A new Isocentre and call for beta testers

Summary:

A new avatar of isocentre requires beta testers

A new Isocentre and call for beta testers

Santam Chakraborty 23 Apr 2011 05:20

Hi all,
Earlier this year we overhauled the appearance of isocentre and made it more simple for everyone to join in the content creation process. At that time the admins (me, nikhilesh, indranil, ayan, pramod and abhishek) had felt that the present way isocentre is being run is limited. There are two main issues that we face in terms of day to day running.

1. Our user database is not under our direct control - so essentially when our users register we dont know them .. the present two step process was designed to let us know who registered when. Over the past four months we have seen a steady increase in readership and without a dedicated membership drive we are now averaging 4-5 new members each month (no twitter / facebook but not bad)
2. The content is scattered and not accessible : The forum based structure is not really helping matters here - plus the content is being placed on an external wiki hosting system called wikidot. While wikidot people are great we have no way of controlling the actual data.

There are other major issues I will highlight but to come to the point we had decided to see if we could move isocentre to a completely new way of managing information and add more value to it so people come back and take a look. The way to go about this was to bring in what is called a content management system. Yes a heavy word but in the end what it means is a way of managing all the little blurbs of information that is being put in various way and structuring it so that finding it and displaying it for you becomes easier and more intuitive. Over the past 3 months I and abhishek (who goes by radtuxabhishek) have been working to make this migration possible. However before we shift isocentre to this new system we need your feedback and for that we need few intrepid oncologists who are not afraid to tread new ground. Your work would be to stress test the news system and tell us what is missing and what you would like to see. Indicate your interests below and we will send u the link.

Isocentre is your community and we have lots of new things in the new version. So please help us help you. It has no risk for you essentially.
Hoping to see you in the new Isocentre.

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Last edited on 23 Apr 2011 05:30 by Santam Chakraborty Show more

Re: A new Isocentre and call for beta testers

Santam Chakraborty 28 Apr 2011 21:35

For people who are interested the URL of the new website is :
http://isocen.dev4.webenabled.net/
Please keep the following in mind:

1. This is a new website so things can break and the navigation can feel alien.
2. Just registering and not looking back serves no purpose unless we can get solid feedback on what is wrong at your end.
3. If you find something hard to do / difficult to get - PLEASE let us know. This is what is known as an usability issue. And no matter how trivial the issue looks it is important.
4. If you have suggestions with themes please tell us. However we are not designers so its unlikely that withoug a mock of the color scheme and appearance we would be able to give u what you want.
5. Please give us feedback regarding:

Overall site loading and performance
Theming and appearance
Intuitiveness of the navigation menus
Registration process
Post registration email validation
Login process
Sections of site after login
Your user profile and dashboard.

Please note that we are NOT registering you during the beta process but in the final site your registration will be done automatically. Part of the testing efforts are centered on finding out what a new user who gets to isocentre for the first time feels like
Again this is an effort by the community and for the community. On a personal level seeing the proliferation of websites like Medscape, Oncostat which are focussed solely on the Medical Oncology we RO need information gathering and dissemination platforms that are free from industry pressure. Please help us build such a site.

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