Category: web design

TrinidadExpress.com Criticism

March 28, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

I've held my thoughts on the new Trinidad Express website close to my chest, though people have sounded off on Facebook and other social media sites about their... perspective on how the site looks. I kept my thoughts close to my chest to assure that none of my friends were involved.

The site simply isn't pretty. I've heard one person say that they have stopped using the site because of the fact that it... leaves much to be desired. So here are my criticisms of the site, if only to keep people from screwing up perfectly good websites. {Read more}

The CNMG experience: How to crash T&T's Carnival Big Truck

February 16, 2010 by Edmund Gall

A few weeks ago, the T&T government decided to award sole rights to distribute coverage of major Carnival 2010 events to its own media house: the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG).  On the face of it, this seemed sensible: award management of the distribution to a trusted partner.  However, though CNMG has been streaming its own programmes on the Internet for over a year at www.ctntworld.com, it proved to be completely unable to handle streaming of T&T Carnival.

First, we have to question whether the decision to manage radio, video and Internet coverage of Carnival 2010 was borne out of a wish by the government, through its Ministry of Culture, to really make the most of this tremendous marketing opportunity.  According to local photojournalist, Mark Lyndersay, it appears that the motivation was control rather than optimisation: see his extremely enlightening BitDepth article on the matter.

Second, the expected first step for CNMG would be re-licensing of other providers to share in the distribution of the events for a fee.  It did this with the radio feeds, since Internet users can listen to coverage of events via non-CNMG stations.  However, CNMG decided not to share Internet streaming with other distributors, as described in this When Steel Talks (WST) article on the exclusion of T&T culture media house WACK.  Given government's history of planned failure, folks involved in culture rightly became worried by this imposed single point of failure for video coverage. {Read more}

Better Websites in Trinidad and Tobago - Drupal Group's First Meeting

February 10, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Out of the blue, a message on the Trinidad and Tobago Drupal Group caused an impromptu meeting at Haagen Daz, Gulf City, here in Trinidad and Tobago. Being used to just Shivan Jaikaran and myself as being the Drupal-folk in Trinidad and Tobago, I was pleasantly surprised that there are many more of us.

If you've never heard of Drupal, it's the open source content management system that makes sites like this possible - and what makes Drupal possible is the great community behind it. Locally, one of the better known installations of Drupal is the Trinidad Guardian website. Shivan announced the launch of the Trinidad Guardian's main stage launch with Drupal. You can view it here. {Read more}