Social Change Online Rebuilds SES Website

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has engaged Social Change Online to redevelop their website. The SES is an emergency and rescue service dedicated to assisting the community and is made up almost entirely of volunteers. This redevelopment follows on from a successful requirements gathering and analysis phase undertaken by Social Change Online. The SES wanted an information-rich new site which would comply with government standards for web design and accessibility, provide improved appearance and usability, together with a more sophisticated content management system.

The SES has a wide audience including the general public, people and businesses living or operating in flood prone areas, volunteers, potential volunteers, school students, teachers, and the media. Due to this wide spectrum of users, clear navigation and content layout has been critical in the development of the site. Different users all need to find the information of interest to them quickly and easily.

Content to be provided on the site includes an SES image gallery, information about current operations, information about preparing for emergencies, a Business toolkit, fact sheets for students and homeowners, information for potential volunteers, emergency kits, and links to current weather warnings.

The new site will feature extremely sophisticated handling of content including the ability to relate content together (for example, "read these related articles:"), support for audio files, making News available as an RSS feed, together with an SES Thesaurus. It aims to be the key source of information about the SES. It aims to increase community awareness, preparedness and safety, increase the number of SES volunteers, and decrease costs over time by minimising the need for printed brochures.

Social Change Online will develop the site using its AIMS4 Content Management System.

The site is to be developed on a tight deadline and is to be launched at the Director-General's Conference on 11 November 2005 by the Minister for Emergency Services, Lands & Justice, Tony Kelly.