How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Don Saklad]

The council public notices full text are not available on the web. A screwy
calendar of public hearings dates is available but its difficult to navigate
and does not include the full text of the notice, only time, location and
minimal descriptor keywords.
http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Paul Johnson]

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Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.csail.mit.edu> writes:

> The council public notices full text are not available on the web. A screwy
> calendar of public hearings dates is available but its difficult to navigate
> and does not include the full text of the notice, only time, location and
> minimal descriptor keywords.
> http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil

Why not fix the website?

-- 
Paul Johnson
<baloo@ursine.ca>
Linux.  You can find a worse OS, but it costs more.

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Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Don Saklad]

City hall MIS management information services would not fix the web site
http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil
http://cityofboston.gov/mis

How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Don Saklad]

          a. How might I set up a free public service with notices of
             Boston City Council committees public hearings that the
             council distributes merely by email in microsoft word
             format ?...

             Ironically, the council has been unwilling to see how to
             distribute public notices in plain text ascii


          b. Would there be something like a list server that would
             automatically convert my forwarded public notices in
             microsoft word format and make them readable on the web?...

             I get the microsoft word formatted notices in rmail in
             emacs and could forward them regularly, if necessary.


          c. Or would there be another way for me to forward the
             microsoft word formatted notices to a web link where
             anyone would be able to check the current and archived notices?...

             I could get an email address submitted on the email list that
             would effect forwarding of the microsoft word public notices automatically.

> 1) The more you ask a user to do, the fewer of them will do it.  
>    Bottom line: fewer people in your target mailing, even
>    consider coming to your event.
> 
> 2) Instead of N people doing the conversion, it makes more sense for 1
>    person to do it.  The person who sent it.  The person who wants the
>    event to be successful.  This also shows respect for the many
>    recipients, you are choosing to make their lives easier, not harder.
> 	And the plain ASCII text version should be the first MIME
>    component.  As Jordan suggest, it should include useful web links,
>    like maps to the site.
> 	If other versions are appended after that as other MIME
>    components, it matters much less.  Usually a waste of Internet
>    bandwidth, mail spool space, CPU, etc, but whatever.

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Joel Reicher]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.csail.mit.edu> writes:

>           c. Or would there be another way for me to forward the
>              microsoft word formatted notices to a web link where
>              anyone would be able to check the current and archived notices?...
> 
>              I could get an email address submitted on the email list that
>              would effect forwarding of the microsoft word public notices automatically.

Sounds like a sensible way to proceed.

Convert the notices to HTML yourself (automatically or otherwise), and
post them on your own website.

You could use Word to do the conversion, although probably not in
batch and the HTML is pretty awful, or one of the pieces of free
software which aren't hard to find.

Cheers,

        - Joel

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Don Saklad]

Thank you Joel Reicher !

Plain text ascii would be ideal. The difficulty would be setting up an
automatic converter for the forwarded email.

If any of you kind folks out there would, please ask for the emailings
of public notices of city council committee hearings, take a look at
the microsoft word formatting and let me know any ideas, hints, tips
or pointers for setting up plain text ascii formatting on a web link
or how to set up a listserver type thing and its archives.

To subscribe or or unsubscribe
email: ann.hess at cityofboston.gov
subscribe public notices city council committee hearings
unsubscribe public notices city council committee hearings

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Joel Reicher]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.csail.mit.edu> writes:

> Plain text ascii would be ideal. The difficulty would be setting up an
> automatic converter for the forwarded email.

Many of the Word converters out there will do plain text.

Processing the mail automatically is not hard -- you just `forward'
your mail through something like procmail and correctly configure
procmail to send some of your mail through the converter. You can even
wrap the converter in a fancy script which will drop a file in the
right place for your website and modify the site's index.

Cheers,

        - Joel

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Don Saklad]

>Processing the mail automatically is not hard -- you just `forward'
>your mail through something like procmail and correctly configure
>procmail to send some of your mail through the converter. You can even
>wrap the converter in a fancy script which will drop a file in the
>right place for your website and modify the site's index.

          a. Who could set up something like that ?...

          b  Where do you get expertise about procmail and converting?...

          c. Would there be anything in place that would not need that
             expertise?...

          City hall MIS management information services did not know
          how to set up email in plain text ascii nor how to set up
          a web link with the public notices of city council committees
          meetings
          http://cityofboston.gov/mis
          http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil

Re: How to set a web link for forwarded public notices not in plain text ascii

[Joel Reicher]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.csail.mit.edu> writes:

> >Processing the mail automatically is not hard -- you just `forward'
> >your mail through something like procmail and correctly configure
> >procmail to send some of your mail through the converter. You can even
> >wrap the converter in a fancy script which will drop a file in the
> >right place for your website and modify the site's index.
> 
>           a. Who could set up something like that ?...

You could. :)

>           b  Where do you get expertise about procmail and converting?...

>From the procmail documentation and the converter's documentation. :)

>           c. Would there be anything in place that would not need that
>              expertise?...

Maybe, but I don't know of it. Special purpose software generally
doesn't exist (for free) unless there's a significant demand for
it. That's unlikely in your case, so your best bet is to configure
some generic software yourself.

>           City hall MIS management information services did not know
>           how to set up email in plain text ascii nor how to set up
>           a web link with the public notices of city council committees
>           meetings
>           http://cityofboston.gov/mis
>           http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil

Why do you keep posting these URLs?

Cheers,

        - Joel