1. Create a website
essexinfo.net

2. essexinfo.net
Enables community & voluntary groups and parish & town councils to create their own websites
Developed from ENCORE national project, funded by ODPM
Supported by Essex Online Partnership:
Essex District and Borough Councils
Essex County Council
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service
Essex Police
Essex Strategic Health Authority
One stream of ENCORE project developed e-community publish which Essex have implemented as essexinfo.net
Supported by Essex Online Partnership, implemented on Essex Online portal

3. What do you get? A free website that is: simple to create
flexible to develop
easy to grow At
Simple to create – simple web site from information on application form
Flexible to develop – can add a variety of extra features
Easy to grow – can add new pages

4. Organisations can easily create:
home page – register, complete simple application form
events information, job adverts, discussion groups, photo album etc select from a tick list
new pages of content
Home page created from the information in your application form
Events jobs discussions and surveys can be made available by ticking a box
A photo album can display pictures or photos
You can add more pages to create your own features

5. Support from support@essexinfo.net
What help do you get?
Support from
Online help – FAQs, help sheets, sample sites, writing for the web
Training and advice EALC, Essex libraries
Details added to LIFE
*Essex Association of Local Councils
Support team can be contacted if you have any problems when you start working on your site
Training and advice – essexinfo.net is a community resource for community and voluntary groups and parish and town councils. Essex libraries can provide access to a computer and the internet if the organisation does not have the equipment. They can assist with setting up an account. Can also provide help and when applying for a site, starting its development and providing advice if people have problems, another option for support. EALC will provide similar help for parishes
LIFE – directory of community groups in Essex of about 8,000 records

6. Instant website created from your application form
Notice have a choice of colours
First screen shot shows a simple website created from the application form. Shows two pages on the menu:
Home
About us
The third item is Listen, which is for visually impaired people as when activated it reads the page
Second screen shot has more menu items. The have activated the events service and added pages for minutes and agendas
Tip – keep titles of menu short or they wrap round and do not look as clean
Add events, jobs, discussions etc in just a few clicks

7. Add photos and logos Design your own pages
Examples of what can be achieved
Buttsbury Art Society – created exhibition pages for their paintings using the photo album. They’ve also added their logo to the title bar
Shalford PC – have added their logo and created an interesting home page with photos and information about Shalford. They have also created a number of interesting pages on their menu including a diary, information about local organisations, parish council pages and a link to Shalford News the free village magazine
Design your own pages

8. Project links
National
ENCORE
Kingston and Surrey, Local e-Publish
Regional
Parish Council Involve - East of England Regional Assembly (EERA)
ECC
Making the Links

10. Project links - national
ENCORE e-Community Publish tool, implemented as essexinfo.net
Enhancement Kingston and Surrey funded from Local DirectGov, called Local e-Publish
Implementation once testing is completed
Enhanced functionality, templates, improved accessibility/usability and help
Essex: - highlighted links between ODPM projects - experience strongly influenced enhanced version

11. Local e-Publish

12. New template

13. Project links – regional
Parish Council Involve - East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) project funded by ODPM
Aim - increase number of East of England region parish & town council websites
Implementation of Local e-Publish
Essex: - members of steering group - advised on training development

14. Project links – ECC
Making the Links – partnership with parish & town councils and EALC. Improve ways of working together
Based on recommendations from parish council information audit by Jane Jennings
Taken forward by Ian Hatton Planning and Environment Core Team
Co-ordination of related projects including essexinfo.net

15. essexinfo.net on the EssexOnline Portal
Find out more
essexinfo.net on the EssexOnline Portal
or join at
Contacts:
Support team Tel:
Essex Libraries: Tel:
EALC Tel:
Making the Links:
Intranet
Contact details