The Institution of Engineering & Technology

About local.iee.org

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History

Local.iee.org has not always been around as we now know it. Many people still prefer to call this increasingly popular service by the IEE "centres.iee.org". Neither are wrong - Centres.iee.org was first created to help Branches and YM sections get onto the Internet. Back in the early days of the IEE web site, Branches and YM sections would have to submit the pages they wanted to be made publicly available to the IEE web staff. Due to the popularity of this service, centres.iee.org was born.

The initial idea behind centres.iee.org was to allow Branches and YM sections to put their own pages up onto the Internet without having to go through staff at the IEE. The added advantage behind this scheme was that members could now put their web pages directly onto an IEE site, with a URL that would easily recognised and remembered.

As centres.iee.org grew in popularity, it became clear that the server holding centres.iee.org was becoming old. This coupled with the joint conspiracy of the Millennium Bug and the abolishment of the IEE "Centre" meant that a change needed to be made.

And so we enter a new age. Local.iee.org was born and the service was moved to a better server, providing more of the things that you, the members of the IEE, wanted out of it. Local.iee.org is still improving with help from volunteers all over the country, and from the ISG (Internet Services Group) of the IEE.

Along with this change, a new plan was also devised. The ISG saw the need for Branches and YM sections that didn't have the time, or the technical know how to produce a web site of their own on local.iee.org. The IEE Communities scheme was born. Members are also be able to add and edit their Branches/YM sections website by means of an on-line tool through this scheme. This tool looks and feels like MS-Word, and now members who do not wish to worry about graphics, styles or HTML do not have to.

Purpose

The purpose of local.iee.org is simple: to help Branches and Younger Member sections get Internet presence.

As well as being totally free to use, the YMB (Younger Members Board) have an IT Officer who is on hand to make sure that everything runs smoothly and members are getting what they want from the web server (see the contacts page).

The first service the IEE offers is use of local.iee.org. You get web space, along with use of many of the local.iee.org services. Ideally this is suited to Branches or Committees who have a Webmaster (someone who knows how to design and write great looking web pages). You are then in the driving seat - you write the pages and upload them using FTP.

Soon, the IEE will also be opening its doors on a new scheme designed to help those Branches or YM Committees get web presence who do not have a Webmaster or that feel that they simply do not have the time to spend writing material. There is no need to worry about designing the page or creating graphics, as the IEE's standard template is automatically applied to all pages. All you have to worry about is the content. You can then use an online MS Word-like tool to place your Web pages on the IEE's new community system.

Services

On local.iee.org

  • Use of an IEE URL (e.g. http://local.iee.org/london/)
  • Support for HTML, SHTML, PHP, Perl and MySQL databases
  • Use of the new Events Info & Booking System (in development)
  • Use of the new Polling System
  • WebDev, the online resource for webmasters

On IEE Communities

  • Use of an IEE URL (e.g. http://local.iee.org/london/ which would forward surfers to the IEE's community pages)
  • Hassle free web page editing tool
  • Use of the IEE's Event Database
  • Pages included in www.iee.org search

FAQs

So where can you go from here?

I'd very much like to join local.iee.org

Contact Members Services for information on how you can get Internet presence for your Branch/YM section on local.iee.org.

I don't know much about writing web pages, or I haven't got time to do it

Contact Members Services for information on how you can get Internet presence for your Branch/YM section on the IEEs Community system.

Our Branch/Committee already has its own URL - what options do I have?

If you already have a URL and are more than happy with your HSP (Hosting Service Provider), then please let us know. We will be able to set up auto-forwarding (e.g. http://local.iee.org/london/) which would forward surfers to your own site. This will enable people to find your site from the IEEs main web site.

Alternatively, you can still make use of either of the IEE's service plans (local.iee.org or the IEE Community), and forward people from your URL to us!

Please send and Email to the YMB IT Officer explaining the situation, and we will do our best to help you get your Branch/YM section onto iee.org.

See our full FAQ page!

More Information

For more information on local.iee.org, please contact Members Services.