(meteorobs) Improvements to the IMO website

[Luc Bastiaens]

Hi,

Regular visitors to the IMO website, http://www.imo.net, will know
that work has been on-going since 2005 to improve and update the site,
making it easier to use and more attractive for visitors. The main
facelift to the site happened last August, but minor improvements have
continued since.

Much as before, the homepage still has recent news on it, and links to
all the key elements about the IMO, including its history,
commissions, WGN and other publications, the online `Who is Who'
listing, practical notes on the various observing techniques, and the
current year's Shower Calendar in English and several other major
languages. Data archives are accessible this way too, including
extracts from the VMDB back to 1984, and fireball data from 1993-1996.

A significant new segment has recently been added, entitled `Ongoing
Projects'.  The idea of this is to help publicise meteor-related
projects, not just those run officially by the IMO, to encourage
people to contribute to such existing projects or even start new ones.
The homepage at http://www.imo.net/projects provides one-paragraph
summaries of the projects, with links to contacts or where more
information can be found. Currently, the projects include the IMO's
`Meteor Observing Handbook', the Meteor Beliefs Project and the
Unified Meteor Database. Both the latter two have further information
elsewhere on the IMO site. The idea is that the various notes will be
updated regularly, as fresh information becomes available, provided by
the project organizers.

Additional projects are needed to help keep the pages fresh and alive,
so whether you are an amateur or a professional, if you are working on
something meteoric yourself, contact me at <webmaster at imo.net> to
claim your own spot. Please include a short description of your
project (one paragraph) to go on the homepage, and optionally a more
elaborate explanation that could be linked from it. You should also
provide an e-mail address, so anyone interested in your project can
contact you.

If you have any comments or suggestions for further improvements to
the website, don't hesitate to contact me!

To conclude, I'd like to thank our Vice-President Alastair McBeath for
his help and support.

Cheers,
Luc