{"id":1590,"date":"2023-03-07T22:03:51","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T22:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trailhead.ch\/viv-wuarchoz\/?p=1590"},"modified":"2023-03-10T16:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T16:58:39","slug":"etas-web-shenanigans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trailhead.ch\/viv-wuarchoz\/2023\/03\/07\/etas-web-shenanigans\/","title":{"rendered":"ETAS Web Shenanigans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the COVID pandemic, I volunteered as Interim Web Chair<\/em> for an NGO called ETAS <\/em>(English Teachers Assoc of Switzerland) …<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Lock-Down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was a tough time for everyone, teachers of course included !! ETAS stepped up its offerings of online pub quizzes (BYOB ;-D), conferences, meetings, etc. The masterful and intrepid President Ben<\/em> was keen to transition ETAS’ Civi \/ Drupal<\/em> website to a Civi \/ WordPress<\/em> site, so I jumped into the fray to give a technical hand and try to drum up support !! ;-D<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Icebergs & Websites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always thought that icebergs & websites are similar in that most folks only see the tippy tippy top. Below is a slide from my 1st pitch to the ETAS Executive Committee. I wanted to recruit \/ train peeps on frontend content management sot that I could hang out in the ominous underbelly<\/em> of our web environment …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gather Town<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ETAS Annual Conferences of 2021 & 2022 were both held online w\/ Zoom & Gather Town<\/em> while the virus that shall not be named<\/em> raged on (and on …) !! As such, Alice<\/em> and I spent countless hours experimenting, innovating, building our virtual conference spaces … often at very odd times of night !! ;-D I must also thank Amy<\/em> for her assistance w\/ video-conferencing testing … all that shared laughter was essential !! ;-D I regret that I don’t have any screenshots of the final environment but here’s a development shot that I took during an Alpha+<\/em> phase:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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… ’twas fun, educational & stressful. From the delegates’ feedback, I think we pulled it off !! ;-D For the record, I did remove the silly, experimental graphics from our Gather Town<\/em> space before ETAS<\/em> went live w\/ the final environment … jus’ sayin’ !! ;-D<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the Website Upgrade<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conference activities aside, ETAS<\/em> found itself in web purgatory<\/em> for roughly 2 years. That’s to say that we were maintaining Civi \/ Drupal<\/em> (applying patches left & right) while at the same time developing the Brave New Civi \/ WordPress <\/em>World. We contracted gurus Kevin<\/em> & Dana<\/em> at Tadpole<\/a> to give us a hand, and I did my very bestest to act as the central communication hub to make things happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to compounded delays, my term as Interim Web Chair<\/em> ended before the site was launched. But I was definitely all in<\/em> when I was in !! Below is a mish-mash of mock-ups, informational bits, cheat sheets — some technical<\/em>, some not<\/em> — made for different peeps<\/em> at different times<\/em> while trying to get that site upgraded … talk about Web Spinning<\/em> … sheesh !! ;-D<\/p>\n\n\n\n