OccupySacto.org

1-27-12, Media Steering Meeting minutes
In attendence. Tyler, Nathan, Bill, Cres, Darcey, SeanL, Sea.
Tyler is going to reduce the size of the banner at least 50% to allow space for layout boxes to appear at the top of the page without scrolling or clicking, and the event postings that Bill does will go right below that. The information at the top will be, for example, 1.) Contact Information. 2.) Scheduling information. 3.) GA/Working Group/Committee and other information after it is discussed in Forum. Tyler phrased functional distinctions as 1.) Web, 2.) PR, 3.) Citizen Press, loosely corresponding to the three or more layout boxes at the top. Certain administrators would shuffle this information and distinguish signal from noise.

The coding is in WordPress right now, it may be changed to Druple. The Forum will likely stay as PhP BB. SeanL said he liked threading in the Forum. How it is coded will determine how facebook and twitter connect with website. A password for Facebook or Twitter should not get you directly to Forum. Right now google calendar isn't working, but Druple works should solve problem.

Admin privileges will be restricted. Some discussions in Forum will be restricted. Perhaps an SMS alert via iphones. May use a mesh wireless iphone peer to peer network, and or phone to phone tethering, if enough energy is available.

Tyler said donations are needed. That goes for Full-Timers as well. Sacmedia.tv is independent, and we don't have live stream now.

Thanks for doing the notes Sea! I have a few more things to add, but I'm not near a computer today, I'll post tomorrow...

Web Site: Currently using Wordpress for the main site, and PHPBB for the discussion forum. These two do not integrate very well. Drupal is the preferred system, because it integrates seamlessly between main pages, discussion forum, and calendar. Bill will work on fixing the current installation of Drupal, however there has not been a final decision made to move to Drupal.

Drupal also has an option where you could log-in to our forums using your Facebook login. There was some concern about security and ease of password access between sites.

The web team will work on some minor changes to the existing Wordpress site, such as removing out-dated information, and making the logo smaller to make the page content more visible. (see Sea's notes above)

Forums: The PHPBB forums currently have different areas for each committee, though they are not used much. The current PHPBB system does have an option to create private forums, for approved members only. Drupal probably has this option as well. Some feel that secrecy is necessary in order to protect our strategies.

SMS Alerts: Discussed a text-message alert system, however it was unclear if something has already been set up.

Volunteer Intake: Our web site should encourage volunteers to get involved, but it was unclear who is handling volunteers now.

WiFi at the Park: It may be possible to partner with Café Sole to provide wireless internet access at Cesar Chavez Park. Ricky was the contact person for this. Tyler discussed a “mesh network” concept where all cell phone users enable tethering in order to create a wifi network. However it was noted that this drains cell phones very quickly.

Twitter: We are trying to regain access to the Twitter account.

Facebook: We just got control of the Facebook page back again!

Admins: We should be careful about who has admin access, in order to avoid the problem that occurred with the Facebook page. Generally, less admins is better.

Press Releases: Post to main site, and continue to allow access for folks who do this work (and the artwork). Also post to Facebook, which should automatically post to Twitter account.

Structure of Communications Committee:
1) Web developers and admins (controlling code and content of web resources)
2) Public Relations (press releases, talking to media, etc.)
3) Citizen Press/Media (In progress)

Independent Media handles streaming video, and this group is totally independent now, not under Communications.

You Tube: Do we still have a youtube account? Is it up?

List of Committees: We still need a good listing of the committees and contacts; Nathan will send out a draft version that was created in December.

Google Calendar: Currently used to list events, and is the source for the Daily Update emails. Google Calendar is not very user-friendly, and we would prefer to use the Drupal calendar system if we end up installing the Drupal site.

Donations: We should be encouraging donations through our web resources. Communications cannot take-in our own donations, but we’re hoping Finance can create ‘silos’ where donors can designate how they want the $$ spent.

Buying Ads: It would be great to make a TV advertisement, then ask for donations to help us get the ad on the air. We may get some free press out of it as well.

Thanks!