e have been working on various new projects for the Old
Lewesians website. Some of the ephemeral pages with details of
the Reunion ticket arrangements have disappeared (though we do
keep the data in the archives) and the internal filing system has
been tidied up to some extent. The updating of older material is
also ongoing.
As was mentioned recently we are asking our older old-boys for the names of the faces on the pre-war panoramic photos. Prints were sent out by post and some of these have been returned and the names provided have been entered on the database using the Names for Faces page. These and entries from other members on the website has raised the total numbers of faces named to over 3200! This project is ongoing and we expect to be collecting names for many more months.
We have also made some minor improvements (which has taken a major effort) to the Names for Faces software to improve the usability. The general modus operandi is as before but we hope that it is a little more user friendly. Please - if you have not tried it - log on and have a go at naming any of those faces that have yet to be correctly identified.
Another innovation is a SEARCH facility that enables members to search the text of the whole Old Lewesians website for part of a word, a particular word, several words or a phrase. In a fraction of a second it will present a list of links to particular pages where these words can be found together with the context in which they are used. It is a very useful tool for finding occurences of a particular person's name, event, place or whatever. This facility comes courtesy of a small company, Interspire, in Australia. They have provided the software at zero cost- all we needed to do was blend it into our web style. We hope you find it useful.
S
you will have noticed there was not much happening in the
Old Lewesians Organisation this Spring. Last year we were busy
getting ready for the reunion in October as well as adding new
features to the website. This year will be a quiet year with no
social functions planned and no new website features planned. One
benefit from this has been that your chairman John Davey and your
webmaster have been able to catch up on several other domestic
tasks that had been postponed from last year!
The task of identifying the faces on the pre-war panoramic photos has concluded with more than a hundred new names being sent in by post from several of our oldest members. These are members who do not have direct access to the internet. We now have about 700 names for faces from that period. Given the length of time since that era and the fading memories of the few survivors this is a surprisingly large number. There is also a steady trickle of names being posted on the website for the postwar period.
We are now almost at the 3500 mark for all twelve panoramics. This is far more than was anticipated when the project began. Many thanks to all those who have participated in this project. There are still many without names so keep up the good work!
The website is unlikely to expand much further, though we would appreciate any contibutions that you may wish to submit. If any more speech day programs or similar memorabilia are discovered we would be glad to add them to the website. Now that there is very little effort required to keep the website running - probably about an hour a month dealing with members' queries - maybe someone out there would like to volunteer as Deputy Webmaster with a view to taking over completely by 2007 ?
AVING
indulged himself with a long break from working on the
OLO website your webmaster has finally slunk indoors away from
the cold winds and applied himself to some reorganising and
general repair and maintenance work on the various files that
make it all work. Not that the user will notice a great deal of
difference but certain parts have been made to conform to the
latest standards recommended for the World Wide Web.
We are always willing to show any photos or other relics from your schooldays or display any written work you can produce about those far off days so get in contact if you have something of interest.
We are considering whether you might like to read short auto-biographies of individual members - what happened to them after leaving school - where they have been - how their career progressed - family etc etc. Would you find that interesting? We could set up a scheme where members write and edit their own biography (say 500 words maximum) and other members can read these biographies by clicking the member's name in the Members List. If you have any views on this idea please let me know.