A Brief History of the NABS Web
2000-2001
In preparation for moving the NABS web site onto a new server, the site is redesigned
and code streamlined while adding new features:
1999-2000
Developments
NABS web site now consists of approximately 1200 files occupying about 150 Mb. Many of
these files are indices used by the Verity search engine, or support files created by and
for the FrontPage environment. In reality, only 260 odd files were hand coded in html
and/or with Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML). The 4500 pages forming NABS web are
produced dynamically from these 260 pieces of code.
The biggest development on the web site in 1999-2000 has been the creation of a
permanent home for the NABS Annual meeting web
site. An abstract submission system was designed to streamline scheduling, programme
production and web posting of the meeting information. Over 99% of the submissions were
successfully processed by the system which will remain in place for the next meetings.
In January 2000, David Kirschtel replaced Wease Bollman as the editor of NABSLinks. A
million thanks to Wease for her efforts over the last year and a half.
The Society Business
section of the web site was revamped to also serve as the permanent archive of documents
produced by the various committees, creating NABS first virtual office!
The polling
functionality of the web site was used by the Graduate Resources and Human Resources
Committees to gather information about the professional activity and training of NABS
members.
Activity
Activity on the NABS web site continued to grow exponentially, whether it is measured
by the number of sessions, the number of hits, or the amount of information downloaded
from the site. Over the last year, NABS web site served over 75,000 different user
sessions, totalling more than 475,000 hits and 7.7 Gb of transferred information.
The vast majority of user sessions origin from North America
| Origin |
Proportion of
sessions |
| North America |
87.3% |
| Europe |
7.2% |
| Australia and Oceania |
2.2% |
| Asia |
1.9% |
| South America |
1.0% |
| Africa |
0.4% |
The classified ads section and the meeting section were, besides the entry page, those
that generated the most traffic.
| Section |
Proportion of hits |
| Classifieds |
19.9% |
| Meeting |
17.9% |
| Main entry page |
13.6% |
| Abstract submission |
8.3% |
| 99 Nabstracts |
5.7% |
| Links |
5.5% |
| Poll |
5.4% |
| Directory |
5.0% |
| Info |
5.0% |
| What's New |
3.1% |
| Bulletin |
2.1% |
| Search |
1.8% |
| JNABS |
1.6% |
| Business |
1.6% |
| 2000 Nabstracts |
1.5% |
| Publications |
1.1% |
| Benthos-L |
0.5% |
| 98 Nabstracts |
0.1% |
1999
A polling application was developed and used by the TIC to poll the membership,
resulting in very interesting suggestions. This polling functionality in place, it is now
very easy to poll the membership on various issues. This tool should be exploited by all
committees that need feedback.
An arrangement was made with Allen Press so that a common database structure for the
members database would be used. Online membership directory (http://www.benthos.org/info/directory.asp)
is now updated quarterly on the web site, and addresses online now reflect addresses where
the last issue of the Journal and Bulletin were sent.
Following a request from representatives of the Graduate resources committee, we
implemented individual profiles, linked to information in the membership directory, that
allow members to display biographic information in addition to that in the directory (For
example, see http://www.benthos.org/database/details.htm?ID=088258
or http://www.benthos.org/database/details.htm?ID=086691).
In April 1999, the NABS web site is moved to another server in Antoine Morin's lab. It is a
Pentium Pro 200, 64Mb RAM, 4 Gb Hard disk running IIS4 and Cold Fusion 4.01 under NT 4.0
SP4. There is an offsite nightly backup of the entire server, including the Micorsoft
Access 97 database containing a growing portion of NABS web contents.
In May, Mark Wetzel joins Wease and Antoine as an active content contributor. Mark is
now responsible for the Meeting and Books advertisements in the Classified section.
Activity on the NABS web site (1998-1999)
Activity on the Society web site, like the rest of the Internet, continued to increase
exponentially in 1998-1999 . Over the last year, about 40,000 users sessions were
monitored, totalling 275,000 hits and approximately 2Gbytes of transfers.
About 75% of this activity was from USA, and another 10% from Canada. Users from more
than 50 other countries generated the remaining 15% of activity on the web site.
The Classified section is the most visited, with close to one quarter of the hits to
the web site over the last year. Besides the main entry page and pages containing
information about the society, both the online directory (with more than 3000 queries in
the last 6 months), the collection of external links, and the searchable electronic
version of the abstracts seem to be quite useful to members and visitors.
| Section |
% of
hits |
| Classified |
22.44% |
| Information |
19.44% |
| Main |
13.29% |
| Directory |
9.36% |
| Links |
8.97% |
| NABStracts |
7.96% |
| What's new? |
5.53% |
| Search |
3.09% |
| JNABS |
2.66% |
| Forum |
2.00% |
| Publication |
1.43% |
| Bulletin |
1.35% |
| Benthos-l |
1.25% |
| Poll |
1.02% |
| Admin |
0.22% |
1998
Between July 1997 and April 1998, use of the NABS web site steadily increased. There
was an average of about 100 user sessions per day on the site. Close to 15,000 such
sessions have occurred over the first 9 months of operation, totaling 115,000 hits and
approximately 1 Gb of traffic.
The Computer Information Committee is dissolved, and web site coordination becomes the
responsibility of the Public Information Committee.
In November, the Society acquired a licence for Cold Fusion which allowed the efficient
implementation of a database-driven web site. The web site got a refreshed look, and a
web-interface for editing the most dynamic sections of the site was implemented. This
resulted in much more frequent updates of the Classified section (http://www.benthos.org/Classified/index.cfm/task/List)
.
Wease Bolman joined the group of web editors and took the responsibility of maintaining
the database of external internet links (http://www.benthos.org/Links/).
The increase in frequentation of this section of the web site reflects Weases's efforts.
In December, issues of the NABS Bulletin were obtained in digital form and a
Bulletin Archive was created with Adobe Acrobat versions of the Bulletins (http://www.benthos.org/Bulletin/bulletin.cfm)
1997, San Marcos TX
Members of the Computer Information Committee meet to discuss the future of the web
site (Mark Wetzel, Todd Folsom, Antoine Morin, Mike Hubbard Ron Hellenthal, as I recall).
While Mark was willing to carry on as web manager, we thought it was not a good idea to
continue at the Illinois Survey. We would be totally dependent on Mark and the good graces
of the Survey. Since Antoine Morin could offer his own web server in Ottawa, it looked
like a good idea to switch. Antoine controlled the server himself and could give update
access to NABS members outside of his university. Antoine was using the Microsoft Front
Page software for web management, and that would give us easy access to advanced web
features. Such features would have been more difficult to implement in the UNIX web at
Illinois.
After some more discussion and polling by e-mail, the Committee decided to accept
Antoine's offer and move the NABS web to his server. Antoine registered a domain name for
the society, so now we are known as www.benthos.org.
(The "nabs" acronym was already registered to another organization.) Antoine did
another redesign of the web and put it into service in mid-June of 1997. Co-administrators
with Antoine are Mark Wetzel and Todd Folsom.
Antoine incorporated the membership directory into the web as a database in autumn of
1997. This is a change from the Gopher/WAIS database at the Univ. of Minnesota that we
previously used.
early 1997
After Warren Brigham's death the Illinois Survey began to apply its network security
policy. This resulted in Kelly and Todd being barred from update access to the NABS web.
Fortunately Mark Wetzel was available to take over. He learned quickly and worked with me
to do the routine web management. He also added ideas and material of his own, including
counters for site visits.
late 1996
After the annual meeting, Kelly Eberhard became interested and volunteered to work on
the web. We got her access authority so that she could also make updates. She began a
redesign and we implemented her ideas for better organization. She also completed a long
page of relevant hyperlinks.
1995- mid 1996
Todd Folsom was the web administrator and main author. The web pages took shape with
information on the society, membership, meeting notices, job ads, and conservation. Todd
linked in the gopher resources we had at Notre Dame (bibliography) and U. Minnesota
(membership directory). Steve Canton began to supply material from the Bulletin, and we
whipped it into HTML shape for the web.
Spring, 1995, Keystone CO
Members of the Computer Information Committee talk about establishing a web site for
the NABS. Those involved were Ray Newman, Mike Hubbard, Mitch Harris, Todd Folsom, Brian
Armitage, as well as I remember. We decided to approach Warren Brigham to ask if the
Illinois Natural History Survey might be able to provide us with some space on a web
server. He agreed enthusiastically, and set up the necessary account shortly after
returning to Illinois.
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