Websites and Portals

[Samiuela Loni Vea Taufa]

Dudes,

Good to see N4Ny has returned from his Sri Lankan feeds. Also love the "look" of the new mlci.gov.to. Like Revenue Services, I'm not too sure I like you guys being any more efficient in sucking blood from me.

Question:

What are your 'standard' costs for the production of an interactive website. I wont hold you to quotes, as this is an initial exercise in assessing the general costs so we can dig down for more details. (i.e. I'll probably double what you say as an estimate)

Background.

Two projects that I'm trying to get buy-in and funding from the Tonga Government involve building potentially two separate websites. This push is part of the evolving ICT emphasis in our Government, and although they aren't making any commitments, they better make some commitment or I'm going to kick a few people's butts.

1. eCommerce Site for Tourism
2. Government Portal

Technical - eCommerce Site for Tourism

* Most likely a 12-month contract assignment to install and maintain
   <> Potentially, a separate business on its own
* CMS - allow vendors to update their own details directly
* Image/Photo Gallery integration with CMS Articles
* Offline Data Entry using Offline Clients (e.g. blogging tools)
* Workflow - allow Management Team to
* Multi-lingual Content (i.e. Translations accessible directly from each independent article)
* Credit Card Payments (probably use one merchant and do local contracting for
* Orgn' Body will need to negotiate contracts with individual vendors and probably some level of training

Technical - Government Portal

* As above, most likely a 12-month contract assignment to install and maintain
  <> Potentially leading to formation of a separate government entity
  <> Foresee at least 2 x full-time content writers
* One-Stop Shop for Government (i.e. we don't want every ministry having their own website where Citizens/Visitors need to know what each ministry offers. Visitors should be able to achieve what they can through the single portal, and the experience on the site is to be user-centric instead of Ministry-centric)
* Cross-Platform (Unix and Windows quite necessary)
* Multi-Location (allow content to be built at various independent sub-sites)
* CMS
* Article Versioning Support - may be a legal requirement
* Document Management System (expect a great deal of PDFs)
* Offline Data Entry using Offline Clients (e.g. blogging tools)
* Content searchable (likewise into PDFs and DOCs, XLS, etc.)
* Multi-lingual Content (i.e. Translations accessible directly from each independent article)
* Workflow - as above
* Credit Card Payments (probably use one merchant and do local contracting for

Alfred wanted me to initiate discussions of technical requirements, so I thought I'd brain dump the above

If you guys can lend a hand with the specs and or estimates, that will be much appreciated.





Sam T.

-- 
Samiuela LV Taufa
sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com
www.nomoa.com; www.tongatapu.net.to

[Havea Hikule'o Fonua]

Sam,

 

I would like to make a comment on those two projects which I am now convinced to be included in the priority list for Tonga ICT. The reasons are stated below;

 

(1)     Almost all government ministries and departments have their own website and I looked at some of them like MLCI, REVENUE, PMO, TONGA-NOW etc are fantastic. The main problem is, each website layout is different from the other – ie, coloring, banners etc and also some look like outdated information there.     

(2)     The new Ministry of Tourism has been established

(3)     Almost all medium and large businesses have their own websites displaying their product and services there, not only that many other websites like Matangitonga advertises most businesses in Tonga

(4)     Technical Specialists on developing and writing website and multimedia programming are now available locally

(5)     Different type of developing tools are also available locally            

 

I think it may be easier for the majority of users to access the specific information they want if the government portal is made with standard layout across other ministries and departmental websites, just like Microsoft Product – Word, Excel etc have similarities in terms of icons, menus etc. – information overload may be minimized by eGov Portal

    

With Technical Requirements especially software development tool, I suggest using EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) or any similar software which can be able to separate the developing strategy into Front-end entity, Business Entity and Back-end Entity for communication efficiency, ensure security is appropriately in place, compatibility and scalability. Anthony Tu’ipeatau can make comment on this area as I believe he acquired good working experience on this field.

 

Anthony – please accept my apology for any inconvenient upon mentioning you in my mail  

 

Regards

Havea      

---

[Anthony Tuipeatau]

You're spot on with the layout inconsistencies amongst Govt. websites.
From my very little experience doing work with the Govt, there was no
pre-defined standards available at the time of development. The whole
'look and feel' of the site was pretty much dictated by the Project
sponsors themselves. There were times when we had to really convince
them to tone down the use of "bells and whistles" and aim for a neat
and clean design.

The Government sites aren't the only ones with outdated information,
TCC is just as bad when it comes to outdated information. If we're not
generating any interests, or in our case, if the site isn't offering
any real value/service for our customers then it becomes second
priority to everything else. No money generated via the Website equals
lack of interest in maintaining that site and would be better off
pulling it down. There's a lot more to it than that and we're working
towards giving our site a face-lift.

I mentioned to Sam earlier that when I read the technical requirements
my initial thoughts were that some of these requirements can be
achieved using an Open Source CMS package. Drupal is a good one, as
well as Wordpress or Joomla. These are more Php & MySQL driven, but
there are some .Net ones out there. Specific functionalities are
available via open source Plug-in modules. These can be easily and
quickly configured to work with your CMS package.

Anyhow, it's an option to consider against building the whole site
from scratch. Or perhaps a Hybrid solution? BTW - Haven't touched JAVA
and EJB in years :)

Hope you're well Havea. Good to see you guys online.

Malo,
Anthony Tuipeatau

[Samiuela LV Taufa]

We have a new player in our ranks, or at least so long as their Ministries Internet connection can be delivered to them.

Sitiveni Finau - now over at Ministry of Dish-Information (oops)

As I understand it, he is partially tasked with putting / pulling together all these disparate web endeavours of various ministries. He's been mulling a few ideas, and he can digest what we've already discussed below.

I'll try to get Sitiveni to give us some weekly-progress reports ??

So the 'infrastructure' design team (or at least those of us who have asked as many questions) should include:

  * Anthony
  * Havea

And we're all here to take the credit when it's successful, but you're the THREE to blame if it doesn't.


later,


Sam T.

Samiuela LV Taufa wrote the following on 11/15/2007 5:15 PM:
> Great feedback Havea.
>
> I agree with you that there is a BIG need for consistency between Government Sites (ala increases effectiveness for visitors/citizens)
>
> YES. The focus of an eGov portal is improved dialogue with citizens/visitors. To fight the "information overload" you mention, the portal will/should/must be visitor focussed and not Ministry focussed. People want to know how to do X not what Ministry X has to offer.
>
> I also want this project to improve/increase local skills, which is why we've found that secondment from Government is feasible, as some of the skills will come from Government employees.
>
> As you suggest, going to a 'platform' for web development is feasible because of available tools, but also future-centric as it will facilitate further development in other Government/Civil Society/Private Sector services.
>
> Sam T

>
> Havea Hikule'o Fonua wrote the following on 11/15/2007 4:23 PM:
>>
>> Sam,
>>
>> 
>>
>> I would like to make a comment on those two projects which I am now convinced to be included in the priority list for Tonga ICT. The reasons are stated below;
>>
>> 
>>

>> (1)      Almost all government ministries and departments have their own website and I looked at some of them like MLCI, REVENUE, PMO , TONGA -NOW etc are fantastic. The main problem is, each website layout is different from the other – ie, coloring, banners etc and also some look like outdated information there.    

>>
>> (2)      The new Ministry of Tourism has been established
>>
>> (3)      Almost all medium and large businesses have their own websites displaying their product and services there, not only that many other websites like Matangitonga advertises most businesses in Tonga
>>
>> (4)      Technical Specialists on developing and writing website and multimedia programming are now available locally
>>
>> (5)      Different type of developing tools are also available locally           
>>
>> 
>>
>> I think it may be easier for the majority of users to access the specific information they want if the government portal is made with standard layout across other ministries and departmental websites, just like Microsoft Product – Word, Excel etc have similarities in terms of icons, menus etc. – information overload may be minimized by eGov Portal
>>
>>    
>>
>> With Technical Requirements especially software development tool, I suggest using EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) or any similar software which can be able to separate the developing strategy into Front-end entity, Business Entity and Back-end Entity for communication efficiency, ensure security is appropriately in place, compatibility and scalability. Anthony Tu’ipeatau can make comment on this area as I believe he acquired good working experience on this field.
>>
>> 
>>
>> Anthony – please accept my apology for any inconvenient upon mentioning you in my mail 
>>
>> 
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Havea      
   

Anthony Tu'ipeatau wrote the following on 11/15/2007 4:05 PM:

No worries Sam, happy to help out in any way I can.

 

Roughly, some of those technical requirements can be achieved by Plug-in modules available for some of the more popular open source CMS packages i.e. Drupal/ Joomla/ Wordpress etc.

 

This of course depends on whether or not you’re looking at building every module from scratch or opt to go with an Open Source solution.

 

I’ll have a bit of time over the weekend to think about this some more.

 

Cheers

AT

 

From: Samiuela LV Taufa [mailto:sa...@taufa.tbu.to]
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 1:28 PM
To: Anthony Tu'ipeatau
Cc: Samiuela Loni Vea Taufa; aso...@pmo.gov.to
Subject: Re: Websites and Portals

 

Even Better for us, ...

We are still fishing in the dark here about the two sites / portals will evolve, but definitely there are a lot of things to be reviewed before we can presume we have decent specs/requirements.

Can we use your spare time over email to evolve the specifications ?

The projects still need a lot of work, and will probably need a little more discussions with other people to get a grab on all the requirements.

Can we continue to review specs / suggestions over mail ? and then we can get the list together for a yap session over coffee.



ciao,


Sam T.


Anthony Tu'ipeatau wrote the following on 11/14/2007 11:36 AM:

Sup Sam-T,

 

I know… I know, I still owe you that lunch brother… hopefully sometime this year LOL

 

Missed out on that ICT meeting you guys just had. Mate, TCC is keeping me a lot busier these days with our new Billing system about to go live first few weeks of 08.

 

Hope you’re well.

 

Let me think this over a little bit and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Sometime this week hopefully.

 

Alternatively, if you have all the requirements with you I can write-up a full proposal (free of charge of course) if that’ll help. This should cover pricing, project schedule, and analysis of your requirements.

 

Malo e tau mo e ngaue mei hena.

 

Malo,
Anthony Tuipeatau

TCC AvaBill Project Manager
Tel:    +676 20063
Mob:  +676 49667
Email: anthony....@tcc.to

Ph: +676()62-717 Fax: +676()24-099

[Samiuela LV Taufa]

TVB are very keen on the updated web services.

They would like a little brief document from us what we propose should be a better direction, website service from them.

Essentially, Edgar Cocker thinks their current website is worse than crap.

I didn't get any notes on whether they have money, or are coming into some money, but Edgar specifically said that the service needed to be changed yesterday. Very urgent.

He would like a little brief from us.

Can anyone help out ? Start the ball rolling ?


Sam T

[Havea Hikule'o Fonua]

I think it is important to find out the reasons why they are not happy with their current website. At the same time, we can show them some sample websites (similar mandate with TVB) from our neighboring countries (Fiji, Samoa, Cook Island etc) and perhaps it will them to display us what they really want. Perhaps some other websites here in Tonga will help them.

 

With my very little experiences on website development, the user feedback is very important and I believe on enhancing the existing website if possible. The content of website and its layout should be tasked by a marketing expert or related area of expertise while the ICT experts should be tasked by developing web pages, linking, querying, database etc.                    

 

From technical point of view, we need web software developing tools that will be supported well by some known web browser like Netscape, Explorer etc, and also easy to use. The tool should also support software developing strategy for client, business logic and server architecture if online service will be offered through website. Thin client approach is very much needed.

 

Regards

Havea

---

[Samiuela Loni Vea]

A few key things I got from Edgar and staff about dissatisfaction with their website.

1. It's ugly
2. It's controlled from Fiji. Updates have to be routed through Fiji
3. People need to be able to make a booking when they see something they want.
4. Local Operators need access to updating details.
5. ?? Better training for maintenance staff.

On the rest of your statement, I full agree.

Expertise - ditto.

Our ICT experience can help with the mechanics, but experts in marketing (I think that's TVB's backbone) need to be engaged in the context, style et. al. of the website.

Web Development Framework

(i.e. provides support for all relevant browsers etc.)

I believe, and if I understand correctly this is what you are proposing as well, that a Framework is the better approach for this stuff, if we do it locally. As Anthony has suggested, there are already a number of OSS and Commercial Web Development framekworks (CMS)

My next leap of logic, would be if we could build the team and have them select the most appropriate framework hat can be reused with other national needs (such as the Government Portal) The goal, in this objective, is to develop highly competent skills that can be continually used, instead of one-off implementations leading to stagnant skill sets.


Sam T

--
http://www.nomoa.com
http://www.tongatapu.net.to

[Havea Hikule'o Fonua]

I have looked into their website http://www.tongaholiday.com and it is not ugly. The ugly part is why they are not using the domain .to, something similar to http://www.mlci.gov.to. When you look at that address, then you know it’s belonged to government of tonga and mlci is short for ministry of labour, commerce and industries.

 

I think it is clear now that we need to work for the required framework that would satisfy point (2) to (5). Perhaps it is best for you to become the Team Leader and start the appropriate arrangement like recruiting the appropriate members etc.

 

Regards

Havea             

 

---

[Edwin Liava'a]

Good point Havea, just want to point out that it would be great to have a
.to domain name, only problem is it is cheaper to buy other top level
domain names from Godaddy.com, etc.

Why? ;)

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:40:08 +1300, Havea Hikule'o Fonua
<hfo...@tonfon.to> wrote:

> I have looked into their website http://www.tongaholiday.com

> <http://www.tongaholiday.com/> and it is not ugly. The ugly part is why

> they are not using the domain .to, something similar to

> http://www.mlci.gov.to <http://www.mlci.gov.to/> . When you look at that

> address, then you know it’s belonged to government of tonga and mlci is
> short for ministry of labour, commerce and industries.
>
>
> I think it is clear now that we need to work for the required framework
> that would satisfy point (2) to (5). Perhaps it is best for you to
> become the Team Leader and start the appropriate arrangement like
> recruiting the appropriate members etc.
>
>
> Regards
>
> Havea
>
>
> _____
>

> <mailto:sa...@nomoa.com>

> sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com�
> www.nomoa.com; www.tongatapu.net.to
> �
>
>
> --
> Samiuela LV Taufa
> sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com

> www.nomoa.com; <http://www.tongatapu.net.to>
> www.tongatapu.net.to
>
>

--
Edwin Liava'a
P. O. Box 375
Nuku'alofa
Tonga
Skype: etuini
Tel: +676 23073
Mobile: +676 8714338
Email: liavaa...@gmail.com

[Havea Hikule'o Fonua]

Thanks Edwin, yes that's very true and this is the kind of issue that should be addressed strongly by the Team. If we are going to develop software application for the government and national ICT, domain name is part of the Government ICT resources, and it should not be a problem for concession rate comparable to Godaddy.com.

I hope Sam and DoC can make further solid comment on this area. What are the plans for the tonga domain name? Is it an NP-Complete problem or not?

Regards
Havea

[svaipuna]

I think .gov.to registration is free.

Regards,


Siosaia F. Vaipuna
System Analyst
Ministry of Finance and National Planning
The Government of Tonga

Email: svai...@finance.gov.to
Mobile:+ (676) 15333 / 8781215
Office: + (676) 23066 ext. 17
D. Line: + (676) 24209
Address: Treasury, PO Box 87, Vuna Rd, Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Web: www.finance.gov.to

[Samiuela LV Taufa]

Last I talked with DoC Alfred, it is on his personal agenda to pursue the *.to Domain Name Registry issue until they throw him out of Government.

As I understand it, he isn't making much progress, but it's a flag he brings up often enough.

NP-Complete Problem ? I think it will only be such, if we don't bring it up.




Sam T.

[Anthony Tuipeatau]

G'day guys, hope all is well.

As usual I'm always the last one to log into these forums. Apologies.

Sam, let me know when you want to get together and discuss the TVB
proposal. Mb: 49-667

Would be good to sit down for an hour or so and discuss the project
and it's objectives, how you want to approach it, any requirements
from TVB? TVB stakeholders should be involved in a discovery workshop
and flesh out all their requirements. Document those requirements as
project deliverables and get them to sign off on it. Then, proceed to
analyse those requirements, match those requirements to a number of
CMS systems out there (or start working on a design if we are to
develop this from scratch), draw up a project timeline for this and
discuss those with TVB.

Any new requirements will have to go through some Change Request
process but we won't really go anal over it, just as long as it
doesn't impact too much on 1. Money and 2. Delivery Dates.

I have some experience in collecting and documenting user-
requirements, let me know when you're ready to kick this off and we
can sit down and see how I can help out.

Have a good xmas all.

Cheers
AT

[Samiuela LV Taufa]

Hey anthony,

At this stage, what I have is in the attached document (i.e. finding a rationale that justifies doing the website again)

IF we can get a GO (yes we're willing to find the next phase of discovery) then we'd definitely have to go forward with stakeholder discussions, requirements analysis.

Please take a look and give me feedback,



Sam T