George Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 (edited) I have so many opinions on this topic its probably best I stay out of it :) Yes - the situation needs to change. However - corps organization are notoriously independant - sometimes even to a self-destructive level -- but I would think some basic header navigation "networking" the member corps would at least be possible. It would help all the corps but the top 4. And I'll leave it at that. Edited July 5, 2006 by George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smj02 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I abhor the MLB team-template websites - far too generic. I prefer the NFL model, where all teams are linked at the top of the page, but each site has free reign to post its own content. The best NFL team sites tend to have much more content - multimedia, interviews, inside analysis - than MLB sites, and I think this is largely due to the free reign that individual teams are given. It would be nice to have a pull-down menu that links to individual corps' sites from DCI.org, but I don't see this as the highest priority for DCI's web site. Here are a few things I think they should focus on: 1. Multimedia content - This is being acheived (by leaps and bounds this year, IMO) through Season Pass. I'm also glad to see more snippets being released to the public. The best way to promote DCI is by showing the product itself. One of the first things someone new to the activity should see on DCI's home page is a link to a video montage of some of the best moments in DCI history. 2. Show descriptions - Have a writer, aided by quotes from a corps' designers and corps members, write-up a column describing that corps' show, and post one each week. This would be longer than a typical show announcement press release, and describe some of the key things the audience should look for in the show. Somewhat like a play-by-play of the show. Make the stories professionally written and interesting. Run similar columns for historical shows in the offseason. 3. Staff profiles - Great for the offseason. Profile a director/caption head/designer each week. What do they do in their non-corps lives? How did they get involved in corps? Why do they still devote so much time to this activity? What do they like to do outside the corps world? How are they able to balance corps commitments and family life? Again, write it up as a story, don't just post an interview....the interview responses tend to be trite. Show that the teachers in the activity are a diverse group of individuals with a wide range of interests. 4. Make it easy to locate corps and shows. The Classic Coundown broadcast showed maps of current corps' home bases, plus maps of show locations. Make these maps available on the website, with the points linked to the respective corps and show information. 5. Don't make too big a deal out of every little newspaper story, but include a place to show how frequently DCI is in the news. Linking every poorly written two-paragraph write-up in the local Podunk Press on the front page doesn't seem very becoming for an organization billing itself as a major league, but it's important to show that DCI has links in major cities and small towns. Keep a separate page of newspaper article links, and only feature the well-written articles on the main site. Maybe work out a news feed deal with DCP - DCP tends to link many more articles than dci.org. This is not to imply that DCI's coverage is poor now - they do a lot with the resources they have. I'm sure there are people out there (myself included) who might be willing to devote some time to writing something up from time to time, or on a regular basis. Much of the content could be presented in a more polished format than it is currently, and this would make DCI's website look more like a "major league" site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilerman_05 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 (edited) $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ thats why Actually it would be cheaper. Instead of every corps having to have their own web people it could be done by one web design firm. If each corps paid for a proportion of the fees it would almost certainly be cheaper than each corps going at it on their own. The issue is corps autonomy. Some corps don't like to post the latest scores, some do. Some don't want a forum, some do. There is too much variation in how a corps wants to position it's "brand" image to make one smooth template for all the corps to work off of. Edited July 5, 2006 by boilerman_05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 If this proposal was voted upon to be the way things were done, how many milliseconds would it take before multiple threads appeared on DCP that DCI was taking away the autonomy of the corps' websites? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TroopersWeb Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Actually it would be cheaper. Instead of every corps having to have their own web people it could be done by one web design firm. If each corps paid for a proportion of the fees it would almost certainly be cheaper than each corps going at it on their own. The issue is corps autonomy. Some corps don't like to post the latest scores, some do. Some don't want a forum, some do. There is too much variation in how a corps wants to position it's "brand" image to make one smooth template for all the corps to work off of. I can only speak for our corps on this one - but there is $0.00 money spent by the organization on web design, hosting, maintenance and software. The Troopers website is purely volunteer time and donated resources. If DCI wanted each corps to consider a common navigation/toolbar bar on sites, I can't see the harm...but I remain steadfast in my opinion that each corps needs to decide for themselves what they want to look like; what message they want to send; the content of the domain, etc. The differences between each organization is vast....compare the Troopers with currently only a cadet corps summer band program to say the Vanguard with 2 active corps, a winter guard, a booster/alumni group and a dance company to the Blue Devils with 3 corps, a wind ensemble, color guards.....you get the idea. Each organization's site encompasses all those things - some of which have nothing to do with DCI, per se. Can there be a common ground that connects all corps sites together? I suppose so...but how far do we go? Member corps only? Does that not negate the networking benefit to the non-member corps (e.g. division II/III)? And what content would this common toolbar/navigation contain? Scores, schedules, stats. Perhaps a news feed that connects back to DCI? What about those corps with other groups that are part of a parent organization (BD, SCV, Colts, BK, etc)? I don't have the answers but would enjoy an open discussion with all webby-type folks in the activity. If DCI was serious about this venture, they should bring all corps web admins to the table to talk about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSNewell Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Very much so, this has been discussed. In fact, there was a webmasters meeting in San Francisco in 2002-03 (December or January, I think). Lots of good ideas. Some corps were very against the idea of an umbrella web site. Some were very in favor of it. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 having site clones of one template is not something I would go for. Each corps belongs to its own independantly operated organization, some of which do much more than DCI summer competition. However, I would be in faver of some sort of a web-ring-like tool that corps can put either as a header or footer in their site, giving such things like links to others corps or even a news ticker, like you see on the front page of apple.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberly Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 It's taken me like 15 minutes to find the Colts' repertoire and I still haven't. Maybe they didn't post it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Clark Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 A lot of work was done on the toolbar idea (not by me... too lazy) but then it seemed to die off after a month or two of online discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 ... It's taken me like 15 minutes to find the Colts' repertoire and I still haven't. Show title: Continuum “Time To Go!” (original piece based on “As Time Goes By”) “Windsprints” (Richard Saucedo) "As Time Goes By" Herman Hupfeld "Ride" Samuel Hazo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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