http://www.datalink.com.au Stay up-to-date with Datalink's E-magination blog. en-us Tue, 10 Feb 2004 09:00 GMT http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/industry_news/local-government-collaborative-ict-delivery The Local Government Technology Solutions Conference is back on at the Sofitel, Melbourne Thursday 14 to Friday 15 August 2008. 25 June 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/industry_news/local-government-collaborative-ict-delivery http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/monash_youth_directory Monash Youth Services is building a website aimed at promoting local youth clubs and organisations and stimulating involvement in the community. 06 June 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/monash_youth_directory http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/freestyler_email_marketing I've been hearing a lot about Constant Contact (and to a lesser extent Vision 6) lately, and these types of email marketing in a box applications seem to have great appeal to people and is very popular. I recently visited a client who used it regularly. So I got a good opportunity to see what it could do and how it worked for them and the penny dropped. After I had reviewed it, I explained to my client how they already had most of the functions in their Datalink Freestyler, they nearly choked as they told me how much they were paying to use the Constant Contact application. When I came across a second and third contact who uses that or similar applications, I started to think about blogging on the topic. 07 May 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/freestyler_email_marketing http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/best_practice_strategy/information_architecture_for_websites Information Architecture (often referred to in the industry simply as IA)is one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of website planning. I'd like to discuss its imporance briefly and give some real world examples of how the process is managed here at Datalink. 01 May 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/best_practice_strategy/information_architecture_for_websites http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/10_years As Datalink celebrates our 10th birthday today, I wish to reflect on the past decade and thank those that helped along the way. 30 April 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/10_years http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/best_practice_strategy/open_source_cms_security One of the often overlooked when evaluating web software is security. Choosing an open source CMS, for example, particularly the popular ones can leave you wide open to hackers. No matter what size of site your company is or how big or small your site is, this is something you should definitely take into account. Make sure you read between the lines. 21 April 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/best_practice_strategy/open_source_cms_security http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/stigma_youtube_brand How important is choice of video host ? This is a question I've found myself asking lately after quite a few clients have raised concerns about using YouTube as part of e-marketing strategy. 17 April 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/stigma_youtube_brand http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/brimbank_city_council_to_build_youth_website Brimbank City Council are the latest local government organisation to use Datalink's Youth Portal to create a dedicated website for young residents. 15 April 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/brimbank_city_council_to_build_youth_website http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/australian_sports_award The Athletics Australia website - athletics.com.au - built by Datalink, has taken out the Information Technology category of the Australian Sports Awards for the best website information system. 26 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/australian_sports_award http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/earth_hour_2008 We have thrown our support behind Earth Hour Melbourne - 8pm March 29. 26 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/earth_hour_2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/mecc The Alpine Shire Municipal Emergency Coordination Centre (MECC) is another great example of how local councils are using Web 2.0. Working with Alpine Shire, a rural Victorian council, Datalink have implemented a web based collaboration system which streamlines the reporting by agencies and tracking of a range of events from bushfires to road closures to major emergencies using GIS like web maps integration. 25 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/mecc http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/council_community_forums The City of Boroondara has begun community consultation using Web 2.0 with the launch of "Boroondara Community Forums" website. 21 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/project_news/council_community_forums http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/book_reviews/marketing_to_the_social_web I've been reading the book "Marketing to the Social Web - How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business" by Larry Weber over the past few weeks since I picked it up on Amazon.com, so I decided to put forth another review. 11 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/book_reviews/marketing_to_the_social_web http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/social_media_marketers Joshua Porter has written quite a good article about Titled "The Problem with Social Media Marketing". In it he is cynical of the claims of most people who call themselves "social media marketers" and instead talks about social media's "amplification" qualities and that you have to change your business for your business to get better. 06 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/internet_marketing/social_media_marketers http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/ramblings/website_credits You've probably seen them from time to time, tucked away in the footer of the site, a link to a web designer or developer's site, sometimes on every single page of your site. I was very suprised to see a major Australian banking site that recently had their website redesigned, credit the web designer with a link in their footer. I don't know whether they paid for the privilege, or how much, but if I was that bank (and let's face it, they're not exactly short of money these days), no amount would be worth it. A question I like to ask certain types of clients is do you want it ? Some don't know, others don't really care. But personally I think it is a small but important consideration to make. I wouldn't do it with my own site unless I felt like doing favours for a friend, so I thought I'd try explaining when it may and may not be appropriate. 05 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/ramblings/website_credits http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/technologies/local_government_rss When I spoke to Wyndham City Council back in 2005 about becoming the first council in Australia to offer an RSS feed for its content, they were a bit baffled as to what it all meant or what it could provide. Three years on and they are one of about 20 councils who have been awoken by consumer demand for this technology with many benefits. 03 March 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/technologies/local_government_rss http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/web_development/sitemaps_in_footers A recent website design trend is for sitemaps in footers, though despite the new approach, only a small number of websites have taken it up. I'll explain why this approach offers some usability, navigation and search engine optimisation advantages and discuss the right time to use them. 27 February 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/web_development/sitemaps_in_footers http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/web_development/tweaking_webpage_templates You've built your new website and you think the job is over ? Think again. A website should evolve over time, and an important step is the optimisation of webpage templates to maximise the user experience. This is even more imporant if you're using a Content Management System (CMS), as I'll explain and point out some examples from one of our recent projects. 20 February 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/web_development/tweaking_webpage_templates http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/website_watch/afl_website_overhauled In a move that will please some of its fans, the AFL has given its website yet another overhaul, releasing a new look afl.com.au. 19 February 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/website_watch/afl_website_overhauled http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/sydney_web_design__development One thing I am often asked is does Datalink work with clients in Sydney and how we service them. While it is true that we don't as yet have a Sydney office, and don't plan to open one in the near future, the answere is yes we do work in Sydney and we have absolutely no problem servicing our customers there. In fact, I've just returned from a week in Sydney and visited around 8 of our Sydney based customers. 15 February 2008 http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/datalink/sydney_web_design__development