Polanyi Society Web Work

Governance

Mullins

I want very much to move matters related to the Society's web presence toward a posture in which there is shared responsibility for important web-related decisions and the implementation of such decisions.

TAD Mailing List

We presently produce and distribute a digital TAD as described below.

• InDesign used to assemble the issue.
• Camera ready copy goes to the printer.
• We produce the digital TAD simply by exporting pdf modules from InDesign and fitting them into an HTML template.

Take the last issue's template and change the details (e.g., article titles) to produce the new one.

All the template currently is is a table of contents with links to the articles or reviews or forematter in each issue.

• The HTML modules are placed in a folder then upload them to a similarly named folder on the Western server (where all PS web materials presently are) when I have exported them all and reconstructed the template.
• Feb 1, Oct 1, July 1: goal of having the issue available online.
• The list of 438 people is presently simply a e-mail mailing list that resides in the area designated for group e-mails on my e-mail package.
• When I send out a table of contents, I actually send the email to myself and send the 438 people on the list a blind copy.
• After mailing the table of contents e-mail for each issue of TAD, approximately 20 e-mails are returned. Some indicate Out of Office but other addresses have become obsolete.

Working on maintaining and expanding the digital TAD list is one thing I hope a committee can do better than I have been able to do.

I also am increasingly uncomfortable having the master list reside only on the Western e-mail program on the Western server. I have exported this list before and I need to get more information about how to do that again. I would eventually like to have a dated version of the list reside somewhere else (e.g., a Google Drive that others could access).

I think it also might be a good idea to have a different and better system for sending out the table of contents e-mail notice, one that does not depend simply on me manipulating the Western e-mail system.. But I am unclear how to proceed to set this up.

Polanyi Society Website

This includes current business things such as the annual call for papers or the papers themselves in early Nov. before the annual meeting. But it also includes larger posting projects such as the Polanyi Gifford Lectures which it took me 2 or 3 years working with the Duke U Library, preparing and introduction, etc. to get together. There are, of course, many opportunities for expansion of Polanyi web resources and a few projects are already at some stage of development.

One further thing that has to be done each summer is expanding the indices on the PS web site, that is, adding the articles and reviews from issues in the last academic year. Take a look at the indices. I usually do this update in July. I simply take an existiing index (e.g., TAD authors) and add the names of this year's authors. The coding is simple since I can simply copy the coding used for earlier entries. I often prevail on someone to proof the additions. But all the indices have errors and we need a process that is failsafe for making updates. I am always surprised at how few people understand that there are indices on the PS site and it is not rocket science to find something in the last 30 years of TAD issues. Certainly, there may need to be something else done to the indices other than updating them. But creating an index is a very laborious task. There is also a simple free search engine on the site but it often does not seem to be in working order. You can see a note about it in the code on the homepage. I would like to get it to work reliably.

I think a prudent electronic TAD policy for the future would be to post the electronic TAD on some server space that we rent and all have access to and all work on. Slowly, we should move much of the PS web material to this site. Or at least we should have a back-up copy of materials there or somewhere.