The role of the ceroc website

[Gus]

Originally Posted by MartinHarper

There's no need for a single Ceroc employee to be a bottleneck. You could just let franchisees update their own details, via a web form.

Funnily enough ... thats the facility for Franchisees on the Blitz website, and SOME even use it Having said that the rest of the site is cr*p so I dont know who actualy visits it ... for displaying the status of events, whether it be to display my events or to check for events I'm going to, I would always use UK-Jive first.

[Dreadful Scathe]

http://www.blitzjive.com/ seems ok, its not too bad to look at and its easy to navigate which is far more important anyway. http://www.uk-jive.co.uk/ has a good balance of looking good and still being easy to navigate with a LOT more information available.

[Yliander]

have to agree that what is the point of a website if the information isn't current and accurate.

i do the website maintence for the company that I am associated with. It's not that difficult or time consuming - I check it once a week - wednesday nights for those that care - generally only takes about an hour at most - if there is a major update ie new calender for 2005 takes a little longer.

Occasionally there are updates required outside of the standard update time - but they generally only take a couple of minutes to do.

If you don't want to be bothered with weekly or more often maintence of a site then make it a static site - ie basic information - phone number regular venues, maps to venue, costs, format of night, general information that doesn't change very often.

If you are going to use your site to provide information about events - then make sure that it is updated THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN A CHRONICALLY OUT OF DATE WEBSITE

there are a couple of websites in Australia that are terrible - and if i didn't have friends in that city to keep me upto date - I would end up at the wrong venue, wrong time, wrong day trying to go to a class while on holiday

[uk-jive]

Some time ago, I offered the UK-Jive data-feed service to Ceroc as I didn't see the point of adding an extra administrative burden on the franchisees when the technology is already in place. They didn't take me up on the offer.

It does surprise me how few organisations use the datafeed. (partly I guess through my lack of time to market it).

I've just been to one organisations site, who're still listing events for 2003!

At the time I developed the datafeed service, I was working for a large financial institution, who were using a very similar service from a 3rd party data supplier. The technology used was identical to that used on UK-Jive... The only difference is / was mine's free & this other one cost 5 grand a year!

The datafeed is sooooo easy to use - See below... you'll always see details of Franck's next event.

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="http://www.uk-jive.co.uk/feed-nextevent.asp?OrgID=83"></SCRIPT>

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by uk-jive

Some time ago, I offered the UK-Jive data-feed service to Ceroc as I didn't see the point of adding an extra administrative burden on the franchisees when the technology is already in place. They didn't take me up on the offer.

It does surprise me how few organisations use the datafeed. (partly I guess through my lack of time to market it).

Your service is excellent of course but i would think that any problems Ceroc (or any other dance companies) would have with the service is their perception of it. Do you think they would more readily agree if presented with a more professional Ceroc badged 'package'. I'm not saying it isnt professional just now, but as a business decision it must be seen to be a good solid marketing opportunity rather than 'joining an amateur service'. Sometimes a physical cost is all a business needs for them to view an opportunity as something worthwhile, thats why open source software was regarded with suspicion for years. I hope you see what Im getting at. The uk-jive service looks very polished to me but how to get Ceroc to realise this and use it ? As users we can complain to them, but will they listen. Franck being an exception of course - he knows a good thing when he sees it

Ignore me if im waffling

[uk-jive]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Do you think they would more readily agree if presented with a more professional Ceroc badged 'package'. I'm not saying it isnt professional just now, but as a business decision it must be seen to be a good solid marketing opportunity rather than 'joining an amateur service'. Sometimes a physical cost is all a business needs for them to view an opportunity as something worthwhile, thats why open source software was regarded with suspicion for years. I hope you see what Im getting at. The uk-jive service looks very polished to me but how to get Ceroc to realise this and use it ?

Yes, I think you're probably right... Apart from my lack of time to market the service, I also have the issue of 'selling' it to two very different audiences.

The beauty of the datafeed is that it can be badged & branded to fit-in with any style of site.

A few examples of sites who I know are using it:

LeRoc Federation
Clifton LeRoc
Jive Magic
LeRoc2000
Ginger Jive

Once UK-Jive starts offering online ticket sales... Yes, it is coming! I hope there will be an increased take-up on the datafeed.