OverviewOverview

• Background on website– How it started, objectives– Web traffic and global reach– Tools developed

• New capabilities– Bi-lingual content– Content development system– Image database– New interface facilitating collaboration with Scientist

Developers

• Plans for the future

Some HistorySome History• Initiated in 1995, with funding from the NASA “Public

Uses of Remote Sensing Data Bases” program and OSS• Initial Concept - To provide a learning environment within

which the user can access a wide range of Earth and Space science content and related art and cultural information in an intuitive fashion in support of their learning goals

• Continued for the past 10+ years through the present with funding from numerous sponsors, including OSS, ESE, JPL Mars program, Galileo, Ulysses, ISTP, AIM, NSF, CISM, CSEM, SPARC, and Ameritech.

• Current sponsors include OSS AISRP and E/PO, NCAR, NSF, CISM, CSEM, and AIM.

• Over 6.7 million visitors in 2004 (5.8 million unique ips, ~46 million annual page views)– 3 levels of content– ~65% K-12 students– 46% once per week or more– >3000 visits to Teacher

Resources per day during work week

– Spanish translation in progress, ~4500 pages translated to date, ~8000 users per day

– New tools for remote collaborative development with scientists

Windows to the Universe WebsiteWindows to the Universe Websitewww.windows.ucar.eduwww.windows.ucar.edu

National Science Foundation

• Spans the Earth and space sciences, with arts and humanities connections

• Integrated classroom activities, interactives, and models for users

• 70+ Web Awards to date• ~7000 web pages/visuals on site• ~800 teachers trained annually

According to According to www.alexa.comwww.alexa.com

• In terms of frequency of use, Windows to the Universe is:– The most popular astronomy

education website on the web

– 3rd most popular in astronomy and space for Kids and Teens (after nasa.gov and local times web site)

Major Website SectionsMajor Website Sections~7000 pages total~7000 pages total

• Sun• Mercury• Venus• Earth• Mars• Jupiter• Saturn• Uranus• Neptune • Pluto• Comets• Asteroids• The Solar System• Astronomy and the Universe

• Space Weather• Space Missions• Myths• Art, Books, and Film• History & People• Geology• Life• Fundamental Physics• Images and Multimedia• Teacher Resources• Journals• Games• Guided Tours• Headline Universe

Windows to the Universe Web Site User Sessions

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800,000

1,000,000

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~ 910,000 sessions in March 2005~ 788K unique ips~ 10.4M page views~ 30.6M hits~ 11 pgs/session

January – March2005

Some tools developed over Some tools developed over the years…the years…

• Comment management system– Tracks user comments, questions, survey

responses as well as our responses to them, with opportunity for internal messaging (~4000/yr)

• Automated tools for modifications to the site• Automated scripts for website tracking• Interface for automatic survey development,

games, news headlines management, user journals

• Log analysis software

El Sol

La Tierra

Content page Spanish

Content page English

Content Development Content Development Management SystemManagement System

• To facilitate work of distributed team, we undertook development of web-based content development interface, including– Page templates– Image database– Management system facilitating review,

publication, translation, project tracking

Image data-base facilitates access to ~7000 images across the website, as well as associated metadata (captions, credits, etc)

Facilitating Education and Outreach Facilitating Education and Outreach for Scientific Communityfor Scientific Community

• We are now piloting using our web-development interface to work with remote scientists collaborating with the project– Allows E/PO contributions of scientists (ie, folks like you) to

reach a large audience at relatively little effort

• These developers, who could be scientists anywhere in the world (with access to web browser), can provide content at a level convenient to them and upload images/animations

• W2U scientist/developers and translation staff then work with these resources to create multi-level versions of them and translate them into English and Spanish

Collaboration Opportunity:Collaboration Opportunity:

Dr. Travis MetcalfeHAO Post-Doc

Adds or updates content and images – focus on Astronomy

ContentDevelopers

Software Support Spanish Translation

Dr. Julia Genyuk

Jennifer Bergman

Dr. Randy Russell Dr. Lisa Gardiner

Iterate with Travis to “levelize”

content and link across site

Dr. Eduardo Araujo

Marina Lagrave

A new page on the website!

Development Template

Future PlansFuture Plans• Committed to offering bi-lingual content across the website• We would like to offer opportunity for scientists to

participate as co-developers on the website, based on experience in pilot (bilingual)

• Offer training sessions on software tools at appropriate venues (professional meetings, etc)

• W2U staff work with scientists to translate the content to upper elementary, middle and high school levels, as well as into Spanish, and to integrate new content into website matrix

• Also, happy to link to your web-based resources appropriate for public, student and teacher audience if you are interested in sharing information with the public