Monday, November 10, 2008

List of Coming Home Widgets

So far the Coming Home search widgets are on:

Archives New Zealand
Auckland City Council Archives
Auckland City Libraries Library News Blog
Auckland City Libraries Scooper on Libraries Blog
Bookinopolis
Christchuch City Libraries
Create Readers Blog
DigitalNZ.org
Dunedin City Libraries
Kete Horowhenua Adopt an ANZAC
Kete Horowhenua
Library & Information Association of New Zealand (LIANZA)
LibraryTechNZ Blog
Lunchbox
National Library of New Zealand
Nelson Provincial Museum
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
New Zealand History Online
New Zealand Micrographics Services
Paul Reynold's Blog - McGovern Online
Tairawhiti Museum
Tasman District Libraries
The University of Auckland Library - Digital Collections
Vernon Systems

Thanks everyone!
If I've missed you off the list let me know by leaving a comment and I'll add you on.

If you can't add a search widget to your site then you can link directly to a hosted version of the search using this URL: http://search.digitalnz.org/cominghome. See Te Papa's site for an example of this.

By the way - we haven't done this development all by ourselves. We've been working with 3Months (for the front end development) , Boost (for the design) and Codec (for the backend development) using agile development processes (scrum).

Good to go

Hi there,
We're good to go.
However, we are still be working on a few things:

  • there are some issues with how the widget is rendering on some browsers.
  • in the full results page some character encoding isn't coming through - this includes macrons and diacritics.
  • there are some metadata quality issues that mean some results aren't displaying quite right.
We're working hard on all these things today.
However, they're not showstoppers so go ahead and check it out.


Also check out http://remix.digitalnz.org for the Memory Maker. This interactive tool allows people to craft their own expression of what ‘Coming Home’ means to them using a special video mixing tool. The Memory Maker uses Ideum's EditorOne software. It is being hosted on the Auckland War Memorial Museum Website and several National Digital Forum partners have provided fantastic and unique pictures, sound, text and moving images for it.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Update: bugs!

We've had bugs of both types cause us some issues today. Two of our technical people have caught bugs and haven't been able to get to a couple of things for us today. Also there are a couple of technical bugs that are causing some issues.

That means that the Search Widget might not be ready until late morning tomorrow. I'll pop a note up here when its ready to go and we also suggest you test the search widget out first before you make it live online. Try clicking on the "Show More Results" link - if this link works then you're good to go.

We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused - we're working really hard to get everything sorted. We really appreciate your willingness to be involved!

I'll send updates as they come to hand,

Cheers
Fiona

Thursday, November 6, 2008

What else are you doing for Coming Home?

I've been asked what else other people are doing for Coming Home other than adding the Coming Home Search.

Why don't you let us know by leaving a comment? Some NDF partners would like to link to you.

If you'd like copies of the Coming Home logo (in various formats) send us an email at digitalnz@natlib.govt.nz and we'll forward them on to you.


Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Search Widget Code Being Sent Out Friday 7 Nov

The Coming Home search widget code will be emailed on the morning of Friday 7th of November 2008 to all NDF Partner Contacts.

If you don't recieve the message then please email digitalnz@natlib.govt.nz and we'll send it out to you.

Remember: please don't make your search widget available publicly until the morning of 11 November 2008.

Also don't forget to register your organisation as a Coming Home Search Widget participant using the form below:




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Friday, October 31, 2008

More about the Coming Home Search Widget

We’ll be providing you with the details for embedding the Coming Home Search widget next week. It will be a simple process for your technical staff. In preparation for this, here's a little more information so you can plan where best to put the Search Widget on your site.


What will it look like?

This is what the Search Widget design (but not the content!) will be like:

Image 1: The search box (click for a bigger image):



Image 2: The Search Results. Note these are fake results. They are intended to just show you how the design looks (click for a bigger image): There will be up to 3 results appearing on your page.
When you click on any of the results you will be taken to the content providers’ Websites.

If you click on ‘View more results’ you’ll be taken to a search result page hosted by DigitalNZ.


How do you embed the Widget onto a Website?
We’ll provide a small piece of javascript code and instructions for embedding it on your website. This is a simple task that your Web staff should be able to do.

What if I'm not able to embed the Search Widget on my Website - can I just add a link?

We will also have a Coming Home Search hosted by Digital NZ that you can link to. However, we'd like to encourage as many NDF partners as possible to use the widget option.

When should I make the Search Widget live?
The Coming Home search will not be functional until Tuesday 11th of November. We will be sending you the instructions and code next week but we ask that you don’t make it live until Tuesday 11th of November.


What's next?
We'll have full instructions on how to do this next week. We'll send you an email alerting you when it is available.

We will also have instructions about linking to the Coming Home Memory Maker which will allow people to craft their own expression of what ‘Coming Home’ means to them using a special video mixing tool. The Memory Maker uses Ideum's EditorOne software. It is being hosted on the Auckland War Memorial Museum Website and several National Digital Forum partners have provided fantastic and unique pictures, sound, text and moving images for it.



Tuesday, October 21, 2008

National Digital Forum's Coming Home initiative: powered by Digital New Zealand

NDF LogoPowered by DigitalNZ

The National Digital Forum's Coming Home initiative, powered by Digital New Zealand, is nearly here and we need your help! The response from NDF members was fantastic with many great examples of the richness of our collections related to the Armistice theme.

The DigitalNZ team has used one of its unique applications to produce a special Coming Home search widget that can be added to any website. You can use the widget to discover Coming Home content across all participating NDF partners.


We would like all NDF partners to embed this widget on their sites in time for
Armistice Day on 11 November 2008 so that we can showcase our collaboration in commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice.

We will be in touch in the very near future with more information and simple instructions on how to embed the widget on your page.


We'll email you with updates and all communications will be on this blog - ndfcominghome.blogspot.com


We will also have more information about the special Coming Home interactive Memory Maker which some NDF partners have contributed content to. The Memory Maker will let New Zealanders, young and old, create their own way of remembering the impact of war on this country by developing their own memory collage of images, text, sound and video from a range of our culture and heritage institutions.


Together the NDF and DigitalNZ are showing how we can make it easier for New Zealanders to discover and interact with New Zealand's content in exciting new ways. This is a wonderful initiative and one that NDF should be proud to show off!