GBE Solution Provider News No.1 October 2015

GBE Solution Provider's News October 2015

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GBE Solution Provider News No.1 October 2015

GBE Developments: September updates: we have been up to quite a bit:

NGS prototype website:

NGS prototype website passed 1.8 m page views and 34,500 document downloads over previous 2 years
NGS prototype website has been emptied and users redirected to GBE home page.

GBE Website:

Google and other search engines have been let loose on GBE website.
Responding to GBE user questions with answers in GBE Q&A, creating links to new Solution Providers and basic (free to them) Manufacturer Pages, Product Pages and System Pages.

This month has see the momentous (to me at least) confirmation that the decanting of the NGS (Concrete 5) website into the GBE (WordPress 4.3) website is substantially complete; but not problem-free:

1825 pages came across and arrived as 1941 creating over 100 fragments of disconnected parts.
All NGS pages arrived as GBE Blog ‘Posts’ with no site hierarchy (sitemap).
But thank goodness all of the internal hyperlinks between Posts are intact and working.
All the links off site to websites, newsletters, events, and documents are intact and working.
We spent an hour trying the search function to see if we could find a word not represented by those 1825 page.
And challenge you to try the same: “Go on, search for something!”
Concrete 5 pages are made up of frames that are substantially incompatible with tablets and smart phones.
So they need reformatting temporarily and rebuilding in the long run.
Some Blog ‘Posts’ will need converting into ‘Pages’ and rebuilding in the WordPress way.
The new marketing strategy demands space of the home page reducing menu space for content.
This prompts a new site hierarchy stemming from ‘Encyclopaedia‘ and ‘Advertise‘ incorporating ‘Collaboration‘
Building a hierarchy of Post ‘Categories’ which creates a sitemap in Blog Posts.
Started a hierarchy in Pages by creating a series of ‘Navigation Pages’ starting here linking the levels of the hierarchy and connecting to existing Pages and Posts.
Planning to make touch-screen versions of these using tabulated ‘Navigation Matrix‘ rather than rows of text.
250 of the NGS pages used ‘Widgets’ to make download files available, they evaporated in the move.
Download files will become ‘Products’ that need rebuilding in the WordPress way.
The image library and file library did not transfer, however the images remain in the Posts so the content is not text only.
All images can become part of ‘Portfolio’ which will invite the creation of a comprehensive ‘Image Portfolio’.
Uploaded the first CPD PowerPoint PDFs on its own page to give away for free as a tasty morsel of things to come. Construction Resources CR Showrooms. Methods of Construction, materials, products and a trip down memory lane.
Temporarily all the linked download files are missing, need reloading and reconnecting; so many irritating 404 messages will appear until they are redirected.
The Concrete 5 Template pages need to be recreated in the WordPress way to enable faster page creation.
Enjoying the richness and sophistication of the WordPress software.
Experimenting with how ‘GBE Issue Papers’ e.g. Overheating will be implemented in GBE and creating template Pages before building Overheating.
Links will progressively be made from Overheating to Solutions and Solution Providers.
Developed the ‘GBE 2D View‘ hierarchy as navigation page titles only so far, this will work with ‘GBE Expert‘ too.

Wider promotion:

We are starting to get in touch with the manufacturers about the Overheating Issue Paper to enrich it as it is recreated in the GBE Encyclopaedia.
Promoting new and relocated Pages and Blog Posts on Linkedin, Twitter: @BrianSpecMan, @GBEGreenBuild, facebook, Google+, Pinterest.

Out and about:

Reinforcing the competent specification messages in GBE CPD ‘Specification and Liability‘ presented at David Morley Architects in-house CPD.
Updated the GBE 2D View PowerPoint file and presented it to Cambridge’s Sustainable Built Environment East SBEE committee.
Discovering more Solution Providers at SBEE.

Next actions:

Preparing an imminent campaign to design professionals to sign up to GBE.
Preparing a campaign to design students to sign up to GBE.
Preparing a campaign to magazine and newsletter editors about GBE.
Considering a permanent presence at the National Self-Build & Renovation Centre Swindon.

Future actions:

We will walking the floor at UK Construction Week Build Show 2015 at NEC first week of October to meet the manufacturers we would like to see on GBE.
Invited to speak at TGR 15 years celebrations in London and Bristol
Invited to speak to CIOB East Midlands in December

Well lots of new material to add, create, and some tweaking along the way, so I will be getting on with it then.

BrianSpecMan

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