From Inspiration to Publication

Bringing Antarctica to the

masses

Maintain the Antarctic Treaty System and

enhance Australia’s influence within it.

Protect the Antarctic environment.

Understand the role of Antarctica in the global

climate system.

Undertake work of practical, economic and

national significance.

Print run of 4000

Bi-annual

Diverse readership

Inform and entertain

Popular style

•Decide on a theme

•Identify story ideas and writers

•Commission

•Follow up

•Research and write stories

•Edit contributions

•Find pictures, write captions

•Brief graphic designer

•Proofreading

•Organise printing, mailout, distribution

•Prepare summaries and pdfs for web

•Breathe

•Start again

An editor’s diary

Communication and Flexibility

Grant Dixon

Communication is critical for:

•Inspiration

•Obtaining stories and pictures

•Developing and maintaining relationships

•Accuracy

•Gaining expert knowledge

Flexibility is important to:

•Get the job done

•Maintain relationships into the future

•Assist contributors to make their work

accessible to others

Communication and Flexibility

Frederique Olivier Steve Nicol

“The oceanic model in AusCOM is the Modular Ocean Model [MOM]

4p0d (courtesy of GFDL/NOAA). MOM is a primitive equation, ocean

model with the generalised horizontal orthogonal coordinates

discretized on an Arakawa B-grid [Griffies et al., 2002]. MOM4p0d is a

z-coordinate finite difference code using a predictor-corrected scheme

for tracer evolution, which yields an improved performance compared

to the leap-frog scheme, at the same time reducing conservation

errors to roundoff tolerances.”

Translation:

A new ‘coupled’ ocean-sea ice model will help researchers more

accurately model how different components of the climate system

interact, improving their ability to predict the effects of climate change

Tips

Use expert knowledge to your advantage

Beware the ‘E factor’

Acknowledge and correct mistakes and learn

from them

Write things down

Have a backup plan

Accuracy

Acronyms

Over-editing

Final Words

Alison Lester

Overview

• What is a functioning

website?

• Understanding our

audience

• How web and print

publishing differ

• Managing web

publishing

© Gary Dowse 2007

What is a functioning website?

• Working definition:

enabling a

beneficial

relationship

between an

organisation and

individuals.

• Organisation benefits

– Informing / Educating

– Influencing

– Communicating

• Individual benefits

– Content

– Easy access to that

content

Understanding the audience: enabling the relationship

• How can we help them

get their content?

• Identifying our audiences

– What do we know

about them?

– Who are they?

– What do they want?

– How do they behave?© Steve Nicol 2007

Understanding the audience – identifying them and their needs

Information needsSubgroupAudience group

- Educational, reference

Policy, media, science

- What we’re doing or not

- Policy, where we are,

where illegals are

- Science, graphics, media

-Teachers

- Students

- NGOs

- Media

- Military

- General public

Enthusiasts/

Interested watchers

- Reference, policy,

opportunities for

collaboration, working

conditions and pay

-Scientists

-Research institutes

-Expeditioners

-Business partners

Working partners

- Exchange info

- Policy, management,

science

- Management plans,

visitors’ guidelines,

operators who’s who

- ACAP, CEP, CAML,

- Weather, where we are,

media and policy

-Treaty partners

-Commonwealth

Government

-Tourism

-Hosted websites

-Illegals

Legislative/

political

Understanding the audience: content-driven

Content

“Ultimately, users visit your website for its content. Everything else is just the backdrop.”

Jakob Nielsen Designing Web Usability

Easy access to content

• Web team-members need to understand the limitations of users

© Steve Nicol 2007

Understanding the audience:

what we do know about typical users

• Users have a low annoyance threshold:– Task oriented

– Impatient

– Easily bored or distracted

– Likely to have had previous bad experiences

– Will vote with their mouse and move on to another site

– Examples of sites not to use as models

© 2007 Matt Low

Understanding the audience:

avoid the unintelligible

Gerbig Management website http://www.gerbigllc.com/about.html

Their slogan: "Translating Thought Leadership ...

Creating Business Results"

A key activity: "Assessing and approaching

variegated causes and root concerns with

targeted analysis solutions."

Understanding the audience:

avoid the annoying

How web and print publishing differ:

users’ needs

• navigation to know

where they are in the

site

• trusted content

(consistency,

accuracy and

currency)

• supportive technology

© Christo Baars

How web and print publishing differ:

F-shaped scanning

Order of

reading

1 Red

2 Yellow

3 Blue

4 Grey

(i.e.

not)

How web and print publishing differ:

take advantage of scanning behaviour

Improve and restructure long content by using journalist’s (not scientist’s) structure

Conclusions

Supporting

information

Conclusions

Background

Problem statement

Literature review

Methodology

Results

Conclusions

Supporting

information

Conclusions

Background

Problem statement

Literature review

Methodology

Results

How web and print publishing differ:

ensure meaningful navigation and searches

How web and print publishing differ:

make limited space work

How web and print publishing differ:using within-text links

How web and print publishing differ:using images and other non-text elements

Managing web publishing:

communication, cooperation and flexibility

Essential team ingredients:

– Shared overview and

goals

– An appreciation of

each individual’s

expertise

– Inclusive and regular

communication © Wayne Papps

Web team

Web applications

Graphic designer

Web editor

Information architect Web designer

Web programmer

Systems administrator

Usability expert

Content providers

Web manager

Web team

Web manager

Content providers, text,

images art, photos

Usability expert

Systems administrator

Web programmer

Web designer

Information architect

Web editor

Graphic designer

Web applications support

Functioning web

© 2007 Brendan Hopkins