15th April: Meeting with Business Mechanix

Jeanie invited me down to the meeting at Business Mechanix discussing the progress of the PLEAS project. Business Mechanix are doing the backend work of the PLEAS website.

I asked Wayne and Alan (Business Mechanix) about my concern from last meeting - the external connector license from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server becoming a big expense for YouthLaw. It turns out that Microsoft have discontinued this licensing and so it's not a problem. The users don't need a windows license either - they are just SQL users.

We talked about the design of the website, YouthLaw will get a graphics designer to create a "look and feel" for the website. Wayne gave some good advice about using text instead of graphics, where possible, to ensure pages load fast for people on dialup connections. If YouthLaw are going to get some flash animations done, a non-flash conduit to the content will also need to be created. He suggested setting limited with the graphics designer on logo file sizes and number of colours. The frontpage will need to have the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund, YouthLaw and partners' logos on it.

We discussed my film project and how the videos will be served to the users. The videos might be streamed through Windows Media Player, Real Player, QuickTime or just linked to a YouTube clip. I asked them about dimensions - width and height requirements - but nothing was set in concrete except that standard YouTube sizing might be appropriate. I also asked for a required format, but they just asked for a test copy that they can play around with - unfortunately I can't provide this until I've confirmed who will be editing the films (right at the end of the project), so that will be a problem.

I contacted Thane Kirby from Alt TV and he has asked me to send a flyer through about the project and he might be able to get some people involved. I've been emailing Steve Marshal at Unitec and Mayo at Saatchi to get some advice on equipment and crew.

Unfortunately Max (Shortland Street writer) had to cancel the meeting we had planned tonight, but we've arranged to catchup at lunchtime on Thursday.