Website History and Tools

The official email group Ausglass2 started first in mid 2001, and proved an immediate success. It remains a major form of communication with members, and at the date of writing had 203 members who had registered their email addresses, and it carried 107 email messages during 2003.
        The Ausglass website itself started operation later in 2001. The Ausglass Board appointed Board member Glenistair Hancock as webmaster, assisted by Arthur Sale. In its first version it simply consisted of four pages about Ausglass and advising how to join. The colour theme was a glassy blue, derived from the print logos used for the 2001 Ausglass conference.
        Quickly thereafter, the online gallery was developed and has grown steadily in the number of glass artists choosing to display their work. It accounts for a significant number of hits to the site by surfers, sometimes only to check out a phone number or address.
        The 2003 Conference made a brief appearance on the site but then moved off to one hosted by the professional organizers of the conference, while we maintained a redirection link. We also tried out one edition of an online Newsletter (December 2003), which was well-received but not pursued. Sometime later perhaps... Snapshots also made an appearance, being coverage of local events, and these have also been well-received but unfortunately few contributions are received. Glenistair resigned as webmaster and David Turner was appointed in his place.
        During 2004, we changed the colour theme of the website to 'Ausglass orange' and redesigned the site (it is a non-trivial job to do a major rewrite of a website and we only completed this in July), and started making it the home for information about GAS@Ausglass - the BIG conference held in Adelaide on 7-10 May 2005.
        Julien Stannus took over the webmaster role from David Turner in 2005. The Snapshots section returned to the website in May 2005, helping to serve the Australian Glass community by showcasing the conference and the works presented in it, both for those who attended and those who couldn't. We also added information about exhibiting in the Online Gallery.
        The Newletter went electronic in 2006 under the editorship of Simon James, and the website hosts archived versions to save you keeping them. Members get the latest Newsletter via email.
        In June 2006, Ausglass2 was superseded, and new mailing list Members@Ausglass replaced it. All members are on this list, if they have registered a valid email address. The site also gained pages for Suggestions, previous issues of the Newsletter, Annual Reports, and the Constitution.
        A new Prize was announced for the Online Gallery, and a voting scheme designed for it. The Ausglass Vicki Torr Online Gallery Prize (initially $1000) will be progressed later in 2006. At the same time several aspects of the website were extended and tidied up.
        The Ausglass Forum went live on 26 July 2006, and offered a whole new dimension of communication and service to members. The Forum was closed on 24 May 2008, largely due to non-use by people interested in glass and excessive spam registrations.
        The website continues to be used for corporate matters of record, such as annual reports, information, and the online gallery. It is harvested regularly by the popular search engines, including Google. The Sydney 2011 Conference has recently gone online (Decemeber 2009) A search engine has been added to the website (January 2010). A major revision of the site is now being planned.
        In February 2010, the first phase or revising the website to make it look more modern began as a consequence of a Board decision. Initially, this is just a recoloring of the pages, but a more extensive change will take place mid-2010. The point of the initial revision is to make it possible to provide electronic payment of subscriptions in advance of the main change.