Alberon Newsletter - January 2010Dear Reader, We hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, and that you've been enjoying the recent snow. (Do you like our snowman? We don't just build websites you know!) We wanted to kick off the new year by telling you about an exciting project we've been working on for the ALMA project at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Also in this newsletter, we explain the benefits of content-managed websites. Do visit our website - you can also view this newsletter there.
Best wishes, Featured Project: Parts Control System for the ALMA projectAlberon has been tasked with improving the parts control system for equipment reaching out to the very ends of The Universe.
We are working with engineers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array) project. ALMA is the most advanced radio astronomy observatory in the world. It is currently under construction at 5,000 metres of altitude in the Chilean Andes. An international collaboration between Europe, Japan and North America in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, construction started in 2003 and will be completed in 2012. ALMA will open an entirely new "window" on the Universe, allowing scientists to unravel longstanding and important astronomical mysteries, in search of our Cosmic Origins. Based at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ALMA Integration Centre at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), engineers needed to build a history of a specific part's journey from delivery to integration into the array itself. The Front End Integration Centre at the STFC is one of three centres in the world. Their role is to assemble and test the receiving modules of the telescopes before shipping them out to Chile. Alberon has been tasked with providing database-driven software to track crucial parts of these components. The software allows the team at Harwell to keep an inventory of parts, to maintain stock records, to keep track of how parts perform in testing, and to maintain documentation for each receiving module assembled, as well as managing the final product schematic and where each part fits into that schematic. The system will run internally on the ALMA intranet at Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory using the latest C#/.NET and SQL Server technologies. You can find out more about ALMA at www.almaobservatory.org. See also an article in The Oxford Times about the ALMA project in December 2009. Are you looking for bespoke software development? Contact us today.
Content Management
Want to edit your website content from anywhere? Fed up with having to call a web-development company and pay them to correct a spelling mistake or change some text? Perhaps you'd like to manage your site images, videos, audio, add news stories, or personally administer your own custom features? Content Management Systems have taken the world of web-content to a level of usability never before seen; they are improving, adding features, and inspiring new ways of presenting and managing information all the time. There are three basic approaches to content management for your business:
Of course, the choice you make should depend on your business needs. Each approach could hold significant advantages for your business model. You may need something off-the-shelf that covers the basics well, or you may choose to go with an established open-source system that allows you to make changes to the code base. A commercial content management system may be advantageous in that it provides a well-maintained, warrantied, and comprehensively documented and supported system. Some are even open-source, allowing the code to be adapted to your particular needs. A free, open source content management system is low-cost and can be adapted to your business vision by software professionals. They tend to have large support communities and often libraries of extensions that may suit your requirements exactly: and even if they don't, they can be changed! A custom-made content management system has many advantages in that it is built specifically for your enterprise. In the future, should your on-line ambitions grow, the system can be developed in line with your expectations. Of course, there are also disadvantages with any approach: it is really up to you to weigh these up, or else employ somebody to help decide the best approach for you. If you are interested in a content managed website, please contact us.
Latest Alberon newsThe Independent Schools Council (ISC) is an organisation dedicated to promoting excellence in British independent education both home and abroad. On the 4th Nov 2009 Alberon attended an ISC marketing conference held at the Grand Russell Hotel in London. Tim Ault (Managing Director) and Calvin Butcher (Software Developer), with the assistance of the rest of the company, designed and organised a stall to launch the Alberon schools-online initiative: an effort to help improve British schools' web presence and online marketing know-how. The conference was a resounding success. Tim and Calvin spent much of the day offering consultation, advice, or having a general chat with interested parties. So, thanks to all concerned, Alberon had a fun and prospectful day at the ISC Conference and we look forward to more in the future. Contact us if you would like more information about the schools-online initiative. Project roundupAnd finally, we wanted to give you a quick taste of some of the other things we've been working on over the last 3 months:
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