This meeting was recorded (audio).

Attending

• Dave Barker
• Howard Woodard
• Robert Truesdale
• Jason Perry

Notes

Domain Name

Howard registered two domain names for us, 620peachtree.org and windsoroverpeachtree.org, from Network Solutions for $200 for five years. Howard should be reimbursed.

Both domains were configured to serve a website for us from AtHomeNet. Marketing and technical concerns about that configuration were raised. It was decided 620peachtree.org should be made our canonical domain (serving our website), to which any other domains we may have, such as windsoroverpeachtree.org, will redirect (not mirror).

Our website from AtHomeNet is also mirrored under http://piedmontmanagement.com/windsorover/ and linked to in the Current Associations of Piedmont Management. We need to correct Piedmont Management's link to point to 620peachtree.org.

AtHomeNet

Our current arrangement with AtHomeNet kind of fell into our laps—other website options were not evaluated in the past.

Dave said their product appears technically poor, suggesting a lack of savvy which may limit us in the future. From a cursory glance, similar packages from other companies seemed better. Dave's also been exploring building our own website.

Website Options

The possibility of other (than AtHomeNet) website solutions was discussed and the following concerns were raised.

How easy would it be switch website platforms and how much would it cost?

Our webite with AtHomeNet is not really in use, so there's no data to migrate. There's no need to notify users of changes, our web address will not change.

It's thought that the financial obligations with AtHomeNet are month to month, so there's no cost to cancel, but this needs to be verified.

Who's accountable?

If there's a problem with how the website looks, or content isn't being updated fast enough, who is responsible for remedying problems? Some think it's advantageous to have a third party to blame, as is possible when using a service provider like AtHomeNet.

If we roll our own, there needs to be a group of capable individual (not just Dave) behind it. Although once installed and configured the software powering our website would require little attention, having knowledgeable webmasters available is certainly important.

If we can find enough people interested in supporting a website of our own, we will seriously consider building our own website. If we cannot, we will focus on finding the best packaged website service.

Who will maintain and update content?

The importance of avoiding reliance on a small group of people to update content was made. Any system we consider should allow content creators to update the site on their own.

It was also suggested it's convenient to ask a third party to update our content for us.

Security

Could a website we made be secure enough to accept online bill payments? It doesn't matter, that service is already available through our association with Piedmont Management whose bank, RBC Centura, allows homeowners to pay assesments through their Smartstreet service.

It was also agreed that our website will control access to content.

Features

Is there anything we would be excluded from by not using our management company's website provider?

It was suggested there's really no need to dream up what we want our website to be, because realistically, any website package will do what we want. We may find down the road features that we would like, but we won't know until then, and at that time we can think about how to make improvements.

Some desired features were mentioned that AtHomeNet currently does not have.

• Have the same content (or comments) appear in multiple places (or categories) on the website

Perhaps we don't need to build our own website to get any special functionality we want? Maybe some packaged website companies can also create any features we'd like?

Cost

It's guessed AtHomeNet costs $60/month, and other services are probably similar.

We would want a website we created to be hosted (server, network, hardware management, etc. provided) which costs $10–$30/month.

Legalities

It was suggested that publishing on the web opens us up to new legal attacks. That even if an individual not associated with the Home Owners Association were to contribute content published under our domain, the Home Owners Association would be liable. Is that true?

The need for a publishing workflow to filter out information that might get us sued was suggested necessary. It was also suggested that if we want to allow an active online community, not every published word can be policed.

It was suggested services such as AtHomeNet's provide some legal protections, by helping us to identify questionable content or being an entity to which we can "pass the (legal accountability) buck". Not all were convinced that was true.

Do we have greater legal recourse if the software the powers our website is under a commercial license? The feeling was mixed.

Action Items

• Ask Maria about any contracts with AtHomeNet (Jason)
• Reimburse Howard for domain names (Howard)
• See if we can round up some "web geeks". Jessica's Floor Captains would be good for this. (Dave)

Tabled

• Make sure our domains are properly configured

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Monday (2007-02-19), 6:30p.

After the meeting, Dave answered questions Jason had about the website he'd been working on.