arcspace.org.uk

Hi, this is Ellie ✿ Innit ⎝⏠⏝⏠⎠, the lass who has overseen much of the ‘development’ of the Arcspace Manchester website for some time.

The original website ran on a complex open source content management system platform called Drupal, which was kindly hosted locally by MF, and as time went on , it became apparent that there were too many complexities among the web crew which made the site effectively stall and left everyone scratching their heads because nobody was about who had web development skills, plus the time to be able top put into the Arcspace in Manchester project. This is when I arrived, and after a couple of months of persistent attempts at getting the website back under our own control, I managed to get a new site up and running based on a much simpler to use CMS platform than Drupal called WordPress, again kindly hosted by our deal local friend MF. WordPress was chosen due its simplicity, huge array of add ons and basically, its ease of use,  Arcspace users could learn how to do exciting things like blog, share info, and discuss things. I even personally hosted a forum calles Simple Press, so those of us unable to get in to St Wilfs can at least stay in touch and keep up with what is going on, and maybe even be involved remotely. Basically, i set up a communication platform, and I ran a series of workshops on how to use WordPress for our service providers and users. At the time, I was effectively a project manager within the organisation.

When i got the site up and running, i admit it did look a bit boring, but that was deliberate and the point being to help others learn how to develop an easy to use content management system to benefit their projects. It is called skill sharing. I am an IT pro, many qualifications under my belt, but I was trying to help a community organisation grow together allowing them to do bigger and better things with the use of the web. f I did this as a job, I could make a fortune, but money is not my motivation in life. The website ran ok , several people used it and made regular updates, and I helped set up our own servr so we can tinker with the web code before making updates to the live site. Basically, i equipped the organisation with the tools and knowledge to create something amazing with our website.

The problem was that Arcspace in manchester was employing people in the Future Jobs Fund government scheme – basically a £1bn pot of money set aside by Labour to get young people and long term unemployed into a minimum wage full time job – Which the Con-Dem coalition abolished. I was one of those who took advantage of the scheme, and several others were on it too, so we were well staffed for a period. Due to an unfortunate experience, i left the scheme early, leaving everything i had been overseeing to the other FJF temps. One of them was heaviy interestd in an education focussed CMS called Moodle. Before I left, I pleaded with the crew to stick with what I had created, as the other FJF folk would soon be leaving too, meaning once again, people would be scratching their heads with a website they know not how to do anything with. I then left.

Hey Presto, the FJF people deleted my entire website AND lost the backup I made, and went ahead with their Moodle idea. So now we were left with a fancy looking homepage, but nothing on it worked. The fact that the full backup I created was lost was what really frustrated me. It contained ALL content from the original site, and my version. Gone forever! The FJF people left, and we were left with a website which looked nice, but didn’t work, so was totally useless. What was worse, was that the FJF people who had messed up our website could not be contacted. it took my web wizardessery skills to reclaim our website and all the infrastructure.

So, here we are now, I am about to meet with the Directors and we will hopefully formulate a long term plan which will ensure Arcspace will always have one single webmistress who will ensure that it is well looked after, and I would like to begin running WordPress workshops again in the near future. I am about to undergo major surgery, but we have technology like skype, projectors and such, so lets hope Arcspace in Manchester has a much happier and stable web presence.

With love to my friends, and respect to all
Ellie ✿ Innit ⎝⏠⏝⏠⎠ x x