CAP Portal? / My.CAP.gov

[Pylon]

The LDAP thru CAPNHQ.gov discussion got me thinking about the possibilities of an improved and expanded, but centralized, electronic portal for CAP members. 

The Army has continually expanded the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) system to include everything from access to publications to army.mil email addresses, interactive tools, their version of our Knowledgebase, and many other things all falling under one login/password.

Imagine being able to login to one portal and have access to what we now have under E-Services, WMIRS, WMU, MIMS, the Knowledgebase, a CAP email address (perhaps such as firstname.lastname@members.cap.gov), electronic testing, etc.  NIN had some great ideas for this in his post from the aforementioned thread.

Also, notices with links like "Since your last visit, 2 new policy letters have been posted" or "1 new draft regulation has been put up for commenting" - much in the way that MySpace, Facebook and other networking sites simply alert returning users of such events that have happened since they personally last logged in.  Along with alerts for awaiting approvals, membership renewal almost due, and other quick notices that could easily be organized on a "portal-style" home page for each user.

I know this would require a serious investment in time, technology, and of course - money, but I think the benefits of much higher organization, ease of use, access to the appropriate information would increase member participation in all of those functions and tools, as well as ease the burden of work on the individual members.

You login one place... perhaps a "my.cap.gov" homepage and you get a personalized homepage that keeps you easily connected to everything pertinent going on in your CAP world from national to local.  Many homepages like this exist from Yahoo, Google, networking sites, even tons of colleges have them for students and faculty.  It's not new technology - but it could be implemented for CAP in a manner that would un-complicated the messy web of information and the myriad of pages and CAP sites one must check now to get answers and new information.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

[sandman]

I'm all for it!! Like AKO, NKO, and others, that portal could support online training to maintain currency in your chosen specialty(s).

Any ideas as to cost for set up and maintenance?

(Can we have a "MyPay" site too?? )

[Pylon]

I'm all for it!! Like AKO, NKO, and others, that portal could support online training to maintain currency in your chosen specialty(s).

Any ideas as to cost for set up and maintenance?

I don't know about cost, but I know it's doable.  Even small, private colleges like my alma mater are setting up these custom user portals for their students.  I think if these educational institutions can do it, and reasonably, we can at least get a good start on it. 

It may take extra time and money to incorporate many of our custom technology applications, like some things in E-Services, WMIRS, MIMS, etc. - but let's start somewhere and expand as we go along, much like the AKO did (and still keeps expanding)!

I do like your idea, as well, incorporating Prof. Dev. areas within the site to access anything from reference texts, to checklists, to training videos, to user groups for specialty areas, etc.  The possibilities are endless as you add different "modules" to the portal.

(Can we have a "MyPay" site too?? )

That's easy.  NHQ can just set up a static page to display a bunch of line items all with $0.00 after them. 

[Pumbaa]

A lot of this can be set up using the CMS Joomla and the right community plug-ins/ components.  Of course to take it further would require some modifications and such, but overall you would have a good base.

Open source software, an inexpensive server host. And you can run the operation on a shoestring.

[SAR-EMT1]

Do any of the Wings or Regions have anything like this proposed portal? IOWA?! 

[Major_Chuck]

Do any of the Wings or Regions have anything like this proposed portal? IOWA?! 

CAP Directorate of Rumor Control has it on good authority that such a system is being Beta Tested in Elbonia.

[cyclone]

Do any of the Wings or Regions have anything like this proposed portal? IOWA?! 

Iowa has a Virtual Wing HQ that allows files, policies, etc to be posted for all current members to see and discuss.  It has an O Club to reach all Wing Officers and areas for Squadron Commanders and Wing Staff Officers.  We have created areas for each unit now to plan an discuss.   It allows for milestones, to do lists, and message posting and comment for discussion.

While not nearly as fancy and high tech as Pylon's idea it is based on out of the box software already available.

[SAR-EMT1]

Would info on said software be made availible?

[cyclone]

Would info on said software be made availible?

http://grouphub.com/

[SAR-EMT1]

YOu know cyclone...you are simply wonderful  ... lol 

[Major Carrales]

Have we discussed anything like this before?

Sort of like a "by invitation only" forum for CAP members with no trolls, no outsiders and a total knowledge of who says what?

That would be accountability!!!  It's got a snowball's chance!!!  But we can hope...

[Pylon]

Have we discussed anything like this before?

Sort of like a "by invitation only" forum for CAP members with no trolls, no outsiders and a total knowledge of who says what?

Uh, it has nothing to do with your "by invitation only" forum idea.  There should be another thread around here to discuss that.

[Major Carrales]

Have we discussed anything like this before?

Sort of like a "by invitation only" forum for CAP members with no trolls, no outsiders and a total knowledge of who says what?

Uh, it has nothing to do with your "by invitation only" forum idea.  There should be another thread around here to discuss that.

My only comapraison is the removal of unpleasant and unethical elements that post in the VASTNESS of NO-BAMED AETHER.  These same discussions we employ could occur with greater results and more benefit in a setting where everyone was "in the open" than occurs when people hide behind bloody screen names.

I have witnessed here and at the defunct Portal various "cheapshots" against numerous groups and individuals.  The type of behavior unbecoming a CAP officer where even Veterans of our Armed Forces were "trashed!"  Also the number of non-CAP member interference (both constructive and destructive) that results in plenty of fodder for the enemies of CAP on which to engourge.

If we all had to sign our names to what we said I bet there would be much more INTERGRITY call to be amid our membership, a degree of EXCELLENCE in our posts that would result in a true SERVICE to the organization through RESPECT of its members.  A place where if a person says some sinister thing about a Veteran or long time CAP member or starts/prepetuates a rumor about some one based on littlemore than agendistic emotional drivel they can be held responsoble and delt with accordingly.

Honestly...wouldn't it be nice to have the discussions here on any and all things in an athmosphere where 1) we could respect each other by force of law, 2) could have a viable member generated force for change and 3) sign on to our ideas.

Is it legislating ethics?  Most likely...

[Lancer]

My only comapraison is the removal of unpleasant and unethical elements that post in the VASTNESS of NO-BAMED AETHER.

Major... what I believe our illustrious administrator, Mr. Keiloch is trying to get at, is getting to a system that is beyond a simple 'members only' forum. That would only be a subcomponent of such a Portal.

Having something like this would create a 'one stop shop' for all things (member-related) CAP. Integrating all of our piecemeal systems into one interface. I really think something like this would greatly benefit every member of our organization.

The only problem that exists is, a lot of our great ideas stay just that, great ideas. I think we 'Come And Postulate' far too much in the hopes that someone is behind the curtain reading all of our posts and making notes to implement our grand and much discussed theorems.

Don't get me wrong, if we didn't have CAPtalk to banter on, these ideas would never come to fruition. We just need to do more than talk, we need to get our facts and data together and work it up the chain the old fashion way. If there was one thing I was taught growing up that I constantly remind myself of almost daily,

'The squeaky wheel gets the grease.'

[Major Carrales]

My only comapraison is the removal of unpleasant and unethical elements that post in the VASTNESS of NO-BAMED AETHER.

Major... what I believe our illustrious administrator, Mr. Keiloch is trying to get at, is getting to a system that is beyond a simple 'members only' forum. That would only be a subcomponent of such a Portal.

Having something like this would create a 'one stop shop' for all things (member-related) CAP. Integrating all of our piecemeal systems into one interface. I really think something like this would greatly benefit every member of our organization.

The only problem that exists is, a lot of our great ideas stay just that, great ideas. I think we 'Come And Postulate' far too much in the hopes that someone is behind the curtain reading all of our posts and making notes to implement our grand and much discussed theorems.

Don't get me wrong, if we didn't have CAPtalk to banter on, these ideas would never come to fruition. We just need to do more than talk, we need to get our facts and data together and work it up the chain the old fashion way. If there was one thing I was taught growing up that I constantly remind myself of almost daily,

'The squeaky wheel gets the grease.'

Agreed, I don't plan to say anymore about this.  The idea of such aplace mentioned here were one had a "one stop shop" is meritorious.

[Nick]

The other webmaster and I at my civilian job are talking about writing such a My (whatever) Portal there ... it's an extremely simple process to implement on its own.  Realistically, CAP already has this in place -- e-Services.  It needs a lot of tweaking to become a more user friendly dashboard-style application that you find with AKO/AF Portal/etc., and the outside applications (WMIRS, MIMS, training/tesitng, etc.) need to get more integrated, but it's a very realistic objective.

[NIN]

Several years back, Shawn Stanford and I worked on the idea of a much larger, broader based system like this, one that incorporated content management for all units, as well. 

Basically, the idea was that any squadron in the country would have a basic website (ie. "concord.nhwg.cap.gov" or "gp2.nywg.cap.gov" or whatever) that was generated, in part, from data in the national database (contact info, meeting location, etc) and part of an overall hierarchy (gp2.nywg.cap.gov would be part of nywg.cap.gov, and all of Group 2's squadrons would be a part of that hierarchy, etc.  All of this would be automagic (DNSing, etc) right from the database, dynamically.  Stand a new unit up and *pow* they have a "basic" website literally minutes after the CAPF 27 was signed and the data entered.  This basic site would take whatever graphical visual that its higher HQ selected for its "basic" subordinate units.

Beyond the "basic" sites, a unit could elect to have a "more than basic" site which would pull its information from  a data driven CMS with data components able to share information up and down the hierarchy.  This  would allow a unit with _absolutely_no_technical_knowledge_ to add all kinds of nifty stuff to its "public" website from a drag & drop interface (calendar, photo album, etc), and all of this stuff would still be data controlled centrally (layered calendar anybody?)  Photos, particularly of the "oh my god, you put that on the web?" variety, would be a thing of the past, since a bad photo can be removed by an administrator at higher HQ or would have be be "approved" in the first place.  Members of the unit, as authorized, could add content information to keep the site relevant and fresh.

Better than that.  gp2.nywg.cap.gov could have, an RSS-like feed to pull information from its subordinate sites and display its there, too.   Your squadron could add a "feed" from other units nearby, too, so that members can see what other squadrons are doing.    A group or wing could use those feeds to build their "monthy" or "quarterly" subordinate unit reports for PAO or safety, for example.

Then we layer onto that a portal, sort of a unit level intranet, with member-only data like rosters, etc.  A unit commander could mandate that everybody in the Joe Blow Sq (jblow.nywg.cap.gov) has their calendar and unit news prominently displayed when they login to their intranet page.  Rosters would be available as a direct pull from CAPWATCH without any need for wonkishness on the part of the unit.

That's just some of the ideas we had off the top of my head.

We pitched it toward NHQ, no response. Not even a giggle.

[Lancer]

We pitched it toward NHQ, no response. Not even a giggle.

It's all about who's in charge and what they 'get excited' about.  Of course we get all excited about it because we're all a bunch of IT geeks.

So all that being said, I say NIN takes over as National Commander in Chief. 

[pixelwonk]

We pitched it toward NHQ, no response. Not even a giggle.

*snicker...giggle*

[NIN]

I forgot to mention: at the time, I was working for Compuware, and we had a product from a company that we bought that was a drag & drop portal.  Optimal something, I think.  Hmmmm...

Thats where I got the idea from though: with various modules, like a calendar module or a photo interface or something, you (a unit commander with no knowledge of technology, really) could easily layout a very functional and easy to use site from "HQ provided building blocks".

EDIT: Ahhh, just found it. Uniface View. They changed the name of it in the two years since I played with it.