Website Hosting (Websys Hosting)

[Inox]

Hi all,

This is both an advert and an information gathering thread...

I am currently working as an ICT Technician in schools aroud Wolverhampton, but am also a manager at Websys Hosting (http://www.websyshosting.co.uk).

I'm looking for information on what types of hosting services/packages you currently have and/or you currently require (asp, php, database, etc,) so that I may put a package together for schools. This will allow me to provide a hosting package to schools, incorporating all the services they/you require at an affordable price.

As I also work as a technician in schools, I understand that sometimes you dont need all the bells and whistles and other times you do.

Please give me some feedback on this and i'll see what I can come up with.

Thanks,

Anton Martire
ICT Technician / Websys Hosting Manager

[alan-d]

Probably the most useful tool you could offer schools is the ability to update the pages themselves without having to learn any scripting language. For example the use of Macromedia's Contribute 3.

Some will want a service that is outsourced 100% some would like a little control and others would prefer you to do all the creative work then maintain it themselves.

Point to note: some LEAs don't allow php to run via their servers.

[Inox]

Hi Alan, take a look at http://content.websyshosting.co.uk/ our content managed system.
Users can login to this and manage all their own content in a friendly maner with no previous web design knowledge

[webman]

Yep... Offer schools free CMS setup. We use Website Baker for our site.. but unfortunately our web host is running IIS

[pshuttle]

Hi Alan, take a look at http://content.websyshosting.co.uk/ our content managed system.
Users can login to this and manage all their own content in a friendly maner with no previous web design knowledge

Erm it isn't really your content management system though is it? More Mambo's....

Pete

[webman]

From content.websys....

<meta name="description" content="Mambo - the dynamic portal engine and content management system" />
<meta name="keywords" content="mambo, Mambo" />

Yes, definately mambo

[pshuttle]

You don't even need to look at the page source to see it is using a modified Solar Flare template.

Pete

[webman]

Ahhh but it might have been Joomla? Can't remember if they use a similar theme :P

[Inox]

Nope, your quite right, it is mambo.

We use it as it's fairly easy to use for the customer.

Just to clarify, when you purchase a content managed system from us you are not purchasing mambo, what you are purchasing is the space on the web to host it and our time to set it up for you and provide basic support to you. We offer this as a service and I am in no way attempting to say that we made it. :-)

[Geoff]

Mambo is GPLv2 licensed. You can charge for 'media cost' as per the GPLv2 if you wish.

[Inox]

Ooh, thanks Geoff, that I did not know, however the idea behind websyshosting is cheap no frills affordable webhosting and as mambo is free, we do not intend to charge for it. What we do have to charge for of course if the webspace on the net and our time to setup and support it for the end user.

We are also putting together a portfolio of content managed systems from which the user can choose their prefered system, - again though our main thoughts are for ease of use for the end user and preferably the system to be as low cost as can be so that we can pass on this saving to the client.

We are at present getting a moodle site along with various other content managed systems online so we can offer a choice (as per someone's suggestion in the post).

Please keep these usefull comments comming and if anyone is interested in a package, please get in touch. We are at present putting together a package for schools which we hope will be both cheap for the school whilst still satisfying all their needs. This package is based on comments from schools ICT forums like this one.

Thanks :-)

[petectid]

You don't even need to look at the page source to see it is using a modified Solar Flare template.

Pete

Not Solar Flare see below but this is a Mambo site with a modified template, I've done this one myself the css file is a real headach

<meta name="keywords" content="mambo, Mambo" />
<meta name="Generator" content="websys -" />
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://content.websyshosting.co.uk//images/favicon.ico" />
<link href="http://content.websyshosting.co.uk//templates/rhuk_planetfall/css/template_css.css"

[Geoff]

Ooh, thanks Geoff, that I did not know, however the idea behind websyshosting is cheap no frills affordable webhosting and as mambo is free, we do not intend to charge for it. What we do have to charge for of course if the webspace on the net and our time to setup and support it for the end user.

Your charging for services, thats fine. Just make it clear somewhere (preferably in the pre-sales stage) that your using opensource software. Specifically stating which software and where you can get it from would be idea. i.e. offically endorsing it as a company.

If you want to be really opensource friendly, consider hiring one or more developers to work on improving/bugfixing the opensource you use and contribute these patches back to the community. If done right, this can have a big postive PR effect.

Please keep these usefull comments comming and if anyone is interested in a package, please get in touch. We are at present putting together a package for schools which we hope will be both cheap for the school whilst still satisfying all their needs. This package is based on comments from schools ICT forums like this one.

One of the big issues I have with external websites for school that utilise CMS and/or VLE systems like Moodle or Mambo is the problem syncronisation with intranet systems. For example, many schools here have a Moodle internally on their networks. Because of their agreements with their LEA or RBC they cannot make this accessable externally. If a school had this setup and wanted an external Moodle system too there's currently no easy way to keep both systems in sync (database/user auth/uploaded files/etc). I don't know if you can solve this issue, but it would be a big plus on your hosting solution if you did.

[pshuttle]

Not Solar Flare see below but this is a Mambo site with a modified template, I've done this one myself the css file is a real headach

<meta name="keywords" content="mambo, Mambo" />
<meta name="Generator" content="websys -" />
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://content.websyshosting.co.uk//images/favicon.ico" />
<link href="http://content.websyshosting.co.uk//templates/rhuk_planetfall/css/template_css.css"[/quote]

Yep your right - My bad. It is still a bundled template though lol!

Pete

[Inox]

And whats so wrong about default templates if they get the job done ? Thats part of the idea of "Open Source".

Geoff - Hiring developers is not currently in our budget unfortunatly at the moment.