DONE.
(Sept 13, 2003: An initial board of directors is in place. We have identified some volunteers. However, this is an on-going process. Most of the navar links have gone live except for alumni registration. We are in touch with a few alumni who work for the government in New Delhi and are in the process of forming an action group.)
As soon as the navbar links go live, get in touch with alumni who are likely to contribute to the things to do.
Identify early influencers on charter, the organization and potential board of directors. We seek help from alumni who are confident of connecting with the decision makers in the Indian education ministry and the university commission for conversion into an IIT.
We will have a second round to contact all alumni after Alumni Registration and Authentication is in place.
We are looking for an owner for this.
DONE.
(Sept 13, 2003: This issue squarely sits in the court of all the students who approached us and the IT director. We have given them all offers to host the site, prepare the infrastructure for their content designers to use and public it. The offer continues to stand.)
Some students have approached us for guidance and cooperation to help them get itbhu.ac.in off the ground. Some communication has started.
Help them to leverage our name server, mirror site and database server resources.
Work out database exchange with the institute so we may start off with the authoritative graduate roll for first alumnus registration and then evolve our up-to-date and current database.
Someone needs to take it from there and own this entry!
DONE.
(Sept 13, 2003: The blogs for the IItization and From the Institute site have been functioning for a while. A handful chapter blogs are already functional using the process outlined in another goal.)
Now that the multiple blogs architecture is in place and already functional for this "How Can I Help?" blog, it is time to roll out the other blogs.
The first step involves creating a blog with templates -- the index template and stylesheet is shared with the parent, that is the main ITBHU.org blog -- and the local modules that customize the layout.
Evolve the templates to support a top navigation bar below the maroon/yellow-beige band -- navigating categories within a blog, as opposed to the existing navigation of the IIT, Alumni, Affiliates, etc. blogs themselves.
There are already hooks for PreBlogIntroText within the "content" container but before the "blog" begins.
This navigation bar should either anchor to the main category archive for the hyperlink or, for a site like the ToDo to the listing within the page.
Define the category archive main template that has a standard two column look and feel similar to the blog main index but that supports navigation within a category.
We are looking for an owner for this who can quickly come up to speed on MT blog and templates. Thanks!!
We want to get information about alumni besides what they (are comfortable with) enter under their name. This can give us statistical input on what fields, positions, earning potential, willingness to donate, donate for the specific cause of the IITization, etc. Take a look at the IIT50 survey, for example.
We need to evaluate and select open source software to implement such surveys. The surveys would have to be tied to the Alumni Database to ensure that only alumni, and not some random souls, express their views.
DONE.
To protect alumni email privacy and also to give them a permanent email address they can be proud of, several associations assign email addresses that are forwarded to the alumni's privately stored email addresses.
The taks is identifying tools and policies to store each registered alumnus's private email address in the database and assign them a public email address such as firstname.lastname@cse87.itbhu.org that the server forwards to their
This will be tied to the convention where every one is identified by their first name, last name, three letter branch and year of graduation. We are already using usernames to access this site like "Sanjay Dani CSE87".
We are looking for an owner for this who is familiar with sendmail configuration, dns issues, email redirects and scripts to manage the redirections.
At this time, only the core ITBHU.org team can post articles under various categoris on the site that anyone can comment on.
The goal is to have simply php-based discussion forums that any regsitered alumnus can start a conversation under. Identify the software tools that will work with alumni registration. Define sections of the alumni-only site where job postings, resumes, institute contributions, iit efforts etc. can be discussed.
We are looking for a volunteer to own this and work with the (new) owner of the alumni registration todo.
DONE.
(Sept 13, 2003: Any alumni grouping can now become an ITBHU.org and organize itself under a chapter blog, or a website for that chapter. Examples are a specific class, a department, a geographic region or an initiative such as for the institute Library, Technex etc. Each chapter agrees to adhere to the operating guidelines for ITBHU.org as the California Public Benefit Corporation. There shall be NO affiliates of ITBHU.org.)
This goal focuses on an important aspect of the ITBHU.org charter that is being defined in parallel. ITBHU.org strives to be the umbrella organization to unite all such efforts.
Define the relationship with affiliates and provide links and information exchange with them. The relationship will include the process if such affiliates wish to leverage the ITBHU.org web site, its name server, web server and database server resources.
Define the relationship with chapters that may organize quasi-independently under geographical, departmental and class (for example, class of cse98) groupings. Define the process and hooks for the chapters to operate under the ITBHU.org website. They may start with their completely indendent site may gradually embed the ITBHU.org stylesheets and authentication tools.
Provide links to all excisting IT and BHU alumni organizations, sites, and earlier efforts at alumni listing.
We are looking for a volunteer to lead this working with one of the editors.