Prepping for Ike

[Andy Carvin]

I know it's a little absurd asking this as Hanna is dumping torrential rains on my house, but I wanted to make sure everyone is paying attention to Hurricane Ike. Ike was supposed to head to Miami, but now it looks like it's gonna flank Florida to the left and make a beeline to the Gulf Coast.

The last thing the Gulf Coast needs is a hurricane potentially bigger than Gustav, but we have some time to prep for it. It probably won't affect the Gulf Coast until the end of next week, and we've already built out a number of resources for the region because of Gustav.

So I wanted to create a discussion about what we can do better to improve upon the content we pulled together for Gustav (and Hanna). Is there anything we should do differently for Ike? Anything we should keep exactly the same? Do any of our teams need more volunteers to do their jobs? Do we need new teams to form around certain projects?

I know this has been tiring for all of us, but hopefully the work we've done so far will make it a lot easier to proceed. Thanks again for all of your hard work. -andy

[John Walling]

If you do add this, be sure to use the new wiki URL: http://hurricanewiki.org/ instead of gustavwiki.com. Where would the masthead appear?

Blogs2c.com said:

Andy,

I can make dynamically updated pages with our masthead on them for the complete list of NOAA feeds that you found earlier.

I will only take me a few minutes.

Will look like:

http://assistdir.com/noaa_nhc_at5.html

Want them?

--Brian

[Andy Carvin]

what would we use them for? As a widget to give away to the public? Also, gustavwiki.com is now hurricanewiki.org. We've retired the gustav names to accommodate other storms.

Blogs2c.com said:

Andy,

I can make dynamically updated pages with our masthead on them for the complete list of NOAA feeds that you found earlier.

I will only take me a few minutes.

Will look like:

http://assistdir.com/noaa_nhc_at5.html

Want them?

--Brian

[Earl McGehee]

Seems to me we need to give some thought to the front page of the Ning site and the Wiki. The most prominent thing on the Ning site is the Forum and that appears to be mostly for developers. If our mission is to help people impacted by the storms then resources they could use should be prominently featured on the front page. The link to the Wiki is small and off to the side where you have to scroll down to find it. Maybe it should be bigger and nearer the top. There was a lot of thought put into the new Categories for the Wiki - I expected the home page to be modified some to better reflect that organization - i.e. sections for pre, during, and after the storm and some geography sections. There are lots of people working on specific needs - maybe it's time to pull a few people together and start a discussion about the home pages so we can make some simple improvements to them before Ike hits.

[Andy Carvin]

That's basically the plan. We reorganized the page temporarily so we could focus on prep work, but will reorganize the homepage in the coming days. The map may go back up top, and we may use the blog more prominently if people want to use it.

Earl McGehee said:

Seems to me we need to give some thought to the front page of the Ning site and the Wiki. The most prominent thing on the Ning site is the Forum and that appears to be mostly for developers. If our mission is to help people impacted by the storms then resources they could use should be prominently featured on the front page. The link to the Wiki is small and off to the side where you have to scroll down to find it. Maybe it should be bigger and nearer the top. There was a lot of thought put into the new Categories for the Wiki - I expected the home page to be modified some to better reflect that organization - i.e. sections for pre, during, and after the storm and some geography sections. There are lots of people working on specific needs - maybe it's time to pull a few people together and start a discussion about the home pages so we can make some simple improvements to them before Ike hits.

[Earl McGehee]

Sounds good.

The link to the "larger version of the map" in the Hana map on the front page gives an error 404.

How about a place on the front page for anyone in need to ask a question and some one of our volunteers could respond. This could be a form on the page that makes an entry to a special section of the forum or even better if a volunteer alerts the appropriate team to answer the question. This would be where people could ask for a link to locations of shelters in their area and stuff like that - not for help with Wiki editing. I'm sure many of us have gotten good at navigating the not always friendly government web sites. Lets let people in need tap into that resource. It would also tell us what we need to put on our site so they would not have to ask the question.

[Ruth Blakeslee]

I worked on the Gustav shelter list Monday and did some minor follow-up in the following days. In possible preparation for Ike, I started following the different links, forums, threads, etc. to find that Gustav Wiki has moved to hurricanewiki.org. I notice that all the discussion copy over but even new postings to Gustav are pasting over (even the auto-generated Favorites link says "Gustav"). I would like to start editing the new HurricaneWiki to reflect current shelters and conditions but see that my edits are also showing up in the Gustav site. I would like to delete the closed shelters from the new Hurricane site but don't want to delete valuable shelter info from the Gustav wiki that may need to be reposted in the next few days. Is it really intended that both these sites are "one"? Thanks and well done all!

[Earl McGehee]

There is not a new Wiki site just a new registered name on the Internet. I.e. the old site is just renamed.

On the maps team we reorganized our pages so there is a main maps page with things that don't apply to a specific storm and then a sub page for each storm. That way we don't loose the stuff each time a new storm comes up. See the Maps Contents Wiki page for an overview. Shout if you need help - me or someone else will jump in if you need.

Ruth Blakeslee said:

I worked on the Gustav shelter list Monday and did some minor follow-up in the following days. In possible preparation for Ike, I started following the different links, forums, threads, etc. to find that Gustav Wiki has moved to hurricanewiki.org. I notice that all the discussion copy over but even new postings to Gustav are pasting over (even the auto-generated Favorites link says "Gustav"). I would like to start editing the new HurricaneWiki to reflect current shelters and conditions but see that my edits are also showing up in the Gustav site. I would like to delete the closed shelters from the new Hurricane site but don't want to delete valuable shelter info from the Gustav wiki that may need to be reposted in the next few days. Is it really intended that both these sites are "one"? Thanks and well done all!

[John Walling]

Ruth,
Both domain names point to the same wiki database. Shelters were divided by state. If the information is specific to a storm, it has its own subject/header. If the information is for all storms, it appears at the top of the page. A category is added to the page for each storm so all pages for a storm can found with the category for that storm, e.g. [[Category:Gustav]].
For an example of this new format visit: http://hurricanewiki.org/wiki/Shelters:_Alabama
John Walling

Ruth Blakeslee said:

I worked on the Gustav shelter list Monday and did some minor follow-up in the following days. In possible preparation for Ike, I started following the different links, forums, threads, etc. to find that Gustav Wiki has moved to hurricanewiki.org. I notice that all the discussion copy over but even new postings to Gustav are pasting over (even the auto-generated Favorites link says "Gustav"). I would like to start editing the new HurricaneWiki to reflect current shelters and conditions but see that my edits are also showing up in the Gustav site. I would like to delete the closed shelters from the new Hurricane site but don't want to delete valuable shelter info from the Gustav wiki that may need to be reposted in the next few days. Is it really intended that both these sites are "one"? Thanks and well done all!

[Nancy Babyak]

Hi Ruth1 I've been working on the shelter pages as well with the information from Hanna. My understanding is that there was no 'move' of content... just a URL change..

If we keep those lists of shelters for Gustav up for Ike I think we run the risk of giving people bad information. While it looks like LA and FL use the same shelter locations each time TX and AL don't.

If there are specific sources of information that were helpful (TV stations, Radio stations) but won't always have the exact same URL how about we put links up in the top section? or the discussion page?

That way people who come looking for help can get to the information quickly if the full lists haven't been annonced / posted... and we will have the links for the wind down as well?

Maybe we can incorporate this into the database effort so that the list is behind the scene... and with a check of a box we can indicate the location is open or closed... there by changing both the shelter list and map at the same time :-)

Ruth Blakeslee said:

I worked on the Gustav shelter list Monday and did some minor follow-up in the following days. In possible preparation for Ike, I started following the different links, forums, threads, etc. to find that Gustav Wiki has moved to hurricanewiki.org. I notice that all the discussion copy over but even new postings to Gustav are pasting over (even the auto-generated Favorites link says "Gustav"). I would like to start editing the new HurricaneWiki to reflect current shelters and conditions but see that my edits are also showing up in the Gustav site. I would like to delete the closed shelters from the new Hurricane site but don't want to delete valuable shelter info from the Gustav wiki that may need to be reposted in the next few days. Is it really intended that both these sites are "one"? Thanks and well done all!

[Earl McGehee]

The ultimate solution is the database - one place to store the info for shelters and maps. I struggled with how to let people on a shelters page get to the maps page where they can get turn-by-turn directions to the shelter and see evacuation routes and traffic to the shelter.

I added some map links to the main shelters page a few days ago, but they are probably not effective. For now the best solution might be to put [[Category:Maps]] at the bottom of each shelters page to put a link to the maps pages listings on every page without having to maintain a link on every shelters page.

We have a lot of good info on the Wiki but it seems to not be all connected to make it easier for the users - but I don't know of any quick and easy way to make it better. The Categories work that the Wiki team has done goes a long way to connecting unconnected data.

Nancy Babyak said:

Hi Ruth1 I've been working on the shelter pages as well with the information from Hanna. My understanding is that there was no 'move' of content... just a URL change..

If we keep those lists of shelters for Gustav up for Ike I think we run the risk of giving people bad information. While it looks like LA and FL use the same shelter locations each time TX and AL don't.

If there are specific sources of information that were helpful (TV stations, Radio stations) but won't always have the exact same URL how about we put links up in the top section? or the discussion page?

That way people who come looking for help can get to the information quickly if the full lists haven't been annonced / posted... and we will have the links for the wind down as well?

Maybe we can incorporate this into the database effort so that the list is behind the scene... and with a check of a box we can indicate the location is open or closed... there by changing both the shelter list and map at the same time :-)

[Ruth Blakeslee]

Thanks all for the clarification and offers of help.
Nancy: I agree that the Gustav info is confusing because it is so prominent (& not updated to reflect "closed" in most cases).
I think if past hurricane info is contained in a different design that can be hidden in some way that would be helpful (i.e. linked page or collapsible section, etc).
I worked the shelter page for Katrina and we added shelters via form entries which made for data that was more automated, sortable & manipulatable...though I believe the only high-tech feature at the time was an "auto GIS map link" http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/ShelterFinder reads: "our thanks to Chris Houser for Google maps code". Please excuse my low-tech skills.
I think having dbase & features such for a check box indicating "open" or "closed" would be efficient & effective, especially when copying shelters from previous storms. Ideally this includes a timestamp for each entry or update. I think the Katrina dbase was at a link called domica.something though I can't seem to get the Katrina site to load right now. Can we request that dbase structure & design get "copied/linked" to the new Hurricane08 site?

I found that adding/editting text for additional shelters (gleaned from media sources) to the Gustav wiki was daunting. It was visually very difficult to sift & organize the huge amounts of text & syntax in the edit mode/box.
It was very tedious also trying to manually & visually organize the info and having different organization that varied between states, regions, counties and cities.
I think using a "form" or "dbase" format would streamline the organization & move towards automation & linking.

John: I see the seperate hurricane design/intent now (& by off-chance I had looked at Illinois this morning & it did not have that subsection) but I still think it's a little confusing & misleading to have such outdated info from Gustav showing so prominently.

correction to my earlier post: I mainly worked on the shelter page Sunday...I'm in Japan & forgot to "minus" a day to match "hurricane time".

Thanks all!
Nancy Babyak said:

Hi Ruth1 I've been working on the shelter pages as well with the information from Hanna. My understanding is that there was no 'move' of content... just a URL change..

If we keep those lists of shelters for Gustav up for Ike I think we run the risk of giving people bad information. While it looks like LA and FL use the same shelter locations each time TX and AL don't.

If there are specific sources of information that were helpful (TV stations, Radio stations) but won't always have the exact same URL how about we put links up in the top section? or the discussion page?

That way people who come looking for help can get to the information quickly if the full lists haven't been annonced / posted... and we will have the links for the wind down as well?

Maybe we can incorporate this into the database effort so that the list is behind the scene... and with a check of a box we can indicate the location is open or closed... there by changing both the shelter list and map at the same time :-)

Ruth Blakeslee said:

[Earl McGehee]

Here is a site that sort of works the way we want the shelters to work. Map Builders. You can setup a free account there and create a Google Map then you can use a form to enter address and other info and it will automatically plot that address on the map. We could add a link to this map on the shelters page. BUT it would not be easy to have a text list of the shelters on the Wiki pages - everyone would have to use the map. I don't know how this site would hold up if many people were editing and viewing the map. Here is a sample map I created with 2 Texas shelters: Hurricane Shelters.

For Ike I think we keep editing the Wiki page manually but I think the map team should spend their time coming in to your pages behind you and putting a map link by each shelter. That makes more sense than us independently plotting shelters. We can fix our shelter maps so a user can click on a state to go to that state's shelter page in the Wiki. Unless someone has a better idea I will fix Florida tonight and start the other states tomorrow night. By then we should have a better idea which state to concentrate on.

Ruth Blakeslee said:

Thanks all for the clarification and offers of help.
Nancy: I agree that the Gustav info is confusing because it is so prominent (& not updated to reflect "closed" in most cases).
I think if past hurricane info is contained in a different design that can be hidden in some way that would be helpful (i.e. linked page or collapsible section, etc).
I worked the shelter page for Katrina and we added shelters via form entries which made for data that was more automated, sortable & manipulatable...though I believe the only high-tech feature at the time was an "auto GIS map link" http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/ShelterFinder reads: "our thanks to Chris Houser for Google maps code". Please excuse my low-tech skills.
I think having dbase & features such for a check box indicating "open" or "closed" would be efficient & effective, especially when copying shelters from previous storms. Ideally this includes a timestamp for each entry or update. I think the Katrina dbase was at a link called domica.something though I can't seem to get the Katrina site to load right now. Can we request that dbase structure & design get "copied/linked" to the new Hurricane08 site?

I found that adding/editting text for additional shelters (gleaned from media sources) to the Gustav wiki was daunting. It was visually very difficult to sift & organize the huge amounts of text & syntax in the edit mode/box.
It was very tedious also trying to manually & visually organize the info and having different organization that varied between states, regions, counties and cities.
I think using a "form" or "dbase" format would streamline the organization & move towards automation & linking.