Tuesday 6 January 2009
The Big Oxford Computer Co. Ltd.

UnionReps Discussion Forums Case Study - Trade Unions Congress

Overview

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) is the voice of Britain at work. With 58 affiliated unions representing nearly seven million working people from all walks of life, they campaign for a fair deal at work and for social justice at home and abroad.

TUC UnionReps is a secure web portal specifically aimed at TUC union representatives across the UK.

http://www.unionreps.org.uk/

Objectives

The UnionReps secure extranet portal was developed in 2003 by BOCC. In collaboration with the Communications Team we have continued to enhance and develop the portal to make more features and tools available for union representatives community. BOCC was asked to enhance the existing site discussion forums to enable further Web 2.0 interactive functions.

Solution

BOCC reviewed the requirements with the TUC and agreed on an implementation plan to update the following areas of the Discussion Forums:

  • Tag Clouds - A tag cloud is automatically generated and a visual depiction of user-generated tags derived from the their use within the message postings are displayed with each message boards. The collaborative tagging of postings allows a tag cloud to be displayed, providing another way for users to find relevant topics;
  • Avatar - Addition of an avatar alongside each posting, which is linked to the individual Union Reps profile;
  • Topic Guides - Assign nominated moderators who are experts in particular areas who can knowledgeably comment on postings;
  • Report a  Post - Ability for staff to report a posting if it is unsuitable or inappropriate;
  • Regional Discussions Boards - Ability to post regional topics and postings and assign them to specific regions derived from the Union Reps profile;
  • Private Messages - Allow users to choose whether other users can send them a private message. If this is enabled, a new link will appear on their profile and next to their forum postings, which allows some text to be 'sent' to the user.

 Technologies

The system utilises:

  • Microsoft™ SQL Server 2005
  • Adobe® ColdFusion®
  • Hosting on fully managed dedicated web servers at BOCC
  • SSL (Secure Server Certificate)
  • Extensible HyperText Markup Language 1.0
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 2.0 compliant