Web Development (redesign) for public policy non-profit
Michael Gilles
Council of State Governments
[email protected]
40 Broad Street, Ste. 2050
New York
10004
CSG-ERC Re-Entry Policy Council Request for Proposals
July 18, 2005
I.Re-Entry Policy Council Background
The Re-Entry Policy Council (RPC) seeks to ensure the safe and successful return of people released from prisons and jails to the community. The RPC is coordinated by the Council of State Governments (CSG), a membership organization of elected and appointed officials from all three branches of state government. The RPC fulfills its mission through the creation and dissemination of policy resources, including the recently released Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council, and by assisting our members and other stakeholders in the re-entry process in developing re-entry policies and initiatives. The RPC website, www.reentrypolicy.org, is an essential element of our efforts to connect individuals interested in re-entry to a wide range of information and resources. There are currently several re-entry oriented websites, and many more websites that offer information on particular aspects of the re-entry issue; the RPC intends for this website to serve as a central hub for individuals interested in accessing re-entry information on the web.
II.Project Description & Proposal Outline
Our current website is an extremely basic presentation of some of the information and materials we would like to make available to our web audience. The overall objectives of this redesign are (a) to improve visitor access to information, including allowing visitors to customize their usage of the site, (b) to improve the visitor experience with the site by creating attractive and intuitive interfaces, (c) to improve the process of updating the site with new information though a content management system, while maintaining design flexibility, and (d) establish the website as a "hub" for web-based access to re-entry related informational resources. Specific features and requirements under these general objectives are presented in subsequent sections of this document.
All proposals should be received by August 5, 2005. We plan to select a development proposal by August 12, 2005 and to have the entire project completed by December 1st, 2005. The total budget for this project should not exceed $50,000; as a non-profit organization we are particularly sensitive to keeping costs as low as possible. Please note that, after a successful completion of this project, the RPC will likely be interested in retaining the developer for future web development, including additional major projects, as well as technical support and consultation. Proposals should outline a general implementation plan conforming to the overall budget and timeframe, with estimates for component deliverables based on the functionality requirements below, including technical and design support until the project is live, stable, and bug-free. Please also include a description of your process for managing a project, including the design and implementation phases, as well as change requests and bug resolution.
Upon selecting a development proposal, a contract between CSG and the developer will be drafted to reflect the scope of the project, including cost and deliverables.
III.Target Audience
Our target audience is comprised of professionals from national, state, and local governments, service providers, and research institutions, among others. Many of our visitors are likely to be relatively basic web users, indicating that the website should be as intuitively accessible as possible. Our site currently averages just under 6,000 visits per month; after redeveloping the site, we would like an increase in traffic to perhaps 10,000 monthly visits.
IV.Design Requirements
The Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council is a centerpiece of the website and development should complement the design of the Report, though we anticipate some improvements to the HTML version of the Report as part of the development plan. Most design elements, such as fonts, and the page layout, are open to revision. Our design goal is to create a dynamic, information-rich website with a professional, "think tank" tone. For examples of this tone, see www.urban.org, www.rand.org, and www.brookings.org. Overall, the site design should be attractive and inspire confidence in the newly renovated site. A guiding design principle should be to use design to promote content delivery.
V.Functionality Requirements
The RPC considers the functionalities described in this section critical to this project. Proposals, therefore, should specifically address their implementation, and the relative cost and difficulty of each category. The RPC realizes that detailed specifications will evolve during the design process and interact with the overall price, and not everything may be achievable. For each functionality group, however, we would like to understand the general technical approach, cost (including relative cost, if options are presented), and the amount of planning and specification work that will be required of the RPC.
Content Management: The RPC website will continue to add and update informational resources including media coverage, legislation, funding opportunities, publications, events, etc. Some of these will be whole content pages, but many will be shorter items; RPC staff should be able to enter content items and tag them to appear automatically on existing pages. Whole pages should also be taggable.
One key and immediate example of this will be "Re-Entry and Your Profession" pages. Given the interdisciplinary nature of prisoner re-entry, a focal component of our website will be page suites dedicated to specific professions associated with the re-entry field(e.g. substance abuse provider, parole officer, etc.). A majority of the content on the site will be associated with one or more professions. Thus, the "Your Profession" pages should be largely automatic, creating a list of pages and articles from across the site relevant to a particular profession.
User Personalization: Visitors should be able to log in to, and customize their experience with, the RPC website. This will include the ability to spotlight favorite sections of the website, and to be automatically directed to new information related to their identified personal preferences, e.g. their profession, media coverage from their state or publications relating to housing and prisoner re-entry.
Outreach: The RPC website should incorporate the ability to manage and maintain a list of subscribed visitors for periodic mailings. Mailing lists should reflect registration information provided by visitors, and allow RPC staff to tailor lists to specific audiences, e.g. by state or profession. Mailings should support full HTML messages.
Interactivity and Visitor Feedback: The RPC website should provide structured opportunities for visitor interaction and feedback. These opportunities may include periodic polls of user preferences, the opportunity to comment on the usefulness of particular features, and the ability to rank or recommend particular pages or sections to other visitors.
Programs Database: The RPC website will include a searchable database of re-entry programs. Optimally, this feature would include the ability for registered visitors to create and edit program entries.
The RPC's sister project, the Mental Health Consensus Project (CP), is currently in the early stages of developing a similar feature for their website. Both projects are open to collaboration, and potentially sharing the technical basis for this functionality, in either direction. Proposals should indicate how feasible this is for the suggested technical approach.
Web Portal: As part of our efforts to become a central re-entry hub, the RPC website will serve to connect visitors to other re-entry resources on the web. Our ultimate goal for this functionality is to develop the technical capacity to automatically search specified sites for relevant content, tag that content and display it automatically through our site. This full functionality may be beyond the scope of the current development project (and is not included in the current project budget); however, proposals should identify methods of facilitating this eventual functionality.
Search: All of the content should be end-user searchable by keyword and content tags. Proposals should either be compatible with the continued use of the site's current search functionality (Ksearch), or account for any necessary changes.
VI.Technical Infrastructure Requirements
The RPC has no specific infrastructure requirements, only general principles: We expect the technology to be common and established enough to allow the following:
A number of reasonably-priced options for shared-server hosting
A solid base of potential developers and software support
Modern accepted design practices, particularly CSS and JavaScript-enhanced UI
Graceful degradation for older browsers and slower connections
An ability to evolve and incorporate newer web standards and common practices over 2-3 years
As a cost-sensitive non-profit, the RPC has a preference for well-established open source solutions over substantial licensing fees; however, this is not a requirement.
Currently, the RPC website is 90 percent static HTML, maintained with Macromedia Contribute, and hosted at Pair Networks, on Apache/ FreeBSD. The only code is the general search function, the Ksearch Perl CGI. An ability to continue using Contribute to develop the HTML content would be welcomed.
VII.Project Management
The main point of contact for this project will be Michael Gilles, research assistant for the RPC. This project will require frequent communication with the developer, primarily over phone and email and potentially including some face-to-face meetings. The proposal should include a process for systematizing this communication, including assurance of timely response to requests. The developer should anticipate close involvement from the RPC in the development process, including the review of drafts and revision of project requirements, and be able to remain flexible while working to meet specific deadlines.
The developer may also work with other personnel when needed. The RPC has two web technical consultants who provide advice and guidance, and who may be involved occasionally in the design and specification process. At this time, we are seeking a single developer or company to implement this project. If, however, additional requirements or schedule pressures arise, we may consider recruiting additional help.
