Also see the J-learning pages on CSS and HTML and photos and graphics.

Note: If you have a pair of headphones or earphones that can plug into a computer, please bring them to our Thursday meeting. You will want them for dealing with audio. (A microphone might be handy, too.)

At this point there are three working groups, each of which has chosen a CMS platform and should by now have access to that platform. The groups so far are:

• Zarifa, Shodiyor, Kamila, and Saleh using Drupal for their CA Journalists project;
• Aiman and Assel using WordPress for their Grad Student site project;
• Noor, Denis, Sasha, Alina, Mina, and Madina I using WordPress for their undergrad community site project

I believe Madina A. is interested in doing a site on women’s issues, perhaps using WordPress.

From here on out your focus should be on developing your project. Planning and revising planning is an ongoing process. Be sure you make a plan that includes specific details on who does what and when, and post the plan as a static page and let me know where you have placed it. Each individual participant should keep track of everything he/she does for the project, both for purposes of work process and for documenting what you have done.

On Thursday I will introduce some audio tools, basic CSS and check in with groups.

Because we will have three weeks without class, all members of each group must meet with me at least once sometime between 8 March and 24 March. (That’s one meeting for each group, with all members present.) Please check your schedules and work out a mutually manageable time with me. If you want to meet in a computer lab, we should try to determine a time right away in order to reserve lab time if possible.

We will work on audio with Audacity, an open source audio program I have had installed in the lab. Audacity user manuals, FAQ and tutorials are all linked through this site. We will do Dan Eliot’s tutorial in class, and perhaps others depending upon how things go.

Audacity is a useful tool for working with any audio, but for our purposes podcasting is the probably the most relevant. For journalists, the internet can be used as a delivery platform for audio reports (an alternative to radio) or for supplementing text and photos with interviews, audio capture, and so on. Posting (or netcasting) audio files in blog entries on a site publishing an RSS feed (remember Bloglines?) creates a podcast the audience can use for easy access to files that can be downloaded to a computer or an iPod (hence the name podcasting) for later listening. (Some also offer streaming audio.)

A few resources relevant to our groups:

• WordPress has a podcasting plug-in and other audio plug-ins also;
• Drupal’s media modules category lists a few audio tools, and a search of the Drupal site reveals a variety of information about podcasting with Drupal;
• Wikipedia’s podcast entry gives a good overview and useful links, including some to podcast search engines.
• The J-Learning site has a few articles about online audio;
• And again, Global Radio News is one example of using sound files in online journalism;
• And Mindy McAdams recently published a tutorial on setting up an audio player that will allow users to listen to audio simply by clicking a link in the entry.

Of course there are limitations to audio online, and here at KIMEP we feel those limits directly. Audio files can be very large (though not always). Here our computer system generally prevents users from uploading or downloading audio files. But there are still ways for us to access audio and you should still consider whether using audio is something you would like to try on your site.

• Project plans (content, site identity, platform, etc)
• HTML, CSS
• Online Tutorials Testing (NewsU, TOL)
• Checking audio software set-up, preparation for next week (equipment check)

-Frederick Emrich

• Proposal revisions are due;
• Read the J-Learning material on HTML, CSS and Forms linked at this J-Learning page. If you can, try to do these HTML tutorials;
• Please try to have a good idea about what CMS you want to use and what platform (i.e. do you want me to set up hosting for you, or do you want to make some other arrangement). The sooner you do this the better. I probably need about two days notice to set up working space for project groups on my server. If you talk to be about this before the next class, then you might have your prototype site ready for you to work on by the time we meet.

I’m sure I will add more later. Please be sure to check with me if you have questions or concerns.

-Frederick Emrich

We only meet once a week and we must also contend this term with three concurrent weeks in which KIMEP is closed on our meeting day. Even were this not the case, attendance would still be required. But given that we have relatively few meeting dates, missing even one becomes that much greater a problem. Furthermore, because of the project orientation of the course, if you miss class or miss an assignment you not only miss things yourself, but you also let down your project colleagues.

If there is some urgent issue that prevents you from meeting these requirements, you are responsible for discussing that both with me and with your project colleagues in advance or (if that is impossible) within a day of the missed responsibility. Treat this course as if it were your work. It is.

I don’t like sounding authoritarian, but for a variety of reasons it is my responsibility to insist on these (and other) standards. Ultimately they are here to help us all succeed, both individually and as a group. If anyone has concerns about this, I am quite happy to discuss it with you.

-Frederick Emrich

Today there are several items on the agenda (not necessarily in this order):

• Check in with project teams. Today I want to know for sure who is working on what project and to take some time to discuss plans with each group;
• Introduction to next planning steps: ongoing site reviews; making a visual site map; planning tasks, dates, and responsibilities; work management (you may use Basecamp for this if you wish), CMS selection, and site identity (site name and domain name);
• Move forward with CMS selection, part 1: I hope you had a chance to look at the example sites I listed on last week’s CMS post. If not, please look at them and I will also demonstrate how to locate exemplar sites. You should be trying to locate sites that might serve as examples for your work, including trying to see if you can figure out what CMS the site uses. We will talk about this more today;
• Move forward with CMS selection, part 2: Last week, technical difficulties interfered with the practical introduction I had planned for hosted versions of WordPress and Drupal. This week I will introduce you to each of those systems using my own personal website, and give you the opportunity to play with the systems a bit;
• A side note: Each project team is free to choose any CMS or web design platform. You may use WordPress.com, or hosted versions of WordPress or Drupal, or something else entirely. I am trying to give you a quick introduction to these systems (their advantages and disadvantages) and to offer guidance in using them, but ultimately you should make the decision about which you think may work best for you.
• In case you thought we weren’t going to learn about other tools: Last week I said we may begin working with audio today. Unfortunately, the computer people have not been able to set up the necessary systems for us yet (we are working on it). For next week, we will look at HTML and CSS (which will help you with your CMS’s). Please look over the sections in the J-Learning guide on that material for next week. I will identify a couple of tutorials I would like you to complete on your own before next week’s class, and provide you with links to those tutorials tomorrow (Friday). I will plan a few intensive workshops on tools in the coming weeks;
• Finally: We need to resolve how we will manage the three-week gap in our meeting schedule. I think we need to meet at least once during that time so as not to lose any momentum. We will discuss this tonight and come up with a solid plan no later than next week.

-Frederick Emrich

WordPress link
Drupal link

Goal: To collect journalists work and assemble an online portfolio. These works would be our articles, photos, etc. which we are making during our study in journalism program and stories, which would be written about everyday life in Almaty especially for this course.

Off campus – It will consist of entertainment for KIMEP students – online webblogs of students life and cinema schedules, events and other entertainment means.
On campus – to present KIMEP Students with more news faster and probably help student organizations by covering them more in detail. Add new items like polls, comments and a more interactive forum too. Discuss KIMEP problems more openly. Online news briefs on a weekly basis.

The audience is going to be KIMEP Students. Also, our future employees, partners, students who want to join journalism program in KIMEP, teachers of other departments of the university and everyone who have interests in this field.

Regarding the information preferences there will be two main sections in this website Content: Our site will be divided into two sections.

Off campus, where articles on the issues about everyday life in Almaty and KIMEP. We also will post works that we made for other journalism courses if we decide would be interesting for our audiences and those works would represent the level of KIMEP’s journalism program. We will have links to other relevant sites that we find interesting and useful for the purpose of our site.

On campus, KIMEP Times articles. News briefs on organizations. News updates from different departments in KIMEP including office of register. Interactive forum where you can have a voice. 

Mission: We are looking forward to improve our writing and reporting skills by working in a group of journalism students. We will learn a lot through reading each other’s works. We will inform students, citizens and foreigners about what is happening in Almaty and KIMEP. We are looking forward to get lots of feedbacks from our readers. Design: We will make it clear and not complicated and not cluttered with too much information and pictures. For background we will use white color, which is said to be the best for this purpose.

The milestones for this particular website will be:For the Web site launch:

1. A whole issue of KIMEP Times.
2. Comments and Guestbook.
3. Student organizations pages. 
4. A discussion board – in a forum like manner.
5. Number of hits tracking system.
6. Entertainment guide for students off campus
7. Articles about students off campus
8. Pictures of students on and off campus
9. Small video clips about students life
10. Education abroad opportunities
11. Information about Language programs in Almaty

After launching this website we hope to have:

1. Regular news updates on student organizations and different departments of KIMEP
2. Advertisements with job offers
3. Education abroad program links
4. Link to Student Government Forum
5. Calendar of events ongoing in KIMEP
6. Tourism sites
7. Educational programs abroad – work and travel

DOs:
Make it simple and attractive
Easy to read and browse
Catchy photos and cartoons
User friendly

DONTs
Add too many things to click
Overload pages with too much data
Confuse the audience with the structure
Add pop-up advertisements
Make advertisements stand in the way and annoy the readers
Copy other – be unique!
Add very big audio files and big pictures – always reduce the size.

We hope we will learn a lot and have fun with this project. 

Madina Islamova
Mina Kim
Alina Palakina
Sasha Shegay
Denis Zhukov
Noor Alkhamees