[bestbits] Soft launch of new Best Bits website!

[Kevin Bankston]

This looks fabulous, Jeremy.  Thanks so much.
____________________________________
Kevin S. Bankston
Senior Counsel and Free Expression Director
Center for Democracy & Technology
1634 I St NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
202.407.8834 direct
202.637.0968 fax
kbankston at cdt.org

Follow CDT on Twitter at @cendemtech

On May 9, 2013, at 11:09 PM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:

> Today we are soft-launching the new Best Bits website at http://bestbits.net.  Big thanks to Deborah from Access, Lea from Global Partners and others who have been working on this with me!
> 
> Here are some of the major new features (so far):
> An event calendar at http://bestbits.net/events/.  New events can be added directly to this calendar, but we also subscribe to (currently six) calendars from other groups like Access, Fight for the Future and the Internet Governance Project.  Events automatically imported from those calendars can be revealed by selecting "Events from other calendars" from the "Categories" drop-down menu.
> A fully-functional events calendar can also be embedded in other websites, in a number of different formats.  You can also choose to embed or subscribe to just certain categories of events - for example, just IGF and ICANN events.  Let me know if you want more information about this great feature!
> We are officially abolishing the hierarchy between "Lead organisers" and "Other supporting organisations" that used to be shown on the website.  Any civil society organisation that has participated in the Best Bits network can now have their logo displayed as an organiser/supporter.  So please email me your logo, or a link to it, if you would like yours added.
> Whereas previously the website was designed to highlight a single event, there are now multiple event pages available from a drop-down menu on the right of every page.  Having said that, there are still some changes to be made (such as removal of the         countdown ticker from the top right corner).
> We now have a Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus account!  The Twitter account is _BestBits (with a leading underscore).  The         Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/bestbits.net (events from the calendar can be published to Facebook automatically, though we haven't done that yet).  The Google Plus community is at https://plus.google.com/communities/104087848331196964155.
> There are still some features to be added (many of these are due to constructive comments received):
> It will be possible to RSVP for events, so that you can see who else is planning to cover an event, such as the WTPF, for example.  Funding options will also be shown.*
> Events in the calendar will soon be able to be linked to dedicated pages elsewhere on the site (eg. with a statement, full agenda, etc).*
> It will be possible to upload briefing documents for any event, and reports following from any event, and for these to be listed alongside the event and on the front page.*
> We will be adding some background information pages for each institution (eg. ITU, ICANN, IGF) and for each issue area (eg. human rights, standards).
> We want a brighter, friendlier looking background for the page, and to redo the theme for the calendar page, with a clearer division between months.
> There are some other bugs with the calendar; mainly, you can't set your timezone when viewing or adding events, which may mean times are represented wrongly.
> We need to find some 400x400 icons for events that fall into the categories of "non-institutional forums" and "events from other calendars".
> *  For now, you can just add comments on the event to approximate for this functionality.
> Any volunteers who would like to help us work on the site are more than welcome, no matter whether or not you are technically skilled or have an eye for design - we can easily find something for you to do, such as helping add details to events.  We are soon going to be establishing a loose, geographically-inclusive steering committee for Best Bits, and part of its work will be to establish a roster for such ongoing work.
> I hope you like the new website and look forward to receiving your comments!
> -- 
> Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer
> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
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