Meetings in Cyberspace

School board members are posting their meeting minutes on the World Wide Web with their school board web sites. Some of these web sites have the meeting minutes written into a narrative. Few, if any, school board web sites use hyperlinks to connect their web site or homepage to other web sites in cyberspace. One reason for this lack of connectivity is that school budgets generally do not allow for an instructional designer. Business web sites are designed. They are not just posted. Most of these web sites are designed using icons and hyperlinks. These icons and hyperlinks allow the visitor of the web site to access additional web sites from the homepage. Business human resource web sites can be adapted for school board meeting web sites connecting the meeting web site to other web sites in cyberspace. One such business human resource web site, Pro's Gateway (2/11/01), is written as a narrative. It gives a mini history of the company. The webmaster, writer of the web site, gives his e-mail address for correspondence. There are several links throughout the narrative: related company, response to a question, presentation, bulletin board, subscription, software installation, and a puzzle. This web site is currently under construction, design, and a disclaimer to pardon our dust is to the left of the narrative along with a search access. This search access allows the visitor to type in certain words, search engines, that will display the portion of the web site that contains information regarding the search engines. Located at the top of the web site are six icons: HR Info Search, Live Chat, To Be Determined, Mobile Technology, Puzzles to Activities, and Contact US! Each of these icons are links to the specified categories. Finally, below these icons is an icon so that the web site visitor can donate money to the site's development. This web site can be adapted for a school board with the board's meeting minutes used instead of the narrative. The person responsible for the web site would be listed as the web master with the e-mail address for correspondence. The links throughout the meeting minutes could be dependent on the board meeting's agenda. The under construction disclaimer can be replaced with the date that the web site will be updated. The search access could remain allowing the visitor to rapidly search the web site. The topmost icons would have categories for other human resource issues and the school district's web site. As for the icon that allows the visitor to donate for the web site construction, any reason for the collection of money can be used such as dues, activity fees, costs, subscriptions, etc. Another web site Get Simpata Now! (2/11/01) requires a sign in and password to access the links. There are only two statements that support their product on their homepage. An icon allows the visitor to Click here to learn how. For a school board web site, this type of design could be used for information that is exclusive to school board members. Only school board members would have the sign in and password to the links. Visitors to the homepage would not be able to access the links. Partners, (2/11/01) web site has 3 one-sentence testimonials and a 5 sentence biography. There are six icons that provide links about software and the company. The Primus Partners, Inc. logo and contact information concludes the web site. This web site design could be used to give a brief biography of the board members with the links being web sites that provide information regarding their school board activities. …