Updates on VAOnline.org, Rmccallonline, Blogs and Projects

[Randy McCall]

I thought I'd take a few minutes and update our members on recent developments.

VAOnline.org, thanks to donations received through our website, will be able to pay for web hosting services for the next year to two years.  Note that this refers only to the actual cost of paying for the web site and Internet services;  it does not pay staff or office costs.  As these costs are not covered, only specific services -- the web directories and listservs -- will be considered free VAOnline.org projects

I should note that requests to VAOnline for professional assistance will continue to be passed to our Network listservs so our members can offer advice and assistance. However, there have been a number of cases where advocates have requested information which required a relatively large amount of my personal time to produce research materials for or collect  references.  Information requests of this nature can no longer be offered for free under VAOnline.org;  instead, they will be handled under my consulting service for a reasonably inexpensive hourly fee.

There are a variety of projects now underway which will fall directly under the aegis of my consulting and research service ( http://www.rmccallonline.com ), though some will be listed as being in conjunction with VAOnline.org.  These are:

 

• International Timeline of Crime Victim Rights Project: This project now has a home at: http://www.vaonline.org/timeline.html   We so far have a small number of volunteers who will be supplying information for their country: anything from simple date timelines to in-depth research.  Credit will, of course, be given on the project for information contributions.

 

• Twitter News Feed:  As I believe everyone knows, I am again posting daily news stories dealing with crime victm rights, victim assistance or support, funding, legislation, etc., using Twitter.  You can follow this news feed at: http://www.twitter.com/randymccall -- if you don't use Twitter, you can view the latest additions to this news feed on the VAOnline.org home page. As part of an Rmccallonline.com project, I will also be noting, databasing and tracking  events, stories and trends of interest

 

• Blogging:  There are two blogging projects I am presently taking part in.  The first is a personal blog "V3@E - Victim Services, Victim Rights, Victimology @ the Internet" http://rmccallonline.wordpress.com/  On this blog I'll post news and updates on my various projects, as well as profile news stories and issues taken from the Twitter news feed.  The second blog is "Time's Up" http://timesupblog.blogspot.com/ , a new crime victim rights blog, where I will be a regular monthly-to-biweekly contributor.

 

• Victim Advocacy Learning Centre, Crime Victim Rights course: http://www.rmccallonline.com/classes/  I am now working on a number of sections, including audio-visual development, for the "Crime Victim Rights: an international perspective" course.  Due to the number of projects I have on the go, it is taking much longer to produce this course than expected.  Thus, I have decided to open the course to the public immediately "as is", and will make announcements as new sections are finished and made available. 

You can access the course directly at: http://www.rmccallonline.com/classes/course/view.php?id=6  the system will automatically forward you to a Login page... just click "Login as a Guest",  (this security step prevents hacking robots from gaining access to the system).  You will then be forwarded to the course, such as it presently is.  Note that Guests can read the text and play the videos, but will not be able to access the quizzes, training scenarios or projects links being developed.

Comments, questions, etc. are welcomed: please contact me at con...@rmccallonline.com for issues on research, speaking, the Timeline project, the Crime Victim Rights course or the Learning Centre in general.

Randy McCall

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Victim Assistance Online

in...@vaonline.org

URL: http://www.vaonline.org/

News Feed: http://www.twitter.com/randymccall/

Blog: http://rmccallonline.wordpress.com/

Victim Assistance Learning Centre: http://www.rmccallonline.com/classes/

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