• Crumlin Road Victorian Gaol
• with a special Vespa Cavalcade to Carrickfergus Castle on the last day

We have had the pleasure of working with Mark and Maggie Cooke to design and develop this web site.

From the onset, Mark emphasised the need to ensure all members, families and friends have easy access to all aspects of the event—such as: details about its location (Titanic Quarter, Belfast and local attractions); full programme; details of rideouts; access to the tourism information; where to stay.

See all the event information at: http://www.vespaworlddays2018.co.uk/

One of our new year's resolutions was to make all our client's web site device-friendly so the content adapts to each device regardless of monitor size. Quite a task!

At the end of July, there were only two to do—this site, Platypus and ETINU! We decided to do ETINU's first and today it went live.

While reviewing the design of the site, we reviewed the content keeping in mind, you, our audiences and what you would want to see first. We think it's much clearer and informative.

More content will be added in the coming weeks but if you think there's something missing, don't hesitate to contact us.

ETINU is the web content and user management software that all our clients use to maintain their web sites.

Still using an email address from aol, gmail, yahoo or hotmail instead of using their own domain name, for example, using: contact-your-domain@yahoo.com but should be something like: contact@your-domain.net.

It's better that your own domain name is used. That way your own business is being advertised and it avoids people having to remember your email address that maybe completely different from your domain name.

Your domain name provider should be able to configure their systems so that any email coming for 'contact@your-domain.net' goes directly to your yahoo (or whatever email system you are using) email.

Nothing changes at your end except making sure your reply email address is the 'contact@your-domain.net' that your laptop can do.

If your provider can't do it for you or you'd like to discuss your options with us, just email us at: contact@platypusconsultancy.com.

There's no doubt about it that as Google continues to implement their search engine algorithms that favour high quality, content rich sites to give users a better searching experience, it's having a detrimental effect on ecommerce sites that have thin content.

So what can you do...

• pay attention to adding appropriate titles and descriptions in your metatags of every page
• make sure each product has relevant and details description—don't rely on just displaying an image of the product
• make sure any image has a description too—relevant for people visually impaired but still vital
• add content to category pages—too often a list of products are displayed without relevant headings and descriptions on what the page contains
• avoid duplication
• don't add content from other sites—be unique.

Also, Google's Webmaster Central Blog contains guidelines on how to create good content. Though dating back to 2011, Google still refers to them. Have a read at:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html.

Florida Manor Estate is closer to home than you realise! Sitting in 200 acres of unspoilt countryside near Killinchy, Northern Ireland and within a few miles of Strangford Lough, this Irish Georgian estate is being restored to its former glory.

Now you have the opportunity to avail of its luxurious apartments and spacious grounds. Working closely with the staff of Florida Manor, we have developed a new booking system that integrates with their web site, http://www.floridamanorni.com/, to enable visitors to book their stay easily. In one simple form, visitors can:

• choose an apartment available to rent
• select their arrival and departure dates (that automatically displays the cost with full breakdown)
• specify the number in party
• make any special requests
• provide contact details
• and make a deposit to confirm their booking.

Foremost on our minds has been ease of use and security. We have chosen Stripe to handle all credit card payments securely. Visitors need to register on the booking system and, once their email address has been validated, they sign in and book their stay. Visitors seamlessly use the site's secure environment that means all activity between Stripe and the visitor's browser is encrypted keeping all credit card details secure.

So if you'd love a few days to unwind in a beautiful setting, book your spring break at Florida Manor.

We are making all client's sites that use ETINU device friendly, so whether you are viewing them on a mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, the content will change to maximise the visible space for easy reading.

Here's a few that we've completed:

Cooper and Lansbury, http://www.cooperandlansbury.com/
Eco-Home NI, http://www.eco-homeni.org/
Florida Manor NI, http://www.floridamanorni.com/

Some of our client's comments include:

"The website looks fantastic, thank you so much. I shall start promoting it as being mobile accessible!!"

"The website looks great on a mobile device - thank you! Now we can go all out and market our web site!"

So to clients, expect a call when we're ready to make your mobile friendly site live. Meanwhile don't hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions.

More mobile friendly sites live

2016-01-20 Templemore Aquatic Sports Club
2016-01-22 Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful
2016-01-22 Live Here Love Here
2016-02-15 The Rocking Horse Nursery and PlayStation
2016-03-23 Activefeet Podiatry
2016-03-29 She Marketing

2016-03-30 A couple of small sites completed: 
Dairy Fresh Foods
Communitus
Think Risk!
Templemore Baths
Abbeyfield Belfast Society

Some of April's sites completed:
Irish Country Quilting
John M Kirk, Corpus Linguist and Dialectologist
Kielder First School, England's remotest primary school
Sarah Richmond, Mezzo Soprano
Peacepolls
Real Music Club

Now into May and already a few more...

Lurgan Coarse Angling Club
Downshire Riding Club
Jamie Guiney
John Rutherford's travel hub

The Eco-Home NI web site has had a complete overhaul—fresh design, better structure and crafted to provide an optimal viewing no matter what device you are displaying the site on.

Find out how you can reduce your energy, waste, water and transport outputs by viewing tips, advice and action plans on the web site. It will help you to prevent and reduce energy and waste use in the home, conserve water and maybe even help you to review your travel options.

And if you want to assess your energy use, you can register and fill in the survey form online and see how you perform.

This work extends the Eco-schools NI message beyond the school gates and into the wider community. This site was transferred to Platypus earlier in the year. Along with ETINU as its content management, it now integrates with the MIS system, Artemis, to enable schools to apply for the Green Flag awards through the site.

We just added Florida Manor web site to our list of ETINU-powered sites.

The Manor can be found off the Florida Road, outside Killinchy in County Down, Northern Ireland. The Galleries with its slideshow effect boastfully displays its beautiful grounds and accommodation.

As said: "Florida Manor, an original Irish Georgian Estate has undergone sympathetic refurbishment. Within the estates original stone perimeter wall lies 200 acres of extensive landscaped grasslands, private lakes, walkways and bridal paths. Although set in a rural location it is within easy reach of Belfast, Comber and Bangor."

Development not only continues throughout the Estate, but we will be releasing a new booking system so that visitors can book their stay in one of the apartments.

In November a new web site was released so that it is now responsive, that is, the content is optimised for different devices.

This popular workshop will be delivered at Newcastle University on Monday 28 September.

This is open to anyone who is new to Google analytics and wants to understand its interface, the terminology it uses and the many reports that are displayed by default. You will learn ways to keep track of who is viewing your website, evaluate the effectiveness of your content and find out how to monitor marketing campaigns and review user activity ensuring that your web site is achieving its purpose.

For more details, view the Google Analytics flier or contact us to book a place.

Recently Mark Cooper from Cooper and Lansbury contacted us enquiring if we could develop a web site for him that reflected his company brand. Once we discussed with him what he was looking for we set about developing a couple of styles that he could choose the best that he liked from each. Primarily, he wanted the site to be formal reflecting his brand, but with a touch of colour. It's only when content is added that design comes to life.

Mark says: "I engaged Platypus to design, build and host a new website for my business and they have exceeded my expectations on every level. They really brought my brand to life and have provided a platform that is eye catching and user-friendly. Christine came up with some highly innovative ideas and was not afraid to challenge what I felt I wanted. ETINU is very easy to use and the whole process was pain free. I am thrilled with the end product, and my customers are too!"

Cooper and Lansbury inspires businesses to do things differently. Through training and consultancy, they help people to reach their full potential and become more effective and more successful at what they do. They are fully qualified psychometric practitioners. See more at http://www.cooperandlansbury.com.

The Rocking Horse Nursery decided they'd do away with snail mail. It would save time (printing and placing their newsletters into envelops) and money (no stamps, paper nor envelops).

Instead now, they notify them via email to point them to the latest newsletter to view online (and view past ones) in a private section of Rocking Horse web site.

Since they were already using ETINU, they just needed to:

• set up a new group of users called 'Parents and Friends'
• create a new private section to store all the newsletters
• give that group access to that section

They then encouraged the parents and friends to register on the web site. When staff approved their registration, they added them into the 'Parents and Friends' group.

So from now on, all staff need to do is send a brief email using the ETINU's Mailshot facility to let them know a new newsletter is available.

No cost for The Rocking Horse Nursery and less hassle.

Looking at the Google Analytics account for Templemore Aquatic Sports Club is impressive. Year on year there are substantial increases in web traffic and retention.

The greatest improvement was in 2013 after the web site administrators started to use ETINU to update the web site content. Comparing the same month in 2013 as in 2012, there was a:

• 395% increase in users
• 347% increase in pageviews
• 263% increase in sessions
• the bounce rate (where users come to the site and go no further) went from 60% in 2012 to 34.8% in 2013—a drop of 42%!

In comparing the same month in 2014 as in 2013, there was a:

• 104% increase in users
• 106% increase in pageviews
• 91% increase in sessions
• with the bounce rate the same only at 34%.

In comparing 2015 with 2014, there was a:

• 34% increase in users
• 48% increase in pageviews
• 40% increase in sessions
• now bounce rate is at 32%.

How have they done it? I would say consistency... they've used their web site as the central point for all information:

• news about swimming results, fundraising events, event and rota changes are posted regularly
• event calendar displays all future events so people know well in advance what's planned
• all club members are encouraged to register on the site so they are notified by email of any relevant news—the emails contain links that bring them to the site for more information
• the registered members can login and view content in the private sections that have the official documentation, parent information, gallery of photos and official results
• and, it's not down to one person to maintain the web site, there's several administrators who have special access so they can manage the site.

If you've a club and would like a free evaluation on your current site or would like to get started using these features that ETINU provides, contact us. We're here to help.

Netskills, an organisation which has been supporting the educational community through training and staff development over the past 20 years, closed at the end of 2014. However, the live services and projects that staff have developed and worked on will be hosted and maintained for some time to come. Platypus has been asked to assist in this role and over recent weeks two major services and other online resources have been migrated to the Platypus cloud on the AWS (Amazon Web Services) platform.

The services include the following.

JiscMail is used by several thousand groups of academics, researchers and others from outside academe, to exchange ideas and discuss interests using email and web. There are currently around 1.5 million unique subscribers. Day-to-day support is still provided by a dedicated Jisc funded team using the web site, twitter account and main helpdesk email and phone.

The Professional Development Framework and Self-Diagnostic Tool for Business and Community Engagement is a resource designed for self-diagnosis of capabilties and planning of skills development. It is used as a practical aid for: continuing professional development schemes; recruitment; appraisals and annual reviews; long term career planning; and strategic and capacity planning.

Related article: Netskills' 20 years, 2000 courses, 20,000 participants

To all our clients, partners, associates, friends,

We would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas with success and happiness in 2015.

This year the Christmas card funds have gone to one of our favourite charities, Practical Action which promotes and installs technology solutions to reduce poverty in 45 developing countries across the world.

Our online card is at: http://bit.ly/platypus-card-2014

The photos show that we've had a good year. We have had the opportunity to deliver two two-week workshops to Nigerian IT professionals at Newcastle University on all things internet (one of the highlights of our year), we celebrated another 10 years in business, attended conferences and delivered workshops across the UK—Google Analytics, was notably the most requested!

Every best wish,

Christine and George

On Wednesday 8 October, Platypus celebrated its 10th anniversary with clients and friends after our first ETINU workshop which was held in The Pirrie Room at The Mount Business and Conference Centre.

Thanks to French Village Bakery for a lovely cake... it went down a treat!

Thanks for all who joined us and here's a few photos of the occasion.

Here's to the next 10!

To all Platypus clients, associates, partners and those interested... Platypus has created its own web content and user management software, ETINU. If you have a web site with us then you are using ETINU!

This gives you early notice of our first full day workshop on ETINU (see: http://bit.ly/etinu-introduction).

Wednesday 8 October 09:30-16:00
The Mount Business and Conference Centre
2 Woodstock Link
Belfast
BT6 8DD

We would like all our clients, associates and partners to know about the functionality that ETINU offers. This workshop will help you understand all its features and capabilities, providing you with the confidence to identify and benefit from new opportunities for your organisation. Or possibly provide a simple web platform for your own clients via Platypus.

The day will include the following topics as well as addressing all the questions and requests that you may raise:

• Discovering the complete web platform service provided by ETINU
• Reviewing all the web site section content types and how they are used
• Registering site users so that you can engage them more fully
• Creating user groups and delivering timely, relevant news to them
• Exploring the flexibility of menu and sub menu navigation
• Managing numerous news sources and highlighting items of interest
• Developing a single place for all your pictures and other documents
• Learning about how style changes can be made with no hassle
• Improving your site positioning in search engine results
• Using Google Analytics to monitor your site use and make informed decisions
• Hearing about what we've planned for ETINU and feeding into that development
• Understanding how everyone benefits when a new module is created for ETINU
• Setting up a new site in 2 minutes to get going
• Meeting other ETINU users and learning from their experiences

We plan to charge a nominal attendance fee of £60.00+VAT. Lunch and coffee break refreshments will be provided.

If you'd like to attend, please view the workshop overview online, where you'll find a short video introduction to ETINU, map of venue, and simple secure payment link:

http://bit.ly/etinu-introduction

And please feel free to bring others along, whether ETINU users or not.

Looking forward to an extremely productive and rewarding day.

George Munroe, Christine Cahoon and a few friends (as part of the Friends school Lisburn, Class of 76) are taking part in the Great North Run on Sunday 7 September. The spectator-lined course covers 13.1 miles from Newcastle, across the iconic Tyne Bridge and onto the picturesque coastal finish in South Shields. We will be running to raise funds for "Action for Children".

So far this year we've raised almost £900, but our aim is to pass £1500 mark. Appreciate your help -- small or large -- help us to hit the target again in 2014!

http://virginmoneygiving.com/classof76

Thanks!

Following the success of the first Nigerian workshop on Modern ICT applications held in February, we've been asked by Jisc Netskills to join their team again to deliver a second workshop in the first two weeks of September.

The programme will be covering topics such as:

• cloud computing overview and AWS
• web server management
• HTML form processing using server scripts
• JavaScript and form data validation
• using a relational database with a web site
• google applications including Google Analytics
• preparing documents using structure and style
• using CSS effectively
• metadata and linked data
• web page design and SEO
• social media

At the start of the workshop, the participants will be separated into groups ensuring a balance of roles within each group: designer, programmer, content creator, webmaster, presenter, project manager.

Every group will set up a web and email service then create, populate and update a web site that has been planned with a distinct and relevant purpose. Associated documents—text, pictures, and presentations—will also be prepared.

All aspects of hosting, security, authoring, organising, monitoring and more, will be considered. All software used will be open source.

The general approach will be flexible. Although there is a guiding schedule, we hope to spend most time on the particular topics the participants, as a whole, express the most interest in.

If it's anything like last time, it will be a hard work but very rewarding. At the end, each participant should have a strong sense of having tangibly contributed to their group's project.

Looking forward to the challenge!

See Netskills news on September's workshop: Second intensive workshop confirmed for Nigerian IT staff

See news item on February's workshop: From Nigeria to Netskills...

More and more we see individuals wanting to have their own web space (without using Facebook or other social media sites). Somewhere to display what they are passionate about, blog about what they do and keep in touch with their visitors. Here's a few:

The Irish Country Quilting web site, http://www.irishcountryquilting.net/ run by Pauline Openneer displays her quilting work and information about the Quilting retreats she organises in Holland, Donegal Ireland and the States.

JR's hub, http://www.jrshub.me.uk/... the travel blog of John Rutherford. John has worked for World Challenge leading expeditions since 2012. He's consolidated all his travelling advice within this site. Recently launched but hopes to start his blog soon, if he wasn't doing so much travelling!

Pauline is one of our oldest customers whereas John is one of youngest. Both have expressed their delight in finding ETINU so easy to use. The style of their site is unique to them, just as they wanted. Also with access to their Google Analytics which monitors their web site traffic, they can see what content visitors are most interested in, what channels visitors are coming to their site and much more.

Over the next four weeks we'll be delivering workshops on 'Getting the most of your Google Analytics' in Birmingham, Sheffield and Bristol. If you'd like to join us, don't hesitate to register. You'll see all the details of all the workshops on the Netskills web site. There's still places in Birmingham and Bristol.

If you'd like us to deliver a workshop within your organisation, drop us an email with your requirements.

... here's a testimonial from Clare Jefferis of She Marketing: "Platypus has huge amounts of expertise and their support and guidance, in both technical matters, and content and navigation has been invaluable.

As a reseller for ETINU, it made sense to have my own site built with this web and user management system. On set up two stylesheets were created that I could select which one I wanted or change any element through the web site administration.

My web site complements my brand and I have the ability to easily change all the content of my web site including adding new sections and changing all the titles and descriptions to reflect the content that's in each section. Helps to optimise my site for search engines!

Visitors can automatically register on my site and assign themselves to a specific group so I can send out mailshots in an area that interests them.

Using my Google account, I can access all the web traffic reports with Google Analytics so I can see how my site is working. I value using ETINU as it complements my own business which coaches businesses to market themselves effectively and efficiently."

She Marketing, a marketing consultancy based in Epsom, Surrey, helps women business owners to improve their marketing and stand out from the crowd. We set up the web site with ETINU and developed it inline with the company's branding.

George attended the TNC 2014 in Dublin this week. As the technical developer of the Jiscconext project, George was supporting other members of the team (Carl Vincent from Netskills and Neil Witheridge, AARNet) in the afternoon session of 20th May, 'Using OpenConext to build service delivery platforms'.

Archived video of all sessions are available at: TNC 2014 web site.

This year we are participating in three running events to raise money for Action for Children: Belfast Marathon relay team on May Day; Lisburn half marathon and 10K on the evening of Wednesday 18 June and the Great North Run in 7 September.

George and Christine are part of the running team for the Friends school Lisburn "class of 76". So on Monday, the team ran in the first challenge, the Belfast Marathon. Despite dire weather at times we finished in a very respectable time (for our age) of under 4.5 hours.

And the celebratory meet up at Cutters Wharf was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Roll on Wednesday 18 June for the next run. Fund raising continues for "Action for children". Thanks to all who have contributed so far and helped us over half way to target amount this year!

View Netskills video summarising what was achieved during the "Modern applications in ICT" workshop which George and I helped to deliver on 12-21 February.

Next "Modern applications in ICT" workshop in September. Looking forward to it.

For more information on the workshop, see previous news item, From Nigeria to Netskills.

It was a busy but very satisfying February. We were invited by Jisc Netskills, UK, to organise and deliver a two week workshop entitled "Modern applications in ICT" to 30 Nigerian IT professionals. We faced a few challenges along the way, not least learning the names of the participants! There were many different skills in the group. We divided everyone into 5 groups with a distribution of skills in each and set a practical group project to be completed during the workshop, making use of the knowledge and skills we taught in 24 teaching sessions. Topics covered everything from setting up an internet server in the "cloud" (we used Amazon Web Services), to installing email and web services and programming a dynamic web site, using emerging HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript standards, then promoting the site using social media. On the final day each group presented their web project. It was a real thrill to see how every group had brought their two week's work together. You can read more at:

From Nigeria to Netskills – staff development across continents

Jambo workshop web site

Photos of the participants during the workshop

Feedback after workshop

It is our delight to be invited by Netskills to take the lead in delivering a 2-week workshop on Modern applications in ICT for a group of IT specialists from two organisations in Nigeria, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the National Examinations Council from 11 - 20 February.

The workshop has followed a programme which involves every participant (as a key member of a small group) to set up an internet server, install software, develop bespoke code, prepare web content, and configure, run and monitor the service. Each day has included teaching sessions and opportunities to put that teaching into practice.

Among the many topics that are being covered includes:

• cloud computing overview
• configuring and managing a server instance
• setting up a web server
• HTML and forms
• relational databases
• simple Perl programming
• JavaScript and data validation
• web page design and SEO
• generating reports in web pages
• securing web pages with user login
• monitoring access with Google Analytics
• using CSS effectively with web pages
  
• HTML5 APIs
• social media
• metadata and linked data

On Thursday 20 February participants will consolidate all learning by describing and demonstrating the service they have created during a brief presentation to their peers on the final day of the workshop. Also on Thursday, each group will present their online service to the rest of the workshop participants who will in turn pose questions and judge each group on the quality of their pilot service, taking into account all the workshop teaching modules.

Remembering everyone's name has been a challenge but it's been a joy to deliver this workshop. They are all eager to learn, soaking up as much material as they can and seeing how they can apply what they have learnt. It's been quite an experience! Looking forward to the second week.

See more from the Netskills blog at: From Nigeria to Netskills - staff development across continents.

Google have released a completely new version of their "Analytics" service. The former version will be discontinued. We are in the process of updating all web sites to avail of the new Google "Universal" Analytics.

Visits to your website are comprehensively tracked and reported using Google Analytics. ETINU (Platypus's own web system) automatically sets this up for you when the site is created. By default a Platypus Google account is used and as soon as we become aware of your Google account details, we provide you with access to the reports. In some cases a client already has Google Analytics set up and their site reports using that particular Google account from the start.

If desirable, ETINU super-administrator users can update how their site's visits are tracked using the "Google Analytics Code" parameter under "Administration" -> "Parameters" as you can see from this screenshot. This code is automatically inserted at the top of every page of your web site to enable tracking.

For all clients currently using a Platypus Google account (i.e. you have not set up Google Analytics for your web site independently), *you don't need to do anything*. The upgrade to the new Universal Analytics will preserve all historical data in Analytics reports -- i.e you won't lose anything. It will also involve changing the code that must be inserted at the top of every page and including a new special tracking number. Platypus will be doing this for you.

For all clients who have set up Google Analytics themselves (with a non Platypus Google account), we will not make any changes to the Google Analytics code that your site uses (we do not have sufficient privilege to access your Analytics administration). You may upgrade to Universal at your leisure and use the ETINU administration (Administration -> Parameters -> Google Analytics Code) to provide the new required code.

Note: all web administrators can access their Analytics reports from the "Administration -> Statistics -> Google Analytics reports" link. You are required to provide your Google account details (used with all Google services such as Google Drive, YouTube, Gmail, Google+, Picasso, etc.). If this does not work for you then please contact me and provide the Google account username that you wish to use for access and we will ensure this is enabled.

Below are some links to information about Google Analytics that may be of interest:

Introduction to Google Analytics
Features of Google Analytics
Benefits of Google's Universal Analytics

It's always hard to keep up to date on what's going on in the internet world when you're busy but it's also worth taking time out to have some thinking time to review how you can get the most of your online presence. In February there are two workshops coming up in Newcastle University which may be of interest:

• Thursday 27 February: HTML5: Evolution or revolution?
• Friday 28 February: Making the most of Google Analytics

Register your place following the links above and we'll see you there or if you'd like a customised workshop for your organisation, don't hesitate to contact us.

More videos added to our ETINU YouTube channel that will help you see what ETINU is about:

• various section types that are automatically available from how they are viewed on a web site... blog, event calendar, gallery, newsfeeds, personnel and resources database
• simple steps to get started with ETINU

Only 3 minutes each and well worth viewing to see how you can be in control.

Google Analytics is probably the most popular method of monitoring web site usage today. However it is all too easy to simply accept the excellent graphical reports superficially without appreciating that much more intelligence about how your particular web site is being used can be extracted with some simple configuration.

This workshop addresses what we should know about access to web resources in order to improve them and how Google Analytics can provide this information.

Google Analytics interface and data gathering features continues to change dramatically. This workshop also brings you up to date on the latest enhancements.

The next workshop will be run in Manchester on October 24. If you would like to attend or have this workshop customised for your company, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Unlike other years, it was a blowy and rainy day for the Great North Run on Sunday 15 September. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as the raging storm that some had predicted the evening before. Tough conditions didn't put the team off at all. George, along with Michael Snoddy came in with another two personal bests while Adrian Bell and Christine followed with very respectable times, all things considered. The soothing massage at the end was welcomed - thanks to those lovely welcoming people in the Marie Curie charity tent.

We have now reached a grand total of £1615 raised for Marie Curie Cancer Care—see http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/classof76. Thanks to all who have donated so generously!

Sunday 15 September sees directors, Christine Cahoon and George Munroe, along with other former pupils of the Class of 76 from Friends School Lisburn, Michael Snoddy and Adrian Bell facing the 13.1 miles from Newcastle to South Shields in North East England as their last 2013 fund raising event for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Their target fundraising of £1500 is just £5 short of being hit, so if you'd like to help us with a few quid then please just go to http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/classof76... it only takes a minute or so.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to date.

Look out for us on BBC 1 on Sunday 15 September from 09:30 to 13:30. :-)

Recently the Mevagh Dive Centre web site was revamped by Platypus. It had been originally designed for small desktop screens and, judging from the HTML, it seemed to have had multiple web developers. The site had very little content management. Over the years, pages had been manually changed but some navigational links had been lost, there were links to old pages, content was repeated and only a few pages had the Google Analytics (GA) tracking code.

During the site revamp:

• content was separated from design and style—all pages were linked to a series of stylesheets that dictate its design so the style can be changed easily without affecting the content
• GA code was automatically added on all pages
• all content was consolidated and repeated text removed
• the site was built and run using ETINU, so all the content can be added, edited or deleted, as required by the site owner and other appointed administrators
• the site was optimised for search engines with appropriate titles and descriptions to reflect the content

Now that the new web site has been running for one month, here's some observations from the GA reports. I've compared the last month of the old site's data (period June 9–July 10) to the first month of the new site (period July 11–August 11). The improvements are very encouraging (see accompanying graph images, click to enlarge):

• content matters—when visitors come to the web site, they view an average of 3.6 pages (was 1.8) and stay on the site on average 2.3 minutes (was 1.5)—this is very good in web terms
• visitors are correctly directed to the site—significantly fewer people leave the site when they first come to the web site, bounce rate is down by 29%
• more returning visitors—understandably there are more unique visitors and, of those, more are returning to check on new events and other information
• much more search traffic from 14.6% up to 37%—the site is optimised for search engines so many more visitors are finding it on the search engines; this can continue to be improved by the site owner
• more referral traffic—up to 18.3% so more sites are directing traffic to the web site than previously

What about your web site? Has it had multiple designers and content creators over the years and may not be doing everything it could for you? Does it need a fresh look? Does it need optimised for search engines? Would you like to be in full control and understand all the visitor activity...

If you'd like us to review your web site and discuss what could be done, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Since the beginning of the year we've been working on a project, with several partners including Netskills, Cloud Identity and SurfNet, to create an online collaboration framework. This extends the work of OpenConext which was built by SurfNET. The end goal is to build a system with single sign-on (federated access management) for creating group orientated web portals of general and custom applications extending what JISCmail currently provides and adding a lot more.

Ensuring that the project meets with users' expectations, a day for critical review was held at Woburn House on July 4th. Presentations, demonstrations and user trials were the order of the day and those invited were able to get a firm impression of the Jisc Conext product, its origins, current and future functionality, and give their opinions on development to date.

Useful helpful suggestions were made. A clear agreement was reached that the product already had great appeal to many groups seeking to extend their collaborative operations with a variety of popular tools.

Niels Van Dijk from Surfnet took the opportunity to present the group with a cake celebrating the first official OpenConext code contribution.

A successful day in all... with much work to do to complete before the November deadline!

Information about the Conext project is posted at: http://conext.etinu.net.

As part of the Classof76 challenge each year, George takes part in three races: Belfast marathon relay, Lisburn half marathon and the Great North Run.

Well, the first one was completed on May Day... the Belfast marathon relay. Well done to George, Adrian Bell and Michael Snoddy. George and Michael did two legs but Adrian did the arduous 7.1 mile run in the middle. Lovely day though, cool and dry, not like other years. Here's a photo of all 3 having a satisfying and well deserved pint!

So far, donations are at £1,175 for Marie Curie Cancer Care: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/classof76

The next race is the Lisburn half marathon on 19 June and then on 15 September the Great North Run.

The last of the Spring workshops will be held in Wolverhampton. In each of the workshops there will be a mix of presentations, Q&A and practical sessions. Much to learn and lots to take away as all material is backed up with links to relevant articles that gives you supplementary information for your perusal. If you'd like to register follow the relevant link below and fill in the booking form. Thanks. Looking forward to see you there.

HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?
Wednesday 15 May 2013 10:00 - 16:00 
Wolverhampton Science Park, Regional Support Centre, West Midlands

Getting the most from your Google Analytics
Wednesday 15 May 2013 10:00 - 16:00 
Wolverhampton Science Park, Regional Support Centre, West Midlands

Recently a client wanted to embed one of their ETINU web site sections into another web site. This meant that the content of that section had to be displayed within the new site without any page headers, backgrounds, menu or footer of the other site.

Their own site contained a training catalogue. ETINU had been used to build this catalogue bringing together training resources available to the UK education sector into one place. Staff are able to easily add/edit and remove a training resource and individually categorise each resource in the catalogue. Now since it is maintained using ETINU, it is automatically updated and appears as an integral part of the new site (in this case it's a Moodle¹ site but it can be any site).

So how is it done... when it was first setup, the URL that's displayed at bottom of catalogue section gets copied and pasted into an iframe element on the other site. That's it!

The first screenshot shows the content in the web site. And the second screenshot showing the same elearning training resources when a student has selected the Elearning package option within the Moodle site.

This functionality is only available with "Resources" and "Properties" section types at present but can be easily arranged for other types if required.

¹ Moodle is used extensively within the education sector to help educators create online courses and collaborate with their students. However, maintaining a catalogue of training resources that are within and outside of Moodle is time-consuming to compile.

It was always on the list of things to do so this week we finally set up our own Facebook page, have a look at the Platypus page. Just a wee bit informal than our web site, methinks!

The Google Analytics and HTML5 workshops have proven popular so Netskills have added two more dates. This time we will be delivering them on 11 and 12 March at Brettenham House and Euston House in London:

• March 11 2013—Getting the most from your Google Analytics
  Everyone with a web site wants to keep track of how effective it is and who is viewing the content. This workshop shows you how to use Google Analytics, the leading free analytical tool.
• March 12 2013—HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?
  A comprehensive introduction to the benefits, possibilities and practical implementation of HTML5.

The HTML5 workshop in Edinburgh is fully booked on 27 March but there are a few places available on the Google Analytics workshop on 28 March. To register, go to the Netskills booking form.

If either of these are of interest to you and you would like us to organise a workshop at your premises or in a town near you, please contact us with your preference for dates and we will get back to you a.s.a.p. to arrange.

We've been continuing to add more functionality to ETINU, our web management software. The additions mean more ways to display different types of content without taking away from its simplicity of use. Also anyone can now set up their own web site from the ETINU site. The site is set up in less than 2 minutes and can be used free of charge for 30 days.

The software is totally HTML5 which gives the added benefits of:

• cleaner markup and simpler code
• improved semantics
• better structure
• easier to add multimedia to your site
• and device independence and lots besides...

To find out more information about ETINU, go to the ETINU web site, or contact us through the online form or call us on +44 79 7999 2552.

Dates for Netskills spring programme of workshops have been organised. Two workshops we will be delivering will be on 27 and 28 March at Edinburgh University:

• March 27 2013—HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?
  A comprehensive introduction to the benefits, possibilities and practical implementation of HTML5.
• March 28 2013—Getting the most from your Google Analytics
  Everyone with a web site wants to keep track of how effective it is and who is viewing the content. This workshop shows you how to use Google Analytics, the leading free analytical tool.

If either of these are of interest to you, we can organise them at your premises. Contact us with your preference for dates and we will get back to you a.s.a.p. to arrange.

Congratulations to our clients... Downshire Riding Club who became the British Open Senior Showjumping champions on 15-16 September 2012 at the Lincolnshire Showground in Lincoln.

They use ETINU, our web management software, to let their members and the public know about the different events, rides and lessons that they organise. They find the Events calendar most useful as it allows people to register for the event they are interested in.

Downshire Riding Club are affiliated to the British Riding Clubs. If you would like to know more or become a member, visit their web site.

Congratulations to the Class of 76 team that included Christine and George. They both achieved personal bests as well. Christine coming in at almost 13 minutes of any previous time she'd run and George 90 seconds better!

With the added benefit of the whole team of Class of 76 raising £1700 for Cancer Research. Well done!

Abbeyfield Belfast Society, who provide housing for older people who require support to continue living independently, launched their new web site this week. The benefits for them in choosing ETINU, our web management software, is that they can now maintain every aspect of the site themselves. Initially they have used the site to show how welcoming and organised the houses are especially within the Gallery section. Their plans for the site include using the mailshot facility which is 'behind the scenes' to communicate with their volunteers, families and staff keeping them informed of events and future plans.

Heather Carson, Chief Executive of Abbeyfield commented, "I am really pleased with it all and the possibilities—it will be a great asset for us."

Abbeyfield's services include housing, traditional home cooking, assistance with laundry and cleaning, 24 hour staff support and an emergency call system. In their houses, you will find a unique blend of independence, companionship, privacy, security and support. For more information, see Abbeyfield's web site.

In the past companies have created separate mobile web sites for mobile devices, or developed an app (for several different mobile manufacturers' operating systems -- iOS, Android, Windows Mobile...) which provides similar functionality as the web site but looks and feels more comfortable on a mobile phone. However these approaches require much more effort to maintain the mobile interfaces and are not cost effective, either at initiation or maintenance stages. It is generally considered HTML5 web sites currently enable satisfactory use across a wide range of desktop and mobile devices, with no additional effort required for different interfaces or proprietary platforms. This is due to several reasons, including: a high level of standardisation across a vastly increased gamut of online functionality; semantic elements in the page markup which allow different devices to render a page and page parts in the most suitable fashion for that device; many smart-phone browsers have HTML5 related code already loaded in their EPROM circuits. The arguments in favour of HTML5 have been expounded in numerous articles and news stories. Recent examples include: HTML5 takes the internet by storm, a short BBC video [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17946128]; Eight reasons to gear up for HTML5 now, in particular the last section -- HTML5 Helps You "Build Once, Run Anywhere" [http://www.cio.com/article/708362/8_Reasons_to_Gear_Up_For_HTML5_Now?page=1&taxonomyId=3044].

All ETINU web sites are HTML5 and include other advantageous emerging technology standards (RDFa in selected sections, RSS feeds for blogs and news items, etc.). In addition, the default dimensions of ETINU web site pages are within the pixel widths of common smart-phone devices, ensuring that they work "out of the box" on mobiles. Additional enhancements can be easily added once any particular requirement is identified.

It's worth noting that our upgraded web management software, ETINU, uses Resource Description Framework in attributes (RDFa). What's that you may ask? RDFa is an extension to HTML5 that we use to markup things like people, places, events and reviews. Search engines use this markup to generate better search listings and give you better visibility on the web, so that people can find your website more easily.

To give you an example JISC Advance, use the 'persons' module to add staff details. Administrators are unaware of what's happening behind the scenes, but when the content is added, the software marks it up using the Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF) vocabulary which is just one vocabulary that can be used to provide terms in RDFa. In the search results, Google displays the staff page entry identifying individual's contact details (see image).

We've had a busy summer upgrading client's web sites to using the latest upgrade of our web management software. It's been a significant upgrade giving owners much more flexibility in adding different types of content without taking away from its simplicity of use. So far, the feedback has been great.

The software is totally HTML5 which gives the added benefits of:

• cleaner markup and simpler code
• improved semantics
• better structure
• easier to add multimedia to your site
• and device independence and lots besides...

If you want to know more, don't hesitate to contact us or call us on 079 7999 2552.

Kielder Community First School is a small school in the most remote village in England near the woodlands of Kielder Forest Park. The easy to use web management software for the school web site makes it easy for staff to update the parents on all the activities of the term and let all see the fun the children have in organised events. The children have also taken part in the making the web site... they drew a picture of each member of staff in the Staff page.

So what's the significance of the red squirrel in the banner? It is estimated that the Kielder Forest Park is home to 50% of England’s native red squirrel population, the last remaining stronghold in the country.

For more information on the school, have a look at: Kielder Community First School web site.

More workshops will be delivered later this month and in June. They will be held in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Bristol and London. The workshops include:

• HTML5, Evolution or Revolution? workshop which covers topics such as where HTML5 fits in, in the current web trends, its principle elements and attributes, multimedia elements, the canvas element which is used for drawing... it will give you a good appreciation of its capabilities and help you get started in implementing HTML5 on your web site
• Getting the most out of Google Analytics which goes through getting started and how Google Analytics works to setting up goals and funnel visualisations, among other topics.

For more information about the workshops, please select the appropriate links above or if you would like a customised workshop for your institution, please go to Onsite workshops on the Netskills web site.

The Rocking Horse Nursery has been part of the community of Greenisland since 1992. It was only until last year they thought it was worth letting the wider community know about what they do, hence establishing a web presence. The web site describes their ethos, their facilities and show through photos what a welcoming, caring environment the children experience. Have a look at: The Rocking Horse Nursery web site.

tags: play, children, child, nursery, playground, homework, toys, games

We have been working on the revamp to the JISC Advance web site which was launched recently. JISC Advance heads eight JISC Services and one of the purposes of the site is to serve as a single portal for resources created and maintained by the Services.

Following the revamp, the web site now uses HTML5 (latest web markup language) and some new Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) and Javascript (JS) features. CSS and JS have been compacted for faster loading (can be critical when viewed via mobiles).

A strength of the web site is that JISC Advance staff can assign privileges to members of the Services who can then maintain their own resources without administrative access to the rest of the site. In this way information about resources is kept up-to-date by the registered users who know most about particular resources and have a vested interest in keeping the information up to date.

The site also draws together selected items from all the Services news feeds in such a way that a chronologically sorted aggregated set of news snippets across the Services is displayed on a single page. Staff may then select which news items should be highlighted on the home page. The news feeds are available within the Update from Services section under News. Staff may also add and remove news feeds as appropriate.

JISC Advance is an organisation that works with the education sector to show institutions how using technology effectively can improve performance across every area of an organisation, by for example, reducing costs, coping effectively with a changing society of learners, creating new opportunities through external partnerships and addressing sustainability issues. For more information, see the revamped JISC Advance web site.

New workshops titled 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness', 'Embed metadata in your web content using RDFa', 'Getting the most from your Google Analytics', and more of 'HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?' are being delivered in March. Each of these workshops are produced in partnership with Netskills and will be delivered across the UK in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London.

If you would like any of these to be delivered within your institution or company, please do not hesitate to contact us or contact Netskills directly.

For more details on each of these workshops, please select the appropriate link below:

Getting the most from your Google Analytics

Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness

Embed metadata in your web content using RDFa

HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?

Next HTML5 workshop is in Edinburgh on Thursday 8 March (now fully booked, see 22 March). HTML5 is the latest markup language for developing and structuring web content. It allows additional functionality, better SEO and sharing of dynamic content. This workshop will explain the benefits, possibilities and practical implementations of using HTML5 in web development. We dispel the myths and hype you may have heard about HTML5 and share practical applications. During the practicals, you will be able try out some of the new features of HTML5 for yourself. The topics covered will be:

-- Where HTML5 fits in current web trends
-- Major changes from earlier versions of HTML
-- The benefits and capabilities of HTML5
-- Principal elements and attributes
-- Audio and video elements for multimedia
-- Using the Canvas element for drawings and interactivity
-- Support for HTML5 in current and older browsers.

If you would like to register for the workshop, just go to HTML5 workshop booking form. If you'd like a workshop for your company/institution, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

This evening we completed the upgrade of all our servers. We kept the disruption to a minimum with not even a minute downtime. Following the move nameservers may take time to propagate the changed address of our web servers. During this time, we are redirecting any requests that arrive at the old server to the new server and users viewing our client web sites may see a "phoenix.platypusconsultancy.com" component in the address that appears in the address bar of their browser. This will be temporary and revert to the expected address as soon as the user's local DNS has refreshed.

We are here in Dublin to celebrate the New Year and Christine's half century. Though it's looking dull and drizzly for the New Year, the city is dazzling during this Christmas week. There are so many events and concerts organised over the next few days to bring the new year in.

Here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

George has developed and delivered a new Netskills workshop 'HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?' on 16 November in Newcastle University. According to George, one of the main aims of the day is to take a step back from the hype and outline the real purpose and benefits of HTML5. The many and varied constituents of the HTML5 specification can often confuse users. This workshop clarifies what makes up HTML5 and why. Attendees can relate this to what they do and use it to enable more semantic and functional content on web pages. The workshop is a mixture of presentation and hands-on practical so by the end of the day, attendees were able to see and use some of its capabilities for themselves.

He is also delivering this workshop in three other universities in the next couple of weeks. More are planned for the New Year. If you'd like to know more about the workshop, see the HTML5 workshop details on the Netskills web site.

One of our clients, HOST UK, using the online application system that we developed, places foreign students with UK families for a weekend during their time at university. Due to demand, the system has been further developed so that students can request a visit for a day. Since January 2006 when it was first launched, there has been nearly 19,500 applications. The system enables a student to apply for a visit (monitor and keep informed of their visit status), get approval by their University, while staff and regional organisers manage each application. The system has comprehensive reporting, mailshot facility with different audience selection, automated email notifications and multiple privileged user registrations.

To find out more about HOST, visit the HOST UK web site or read through their latest HOST UK Newsletter to find out about the great work they do!

Interested in finding out about the semantic web or want to know what's so good about HTML5? Why not book a place in the workshops coming up in November that will be held in Newcastle University.

For more information, see:

• Semantic Technologies For A More Powerful Web
• HTML5: Evolution or Revolution?

Interested in HTML5, RDFa and learning more about the web? If so, you may be interested in the autumn programme of workshops prepared by Netskills which is taking shape. In particular, George will be delivering the 'Semantic technologies for a more powerful web'. This is for web content creators and authors who wish to add value to their content and enable it to be found and used more widely. This course is of particular interest to those managing large data repositories who wish to improve access. Anyone wishing to add effective metadata to their web site will benefit from the course.

For more information about the autumn programme, see: Netskills workshops

and for more details of the semantic workshop, see: Semantic Technologies For A More Powerful Web.

Following on from our work in delivering the SCAMORE workshops last year, George will be speaking at one of the parallel sessions at the Institutional Web Management Workshop on 26-27 July 2011 on 'Maximising Institutional Webmaster Impact'. This session will explore how institutional web managers can be most effective at their work by considering a number of areas that influence a webmaster's effectiveness, such as: users, ensuring empathy with users, conflicting requests; process, introducing and maintaining disciplines; technology, adopting appropriate technology (HTML5, CSS3, RDFa, linked data...); skills, learning and sharing with others, being aware of what is possible; metrics, for measuring the service, indicators of success; authority, dealing with non technical superiors and making the case for resources. It should be an interesting session.

For more details, see Maximising Institutional Webmaster Impact session description.

This is the IWMW workshop's 15th year and its main theme is 'Responding to change' reflecting how academia is very much under pressure through government cuts and restructuring. The workshop provides an opportunity for those involved in the provision of institutional Web services to hear about institutional case studies, national initiatives and emerging technologies and to actively participate in a number of parallel sessions.

Following the success of the SCAMORE workshops held last year, we will be delivering, in partnership with Netskills, a 2 day MORE workshop on the 23-24 June in Brettenham House, London. We will be covering a wide range of web topics, such as: the significance and limitations of conventional search engine optimisation; content structure, semantic mark-up, and why it's important; leveraging HTML5, CSS3, metadata approaches; embracing social networks, multiple content curators and content fusion; effective promotion of online resources and the new social marketing regime; joining data up using embedded metadata with RDFa. The workshop will contain examples of best practice and exploring future possibilities.

We welcome participants from commercial businesses, universities and higher education as well as public sector services - such as archives, museums, broadcasting, education and cultural heritage.

The cost of the 2 day workshop has been discounted to £100!

To find out more about the workshop and to register, go to the Netskills web site. Look forward to seeing you!

This year Christine ran in the Lisburn half marathon on June 15 and will be running on the Great North Run in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on 18 September. She's chosen to run for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It's for her friend, Lynn Loney. The explanation and donation's page is on the Justgiving web site.

Christine recalls.. "I was a first former at Carolan Grammar School where Lynn was my school prefect. I remember as she was being introduced to us, how she looked. She was tall, slender and looked confident, yet there was graciousness in her manner. She was about 18, but she was someone I looked up to. That was about 38 years ago. Now Lynn is frequently in pain, suffering from MS and in a wheel chair. Life is tough. MS is an awful disease. She never asks of anyone. She still has that graciousness but her eyes show the pain. I can't do much for her but felt the need to raise money so that someday, sometime a cure might be found.

I welcome your donations. Many thanks."

It was a great privilege to speak at the CILIPS conference, (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland). We had been asked to speak because of our involvement in the delivery of the SCAMORE workshops. The topic requested was 'Getting the best value out of the web, an introductory talk on social networking'. The conference was held on 7-8 June in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. While attending the conference, I realised that librarians are involved in some great projects and are making a definite, worthwhile contribution to many in their communities, but they aren't letting others know.

I hope our presentation gave many food for thought, as I sensed that some were hesitant to make a start on twitter, never mind other social networking tools.

The 'Getting best value out of the web' presentation is available from the Netskills Slideshare channel.

Activefeet Podiatry launched their web site recently. This company was formed by Nicola Keating. Nicola has experience working in Scotland and San Francisco, CA in foot problems especially sports injuries and mild trauma. Now that she has returned to Northern Ireland, she continues this work and is adding to her clientele. We worked with the graphics created by her designer and the photographs from her photographer to develop the web site.

The web site is an excellent resource for common foot compliants, their symptoms and treatments available. To find out more about the services Nicola offers, go to the Activefeet Podiatry web site.

McShane Glen want to hear from all those visitors who have stayed at the McShane Glen Leisure homes in the last year. They know from the repeat bookings they receive online and over the phone, that many find the homes and their location worth coming back to. So if you've been there recently, please don't hesitate to use their Blog to record your comments on how you enjoyed your stay and your photos of yourselves and/or the surrounding area.

You will only need to use the same registration details you received when you booked your holiday. Thanks!

The Semantic workshop is a one-day course which will be held on Wednesday 22 June from 10:00 to 16:00. In this workshop you will explore the benefits of a more semantic web and how you can use RDFa to enhance the discoverability, usability and popularity of your online resources. The workshop is aimed at those web content creators and authors who wish to add value to their content and enable their resource to be found and used more widely. This course is of particular interest to those managing large data repositories who wish to improve access. Anyone wishing to add effective metadata to their web site will benefit from the course.

To register, go to the Netskills booking form and for more information about the venue, view the map for 115 New Cavendish Street, W1W 6UW, University of Westminster.

... but they're still winners and will soon be bypassing their target of raising £1500 for the Alzheimer's Society. Christine ran shortest leg of 3.5 miles from Bridge End, across the peace line and onto the bottom of Tennents Street... very enjoyable! George did the longest leg of 7.1 miles and with the heat of the day, he was pretty exhausted when he finished as you can see from the photo. :-)

You can see the official photos on the Marathon photos web site.

This year Christine joins George running in the Friend's School Class of 76 relay team in the Belfast Marathon. This is the third year that the Class of 76 relay team have entered. This year they are raising money for the Alzheimer's Society. Alzheimer's Society is very active in Northern Ireland with centres across the province. Activities include day care and home care for people with dementia; support and befriending services to help partners and families cope with the demands of caring; a research programme; training for health and care professionals and much more.

There are details about the Belfast Marathon on their web site.

If you would like to encourage us along by donating, just go to Class of 76 Justgiving site. Many thanks.

This week sees the launch of the Zebrano web site. The company is led by Michael Snoddy who has 25 years' experience in designing and installing kitchens and bedrooms throughout Northern Ireland. It was important to him that the site showed the quality of his work and the attention to detail that is required to provide functional, practical and creative storage solutions that enhances work, relaxation and entertainment in all key living areas of his clients' homes.

For examples of the installations Michael can arrange, go to the Kitchens, Bedrooms, Sliderobes sections of the site. Michael is available for consultation at any time, just contact him on 077 4336 1070 or by email customerservices@zebrano.biz.

There was a full turn out at the workshop on 7 March. Although most of the attendees were technical, those who weren't were able to follow the topics covered and seemed to get a lot out of it as well. The one day workshop was split into four sessions that included: the background to subject, jargon, concepts, standards—theory; information on the available resources, such as, RDFa distiller, validator, Google tools, Google metadata entities and properties, details of various metadata vocabularies; hands-on practical exercises; and examples of what others are doing, such as, Linking open data project, DBpedia, Facebook, and The New York Times.

We are planning the next RDFa workshop with Netskills in June. When the venue have been finalised, the details and the registration form will be posted on the Netskills web site.

This new workshop will be held on Monday 7 March 10.00-16.00 at the New Technology Institute, Birmingham City University.

Registration is available through the Netskills booking form.

In this workshop George will explore the benefits of a more semantic web and how you can use RDFa to enhance the discoverability, usability and popularity of your online resources.

The relative importance of a web page, compared to the information in it, is evolving. Today we rely upon search engines to interpret page content and links between web pages, guiding users to their goals with ranked search results. Increasingly, semantic information is being added to web content to provide extra meaning and clarify the relationship between resources. This leads to a richer web of information that can be effectively searched and navigated.

RDFa (Resource Description Framework in attributes) is the key standard for adding semantic data to web content. The topics covered will include:

• how RDFa fits in to the evolution of the web
• how richer semantics in content enable new kinds of "mash ups"
• the implications for a much more powerful web
• practical details of using RDFa with your content.

The workshop is aimed at those web content creators and authors who wish to add value to their content and enable it to be found and used more widely.

For the Education sector, the cost is: £160 (standard charge is: £185).

We are starting to plan the workshops for 2011. We will be concentrating on different aspects of the web, such as:

• what's good for visitors to your site is good for search engines: how to make the most of your 'online reputation'
• use of social media: how to assess what tools to use, how it fits into your organisation, what benefits each have, what to consider to encourage good practice
• the advances in HTML and CSS and what the benefits are
• latest developments in web: RDFa, linked data projects, what you can do in your online resource and the difference it can make.

Whether you are responsible for providing web content, interested in promoting that content, wanting to know the latest technical developments and how to make the most of the content for a wider audience, we've something for you.

We've plenty of examples and resources for you to take away and use for your organisation.

Don't hesitate to contact us, if you would like to know more or would like to have a workshop customised for your organisation's needs.

After receiving her BMus Honours degree last year, Sarah Richmond, a mezzo soprano from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, decided it was time to have a web site to publicise her portfolio of her many performances, awards and repertoire.

Sarah says, "Having little experience with computers, I was initially apprehensive of controlling my own web site. Thankfully the Platypus content management software is so user friendly that I am able to maintain the site myself with ease. The friendly staff offered advise on all aspects of my site, from conception to updates, which I am thoroughly pleased with".

We are delighted that among the queries that come through her web site, she has received offers of work to perform at the Chester Summer Music Festival in July 2011 and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Well done, Sarah! Keep up the good work!

For more details on Sarah's work, see: http://www.sarah-richmond.com

In partnership with Netskills, we have completed a round of 2 day workshops throughout the UK. Over the last 6 months we have delivered 8 workshops teaching more than 170 people on all aspects of how to "Maximise Online Resource Effectiveness" from social media and the semantic web. There was a real buzz from the workshops and people were eager to implement some of the recommendations covered over the 2 days.

All presentations, news of interest, gallery of photos and videos with other relevant material has been gathered together on one site, open to all who wish to use as reference as they go back to their organisations.

More news regarding future workshops will be released through the Netskills web site.

On Tuesday 16 - Wednesday 17 November the next SCAMORE workshop will be held at the JISC Meeting rooms in Brettenham House, London.

Details and booking information are available from the Netskills site.

Although this one is fully booked, please don't hesitate to email Netskills and register your interest for the workshops in 2011.

So far the workshops this year have been well received. According to the feedback, many have found the 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness' workshops extremely beneficial giving them the direction they have needed to make the most of their online resource. There are only two MORE workshops to be delivered—in Manchester on 28-29 October and in London on 16-17 November. They cover:

• How to improve search and discovery of online resources
• An exploration of technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3
• Emerging search engine enhancements and techniques
• The importance of the semantic web and semantic mark-up
• Accessibility issues and access management
• Content integrity and reaching the right audience
• Metadata and its significance, particularly RDFa
• The use of social media including cloud and blog services

For more details or to register, check the Netskills site for the Manchester and London workshops.

We will be delivering the next two 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness' (MORE) workshops over the next week in Glasgow and London.

We will be covering topics such as: standard search engine optimisation; the use of social media; the latest in web technology, such as, HTML5, CSS3 and RDFa; and helping people think through their content, promotion and development strategies for the near future.

Both these workshops are nearly fully booked but there is a workshop at Manchester Conference Centre on 28-29 October which you can register for on the Netskills site.

Netskills held the next 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness' (MORE) workshop in Belfast at The Mount over the last 2 days, Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 September. These workshops have been commissioned by the Strategic Content Alliance and Platypus staff work with Netskills in planning and delivering each workshop.

Almost half of the attendees were from England: Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and Edinburgh, taking advantage of the cheaper and easier travelling arrangements (or perhaps being otherwise drawn to a flourishing city).

Attendees were from a variety of backgrounds: techies, administrators. librarians, marketing staff. During the workshop, attendees were presented with a wide range of useful web related insights and directed to develop their own strategies regarding online resource content, promotion using social media, and emerging developments such as HTML5, RDFa and linked open data.

The next MORE workshops are in Glasgow on 7-8 October (now fully booked) and in London on 12-13 October (a few places left). There are also more workshops on 28-29 October and 16-17 November. Please see the Netskills site for the course details and to register.

On Tuesday 14 - Wednesday 15 of September, there will be a 2 day workshop addressing the important issue of "search engine optimisation" and many related issues. Participants will gain a perspective on how basic guidelines, simple content planning, social media activities and use of metadata, all contribute to the effectiveness of a web site.

Topics include:

• how to improve search and discovery of online resources
• an exploration of technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3
• emerging search engine enhancements and techniques
• the importance of the semantic web and semantic mark-up
• accessibility issues and access management
• content integrity and reaching the right audience
• metadata and its significance, particularly RDFa
• the use of social media including cloud and blog services.

Who is it for?
This event is aimed primarily at participants from universities and higher education but is also of interest to those from archives, museums, health, public service broadcasting, schools and cultural heritage. No particular technical knowledge is required as a prerequisite.

To hear more about what previous attendees thought about the workshops, see the SCA MORE web site.

This event will be held at The Mount. For details on how to register, check the Netskills web site. Hope to see you there!

In 1994, we started to introduce businesses to the World Wide Web. It was all new and many didn't understand its potential. In recent years, it's been the 'norm' to have your own company email address and web site.

However, still today many businesses don't have their own web site and only use an aol, msn or a yahoo email address instead of their own company email address.

This week Terry McCullough from Dairy Fresh Foods Limited (specialist suppliers for the pizza industry) launched his own web presence and now the business has their own company email address, info@dairyfreshfoods.co.uk.

It's only a small cost to take the first step to get your business online.

On 19 September, Christine will be completing her 'marathon' challenge this year by running the Great North Run with about 50,000 people.

Christine says: When I ran the Lisburn half marathon in June about 1,280 were running that day and I was on my own practically the whole way round. So this will be quite a challenge not to bump into anyone! I've now upped my pace again and looking forward to it.

Thanks to everyone who have sponsored her... she has gone over her target. If you'd like to sponsor her, please go to the Zanini Bantwana sponsor page. And many thanks!

Three new "Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness" workshops will be held in Glasgow, Manchester and in London over October and November.

We will be covering topics such as: standard search engine optimisation; the use of social media; the latest in web technology, such as, HTML5, CSS3 and RDFa; and helping people think through their content, promotion and development strategies for the near future.

Gathering from the feedback we've received from previous workshops, attendees have found these to be very informative and worthwhile with lots of practical advice to progress when back at the office.

Whether you are a web content provider, a 'geek' or responsible for marketing... there is something for everyone! For more information, keep an eye on the Netskills web site where workshop details will be posted when location and dates are finalised.

Three 'Maximising your Online Resource Effectiveness' workshops have now been completed for attendees across the UK.

The feedback received from attendees and the observations from the trainers, Netskills has reported on their success.

As George commented "We've observed unabated interest in using social media to engage audiences as well as the rising attention given to 'linked data' and aspirations for fuller metadata insertion in web content using RDFa."

The next workshop will be in Belfast on 14-15 September. For full details on the workshop and how to register, go to the Netskills site.

We were invited to take part in CIDO's 'Meet the Experts' evening session last night. It was the first of its kind for the Innovation Centre.

Over 50 local business people registered to meet the experts in finance, marketing, technology and software development. Platypus provided a 'web session'. After a brief presentation giving advice on what to think through when setting up a web site, invited questions. It was quite a lively bunch! Thanks everyone who attended.

CIDO hope to organise another event like this in the autumn. If you are interested, please contact Karen on 028 3839 6520 or keep an eye on the Innovation Centre's web site.

George is an old-hand at running half-marathons and marathon relays. Christine is a complete novice. She ran her first on 16th June in the Lisburn half marathon event. She is raising funds for a very worthwhile cause: Zanini Bantwana by running two half-marathons. Next one in September in the Great North Run.

In Christine's own words: I thought it would be good for others to benefit. I've chosen Zanini Bantwana. My friends, Alan and Sheena Gaston (who used to live around the corner from me and now live in Pietermaritzburg, near Durban, South Africa), are passionate that the children in their local hospitals are not left alone (which had been a frequent occurrence). Through Zanini Bantwana they and their team make sure the children have regular visitors and know they are not abandoned, and when possible, help them with their education. They make a real difference to the children. I figure it's worth going that extra mile for them, or a half-marathon :-)!

One down, one to go in September... nearly 80% there to collecting funds for ZB. A BIG thank-you to all who contributed.

We are now onto our third SCA MORE Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness workshop... this time in Brettenham House, London.

In these workshops, we are able to help folk think through their own strategies on: Content; Promotion; and Development. Attendees also hear the latest in what is going on in all things 'web'. It's an exciting time in the evolution of the web, so whether attendees are content providers, marketing staff or from a technical background, there is something for everyone.

If you cannot attend, you will be able to follow the hashtag #scamore on twitter. Attendees and staff will be tweeting.

This workshop is nearly full, but there are two further SCA MORE workshops on 14-15 September in Belfast and another one in London on 12-13 October. For more details, check out the Netskills web site.

Up and coming writer, Jamie Guiney, is launching his new web site this week.

His short story, "A Quarter Yellow Sun" will be published on 1 June 2010 in the summer edition of Literary Journal, The Battered Suitcase. It is based on a true tale from his hometown in Ireland.

For more information on Jamie and his work, see his web site, where extracts of his writings are available, including "A Quarter Yellow Sun".

The next 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness' 2 day workshop will be held on 2-3 June 2010 at Newcastle University. Various topics will be covered, such as: an exploration of technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3; content integrity and reaching the right audience; metadata and its significance, particularly RDFa.

During the workshop, attendees will have:

• considered the impact of emerging technologies on how content is accessed
• investigated web site visibility and traffic analysis including monitoring and checking
• evaluated the potential of the social web
• explored the evolving web and near future scenarios.

This event is aimed primarily at participants from universities and higher education but is also of interest to those from archives, museums, health, public service broadcasting, schools and cultural heritage.

For more details, check out the Netskills web site.

If you cannot attend, you will be able to follow the hashtag #scamore on twitter. Attendees and staff will be tweeting!

The London workshop that will be held on 17-18 June is now fully booked.

April's been a busy month for Platypus as we've been assisting Netskills in delivering two new workshops in London and Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The RDFa workshop was held at Newcastle University. It was a one day introductory workshop to RDFa covering the What, How, Why and When RDFa. For more details, please see the RDFa course web site. These workshops will be delivered later in the year and be available to book from the Netskills web site.

The London event was a two day workshop titled 'Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness'. It covered areas such as, conventional SEO, what else is needed, metadata using RDF and RDFa, and forming strategies for online resource content, promotion and development. These workshops will run again in June at Newcastle University and in London at the JISC offices. In September one will be held in Belfast. For more details, please see the SCAMORE web site. To book a place, please visit the Netskills web site.

Christine gave a presentation to a group of business people at one of CIDO's workshops on Thursday 1 April 2010. The presentation is now available.

As you scroll through the presentation, all links referred to (that are displayed in the main body of the slide) are clickable and will display in a new browser window.

Instead of having multiple versions of meeting notes and reports in different machines, CIDO now have a private section of their web site as the store for all important documents. CIDO directors can now access this definitive source from multiple locations.

All directors are registered users of the system and are allocated the privilege to access this source. On logging in, they are presented with a number of top level "folders" and "files". Each level of the folder and file hierarchy works exactly the same.

Only those who have been assigned special privilege can add a new file or folder at the current level being viewed, or delete any file or folder, or move any file or folder in the current level to any other level (either up or down) in the file hierarchy.

When uploading a file, representative (metadata) keywords are supplied about the content of the file. These are used to search for matching documents in the search facility.

Administrators are also able to add file "types" to indicate what kind of a document a particular file is (minutes, agenda, proposal etc.). The search facility also allows filtering using this "type" property.

Catherine Jones, CIDO says "Board members simply sign in now and click folders to see the information they require. Instead of sending lots of e-mails, we only have to upload information once!".

The aim of our next Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) workshop is to improve your online presence through simple and inexpensive tools and techniques to boost your web visibility and consequently traffic to your web site.

Date: Tuesday 16 March at 9.15-12.30
Location: i2 CIDO Innovation Centre 73 Charlestown Road, Craigavon, BT63 5PP
Cost:

Visitors to the McShane Glen web site can now book their weekend break, mid-week break or summer holiday online at one of most beautiful spots on the Antrim Coast, situated between White Park Bay and Ballintoy harbour.

The online booking form will enable you to:

• choose any of the houses available
• select your arrival and departure dates
• provide details of your stay including number in party, any special requests
• provide billing contact details
• make a deposit of 25% (or more, if you desire) of the cost of the property you have selected the WorldPay secure payment service.

As you book online and select dates that suit you, you will be shown the cost of that holiday and how the cost is broken down by each night before submitting a booking.

After listening to our client's feedback, we have extended the Gallery module to include a 'keyword cloud' to help categorise their photos.

When a client uploads a photo, they can add a title, keywords and comments. The keyword cloud is a cloud of all words associated with the keywords. The size of each keyword depends on how many times that keyword has been used for all the photos. Select 'keyword cloud' and all keywords are displayed. Then select the keyword of interest and only those photos associated with the keyword are displayed.

An example of this new 'Gallery' can be found at the McShane Glen web site.

Platypus has supported relief to Haiti earthquake victims through a donation to Merlin, the organisation which specialises in health, saving lives in times of crisis and helping to rebuild shattered health services.

As estimates put Haiti

On 7 January, George helped facilitate an informal workshop for Netskills staff at Newcastle University. For more details, see the 2010 primer on this site.

Now chosen by Slideshare as one of the top presentations of the day for Wednesday 13 January 2010.

If you were on any of the summer visits organised by Irish Children's Summer Program (ICSP) from Belfast to South Carolina between 1984 and 2008, the organisers want you to get in touch.

They are all getting together to renew friendships, reminisce, and celebrate this programme, at a special event in Belfast City Hall in March 2010.

Please register if you were part of the programme, whether as a visiting kid, a helper or a board member.

Registrations will be verified by Beryl, Jack, Norma and Tracy, then you'll receive an email with your pass number for the event.

Don't forget to view pictures from some of the visits in our picture collection.

Platypus have provided this web site to enable past children and organisers to register and, once they are approved by the main organisers, they will receive a unique booking ticket to gain entry to the City Hall on the night.