Specification

The purpose of the Helena Institute website at http://helenainstitute.com is to provide prospective visitors to Helena, MT the information necessary to make a trip for Helena Institute-featured activities. Secondarily, the website will provide potential visitors information about diversionary activities in the Helena community, i.e., other recreational, cultural/entertainment and hospitality opportunities while visitors are in town for Helena Institute featured activities. Both purposes help build the brand of Helena as The Learning Center for the West.

The website will be designed to integrate with all internet and traditional marketing and public relations strategies. The website will be the key marketing tool for Helena Institute activities to reach out-of-town prospects (marketing and public relations to Helena residents will primarily employ more traditional outreach strategies). All forms of public relations and marketing/advertising materials produced by the Helena Institute and cooperating organizations will reference http://helenainstitute.com, or a specific page on the website. Thus, the website will be the first and most important point of entry for contact with the Helena Institute.

There are three main things the site should do:

    A. present the Helena Institute curriculum (and diversionary activities) so that visitors can easily find what they want, and enable registration (payment) for courses;
    B. facilitate the measurement of the effectiveness of internet and traditional marketing strategies as they relate to various "conversions" (course registrations, newsletter signups, etc.); and
    C. make it easy for the Helena Institute to edit and maintain the site for the 2010 and subsequent seasons.

Below are functional as well as technical specifications for the Helena Institute website. Items are marked by priority of when functions should be incorporated into the website:
    * Must be completed, tested. approved and made live by January 23, 2010
    ** Should be completed, tested, approved and made live by March 31, 2010
    *** Desirable but not necessary until later in 2010 and beyond (the website developed in early 2010 lays a foundation for these items).

Over time, the goal of the website is to carry on a conversation with the Helena Institute's target markets, and thus the website functionality should grow over time to facilitate that conversation (i.e., promote interactivity).

Website Content

The target audience for the website is people who are interested in experiential (as opposed to didactic) learning opportunities. Our marketing research shows that this segment of the travel market is moderately sized but the fastest growing, especially for older Americans that have still have some discretionary income.Thus the target market is actively involved in designing experience-based travel itineraries, and our website will be designed and populated with content to help them make the decision to be in Helena to "learn to live."

* 1. The overall design of the website will include the following attributes:
    a. The website will be designed for a screen resolution no lower than 1024 x 768. The website will look and function identically on all standards compliant browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, etc.). The website should also conform to accessibility standards, compliant with US Section 508 and the W3C's AA rating for accessibility. (Appropriate access to the website via mobile devices will be required in the future.)
    b. To the extent possible, the design will be based on a template available in the public domain and that is pre-approved (with minor modifications) by the Helena Institute before any content is added to the website.
    c. The Helena logo ("Learn to Live") will be prominently displayed at the top of the page on every page, and linked to the home page. The Helena Institute logo will be displayed in brower address bars as a favicon.ico file.
    d. Imagery will be specifically about Helena, drawn from images that could be provided by the Chamber, CVB, the Gold West Region of Travel Montana, etc. Course-specific images will be provided by instructors.
    e. The theme of the website should be easily altered as seasons of the Helena Institute are produced. Theme attributes will be defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and all pages in the website will be designed using CSS.
    f. Each page on the website will have the following links (these appear in many locations on the page):
        * Contact—links to a page about how to contact the Helena Institute. The form should collect contact data with full name, email address, ZIP/Postal Code, Promotion Code (if any), along with the inquiry itself. Once submitted the return page should indicate that someone will be in touch soon, and the email message is delivered directly to the info@helenainstitute.com account.
        * Subscribe—links to a page about subscribing to the Helena Institute newsletter (see #7 below)
        * Copyright—links to a copyright page (we should use an appropriate Creative Commons license)
        * Privacy—links to the Privacy Policy page
        * Terms of Use—links to the Terms of Use page
        * About—links to a page about the Helena Institute (more info than is on the front page)
        * Map—links to a map page, with directions on how to get to Helena (airport info)
        * Links—links to a page of links to other websites that relate to the content of this website
        * Send Page—links to a form enabling a visitor to send the url of that page to an email address
        * Print Page—links to open the print dialog box on the visitor's computer
        ** Link to Us—links to a page about how to link to the Helena Institute website, including standards-based graphics. This feature encourages instructors, cooperating organizations and anyone else to viral market for the Helena Institute. To facilitate increased page ranking with search engines, the Helena Institute will require instructors and cooperating organizations with websites to prominently display these links at a 1st or second level page on their website.
        ** iCal/vCal—links on event pages (such as a Course description) that generate iCal or vCal files for importing into personal calendars
        ** Navigation aids such as breadcrumbs to indicate where you are in the structure of the website
        ** Feeds—links to a handy directory of RSS feeds that are available on the website
        ** Social Bookmarking—links to a social bookmarking service, connect to Twitter, Facebook, etc.
    g. Each page on the website should have the capacity to list other related content, whether the function is used or not.
    h. Each page on the website will also have the following context sensitive information available for all visitors (traditionally by "portlet" in a column on the left or right side of the main website content):
        * Subscribe—captures an email address for a newsletter subscription, also see #7 below
        * Search—see #8
        * Calendar—see #9
        ** Calendar Listings—see #9
        *** News—see #10
        *** Sponsors—see #26

A browser-based but not publicly accessible draft functional website design will be approved by the Helena Institute before content is added to the site.

* 2. The home page of the website will contain a top level description of Helena as a destination (the brand concept) and constantly refreshed information about the Helena Institute program offerings (as well as related diversionary activities). As "featured" weekends are identified for special promotion, courses should be bundled and promoted on the home page. Between seasons of the Helena Institute additional brand-compatible events could be featured on the home page.

* 3. The top level navigation (clickable tabs, in order left to right) should include sections for:
    * a. Discover—these are all the packaged "feature" weekends
    * b. Learn—the complete course schedule for the Helena Institute
    ** c. Relax—additional information about cultural and entertainment activities in Helena and why it is an attractive destination for travelers (all other events in Helena while a visitor is here, related to the destination brand concept). This could take the form of a community calendar.
    ** d. Live—hotels and B&Bs, restaurants, shops, with full descriptions (the "best of Helena")
    * e. Inquire—includes a FAQ as well as a request for more information form.

* 4. Each course listing for the Helena Institute (Discover and Learn tabs) should have the following attributes:
    a. Course Title •
    b. Course Description (short marketing language, designed to be displayed in listings as well) •
    c. Course Details (additional marketing information about the course)
    d. Course Dates (beginning and end dates, if the course is offered more than once replicate for each) •
    e. Course Agenda (day-by-day schedule of activities and outcomes)
    f. Registration Closes (calculated based on course start date)
    g. Cost (inclusive of any Helena Institute processing charge) •
    h. Cost Includes
    i. Additional Costs (if any, such as studio fees, materials fees, etc.)
    j. Instructor(s) Name •
    k. Instructor(s) Image (should show only the instructor in an experiential learning setting) •
    l. Image Caption •
    m. Instructor(s) Biography •
    n. Sponsor (business or nonprofit, if any)
    o. Sponsor URL (if URL provided it should convert to a link)
    p. Location (venue name, not address)
    q. Audience (the target audience for this course, special requirements/prerequisites if necessary
    r. Register (a button that leads to payment system, see #5) •

The content for each course should be displayed in two pages, the most visible one with an overview (the most essential information: who, what, when, where, how much, register, all marked with • above) and a details page with the rest of the information.

Content editors should be able to tag any content by two dimensions: by "pillar" (Arts, History, or Outdoor Recreation) and what kind of course it is (regular or featured by the fact that it is bundled on a targeted weekend). These tags will be used to select and sort classes for display on the home page and the "featured" page in #3a. While content editors will see the tags on each course page, visitors to the site may not see how a course is tagged.

* 5. Visitors to the website should be able to register for a specific course using an online payment system (additional options should include registration by phone and mail for those that will not do online payments). Registration is by individual course, and payment is made by major credit card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discovery Card). Payment processing is handled by PayPal or any other payment processor that the Helena Institute chooses. Data collected in the registration process will include the course selected, registration price, mailing address of registrant, and other registrant contact information (phone and email). Once registration is complete, the registrant is returned to a "thank you" page on the Helena Institute website, and the Helena Institute is immediately notified by email of the registration details. No sensitive data (credit card information) will be saved on the Helena Institute website server at any time.

** 6. For each of the other website content types (lodging, restaurants, shopping, recreating, diversionary events), a similar attribute list will be developed, and content added to the site (we don't want people jumping off the site as they often go on their own tangent once they leave). Then the Helena Institute should develop the actual content (not the vendors, but with the vendors, based on content that is published elsewhere on the web). The content should reflect the "best of Helena" and thus the vetting should lead to recommendations.

* 7. Prominent on every page is a newsletter subscription form. An email address will be collected and confirmed (by return email, i.e, get a deliverable address). A home ZIP/Postal Code will also be collected. One an email address is entered, a landing page will also collect any additional data as well as promote the value of subscribing to the Helena Institute newsletter (special promotions/premiums will be featured to subscribers).

Any third party email newsletter solution could be used, but if it is done as part of the website (i.e., email is sent from the website server itself), the email newsletters should be sent directly at least monthly from the helenainstitute.com domain and newsletter content easily generated from website content. An unsubscribe option (with confirmation) should be included on all emails sent by the system used, and bounce processing should also be handled by the system. Similarly, the system should also facilitate polling of site visitors. Regardless of the system used, an option should exist to subscribe/survey by content area (Helena Institute announcements by pillar, community announcements, etc.), though this feature, if implemented, will not be implemented until later.

* 8. Prominent on each page should be a search function, specific to this website (not the web). Searches should also be organized by tags or keywords. Wherever possible, an RSS feed should be established so that visitors can subscribe to get new information directly in their browser/email client for their frequently conducted searches.

* 9. All course descriptions (and most diversionary activities) will be organized into event-based calendars and calendar listings. At a minimum, one page on the website will give a month-by-month view of the course offerings, with links on days denoted by the course title. A small calendar should be displayed on each page, and clicking on a date will lead to the courses offered on that day (inclusive).

Additional calendar functions are desirable after the site is first made live:
    ** a. an automatically generated calendar listing, available on the home and other pages, should include an image (preferably of the instructor in action), the title of the course, a short description of the course and a "read more..." link to the main page for the course.
    ** b. calendars and calendar listings could be organized by "pillar" or by featured weekends using the tagging on each course description. In addition, portlets (visible on each page) should list and link to upcoming Helena Institute courses and other upcoming community events.
    ** c. when classes are over they no longer appear in calendars but are automatically archived (not visible unless accessed by search)
    *** d. when classes are full, they are marked as full
    *** e. when classes cancelled or do not meet minimum registration, they are made private on the site.
    *** f. portlet for upcoming registration deadlines.

*** 10. A press release function should be built into the website where the Helena Institute can post news of interest to the community and region. Release headlines should be visible in a portlet on every page, linking headlines to the actual release. News outlets should be able to subscribe to an RSS feed of the releases, or direct email delivery by subscription. The Helena Institutes community partners (the Chamber, CVB, Downtown Helena, etc.) should also be able to post releases with content that promotes the overall brand concept.

*** 11. To the extent permitted by cooperating organizations, additional events promoted by the website should have registration, complete with fee collection. Where possible, these events could be packaged with other promotions, such as hotel or dining accommodations, and the website could make this possible to do for one stop shopping.

*** 12. The website platform should have the capability to easily subscribe to and display external RSS feeds (such as the current weather in Helena, weekly updates from the Independent Record's Your Time section, etc.).

Website Metrics and Evaluation

The website will be developed to help capture data in order to measure its effectiveness along several relevant marketing metrics, each segmented by location based on ZIP code ranges (Helena area, Montana and out of Montana) because different funding mechanisms are used to promote Helena:

    a. number of visitors/page views on the website
    b. source of referral page for visitors, also segmented by source (Google Adwords, search engine index, links form other sites, etc.)
    c. percentage of visitors that inquire for more information using the contact form, segmented by source
    d. percentage of site visitors that subscribe to the newsletter, segmented by source
    e. percentage of visitors that register for a class, segmented by source
    f. time that visitors spend on the site, segmented by source
    g. cost per inquiry, subscription and/or registration, segmented by source

All metrics will be analyzed and evaluated by the Helena Institute for each season, and aggregated to show growth between seasons and over time.

* 13. For inquiries, newsletter subscriptions and course registrations, the Helena Institute will track effectiveness of marketing campaigns by using promotional codes. Responses need to be solicited and tracked.

* 14. Most site visits will be generated by Google AdWord "pay per click" links on search engine results (as opposed to manual entries in browsers or links), so search engine optimization is essential. The website should be appropriately and automatically indexed in all major search engines via the Sitemap protocol (http://www.sitemaps.org/). The sitemap file should automatically be updated and made accessible to search index crawlers as soon as website content is added, edited or deleted.

* 15. All URLs for the website should be in human readable form to facilitate search index indexing. By default, keyword metatags will be available to search engines for all web pages, but custom search engine optimization should be available on any page for Helena Institute definition.

* 16. All appropriate content should be available by RSS feed, and all RSS feeds should be indexed in specific RSS search engines (Yahoo SiteExplorer, feedburner, etc.).

* 17. The website will have a robots.txt file, allowing search engine spiders to index all publicly accessible pages. Pages that are not publicly accessible will not be indexed. To minimize adverse search index page ranking, additional administrative pages will be disallowed.

** 18. Website statistics should be readily available via free Google Analytics and Google AdWords tools (accessible by the Helena Institute's account) or another website traffic analysis tool such as SiteMeter. Additional website statics should be available, on an as required basis, by analyzing Apache (or compatible) access log files that are compiled for at least one year.

Content Editing and Website Maintenance

** 19. The website will be designed to make it as easy as possible for trusted members of the Helena Institute's community to add and edit their own content by password protected account login. Once logged in, the Helena institute should be able to add a course description, as well as edit any previously added course description. Content editing should be "through the web" (using toolbars that would normally be found in word processing software for formatting text, adding images, etc.), i.e., the Helena Institute should not have to learn to use any new web authoring software. If content editors are more comfortable using external software to edit pages, an option will be made available for external editing.

** 20. The website should enable the establishing of password-protected accounts that can be accessed to add and edit content on the website. Login should be by user-selected login name, email address, or OpenID. The Helena Institute account will have complete authority over all functions on the website. Other accounts should be established by the Helena Institute, and permissions applied to additional accounts based on whether or not the account holder can delete content (or other content management functions).

** 21. The Helena Institute will ultimately be responsible for the content of the website, but it will encourage the community to add and edit its own content in order to minimize organizational overhead. Content contributors could be the TBID Marketing and Sales Associate, board members from the Helena Institute, and staff from cooperating organizations such as the Chamber, CVB, Downtown Helena, etc. All account owners will only be able to add and edit their own content, i.e., they cannot add or edit each others' content.

** 22. Online editing of content after publishing should be enabled by temporarily changing its state (it is no longer accessible to the public during editing). Alternatively, a document checkout function would leave content public while a copy is being edited. Content can be embargoed by date, as well as expired after the content is no longer useful.

** 23. No content will be published for public consumption until approved by a Helena Institute website content manager. In cases where the Helena Institute is responsible for content addition or editing, real-time (same or next business day) turn around time is essential.

** 24. Hands-on learning opportunities for prospective content providers should be regularly offered by the website contractor. Documentation for using the website to add and edit content should be available to logged in members.

** 25. The Helena Institute account should have the ability to promote to the home page specific courses for extra promotion. The act of promotion should be as simple as clicking a button on a page (course description). Once clicked, the page appears on the home page.

Additional Functional Specifications (future directions)

The structure of the website should allow for the following functions to be accessible at some point in the future:

*** 26. Depending on the wishes of the Helena Institute, space should be reserved for advertising in the form of community sponsorships. Sponsors should be local businesses that support the work of the Helena Institute, and could be directly related to the listings on the website (course sponsors, the "best of Helena", etc.). Ads should link to their content on the site (though their content could include off-site links). If instituted, sponsorship revenues should be earmarked for ongoing deployment, maintenance and improvement of the website. If ads are accepted, ad management software needs to be easily managed by the Helena Institute.

*** 27. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software will likely be used by the Helena Institute and it's cooperating organizations in the future to manage prospects, visitors and return visitors. Thus integration with online CRM and contact management software, such as SalesForce, should be available via the website.

Technical Specification

* All of these specifications must be met when the site first goes live.

28. The website will be developed and deployed in an economically sustainable manner by Helena-based vendors, using a content management system (CMS), preferably an open sourced CMS (with GPL license). No out of the box web application, propietary or open sourced, will meet all of the functional specifications above, so adopting a platform that is open to development by third party "product" or "add-on" developers is key to getting desired functionality at an affordable costs (both upfront and ongoing). No Adobe Flash code will be used on the website.

29. If there is custom coding done, to either proprietary or open sourced code, it must be documented to enable the Helena Institute to switch to another website vendor with minimal disruption. All custom coding for the Helena Institute will be open sourced using a GPL or other open source license, to the fullest extent possible.

30. The website will be hosted on at least a T1 or equivalent internet connection that does not meter by bandwidth usage (i.e, if the website hosts video clips, it does not incur any additional connection costs).

31. The website will be hosted on a server that only allows access to port 80 (HTTP) by anonymous visitors, but also allows access to selected website administrators for port 21 (FTP) and port 22 (SSH) from Helena Institute approved static IP addresses.

32. The website server should be on a battery backup system with at least 15 minutes of reserve power for the server and all network connections.

33. The entire website should be backed up daily to offsite storage, and maintained for a month. Incremental backups can be onsite and maintained for a week. Restoration of the entire website from backup should be accomplished within 24 hours by the website administrator. Access to incremental backups for purposes of immediate restores of specific pages should be made available to the Helena Institute and other accounts.

34. The Helena Institute website will be live except for brief periods of website maintenance. Normally website maintenance will be done during the least busy times for web traffic (weekend mornings at 3 am local time). At no time during any month can the website be live for less than 99.4% of the total hours in the month (4 hours).

35. The website should be monitored by an external service to determine if it is publicly available at all times. If the website is down, the website monitoring service will send a message to both website administrators and the Helena Institute. A followup message will confirm that public access to the website has been restored.

36. The Helena Institute will use a new email address, info@helenainstitute.com, registered using Google Apps. Under no circumstances should the email address be published on this or any other website. Rather, the website will facilitate email contact using the inquiry form specified in #1f.

37. To prevent email spamming from the website, a "human submit" solution such as CAPTCHA will be used on all forms.

38. The Helena Institute has also registered www.helenainstitute.org as a domain name. A redirect to helenainstitute.com should be established for anyone pointing their browser to www.helenainstitute.org.

39. The website should have automated link checking software capable of producing a report for website managers listing all of the external broken or unresponsive links on the site (i.e., links on this site to other web pages that do not function properly). A separate report should be available for all internal links (i.e., links on this site to other pages on this site that do not function properly).

Website Management

* 40. Once the website is live, the Helena Institute will have one point person responsible with monitoring and evaluating the website. Similarly, the firm that develops the website will have one point person responsible for monitoring the website and making any changes to it at the direction of the Helena Institute in a timely manner.

** 41. An Issue Tracker will be developed enabling logged in users to notify website administrators of website problems. The issues will be tracked until resolved.