The re-launching of the Iloilo Provincial Government Website
Alas, it's barely five days more to go for the grand re-launching of the Iloilo Provincial Government's website, the www.iloilo.gov.ph. I call it a grand event because the local government units (LGUs) will join us in a simultaneous re-launching their official websites.
We are doing double time this time to iron out the kinks and thresh out the flaws and have some face lifting to make the site does not only appear eye-catching but informative as well. Actually, we literally started from scratch after our website was hacked few months ago. The same predicament was experienced by about 800 LGU websites in the country.
Our site features various provincial government offices and officials, provincial profile and gives links to different local government units (LGUs) of the Province of Iloilo.
It further provides the visitors with the glimpse of the tourism industry of the province and jobs placement for the local residents through the Human Resource Management and Development Office (HRMDO), Provincial Employment and Services Office (PESO) and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Office.
Capitol news are also given prominence at the front page to give Ilonggos here and abroad of updates of what is happening in the province through developmental news and information.
Few weeks ago, all designated information officers in capitol underwent a seminar-workshop on Web Posting and Uploading and Basic News Writing. This activity served as follow-up of last year's training on the same areas but this time, a basic knowledge on writing press release and uploading were given emphasis to hone IOs skills in preparation to the re-launching of the province's website next week.
Mr. Felipe Vista, IT Coordinator in Region VI, introduced Joomla!, a Content Management System (CMS) which is used in hosting the province's homepage.
Through this simple, browser-based inference, uploading of press releases or news items, managing staff pages, job listing and creation of unlimited amount of sections or content pages become easy while editing of content and updating of images become simple even for non-technical users.
I handled the hands-on press release/news release writing to give IOs better understanding of basic news elements and proper format to follow when submitting their reports. Their functions and responsibilities were given emphasis too, as stipulated in the Executive Order No. 205 of Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr. from preparing weekly press releases highlighting offices' accomplishments to coordinating with municipal information officers in gathering news and information.
The Web Development Team never ceases from conceptualizing plans and designs to make the site as user-friendly as possible by providing the internet-goers with the information they need in just a click a way. The team is composed of Eng. Joel Cabaluna, Web Administrator; Melinda Defensor, Webmaster; Tomas Bibangco, Mary Ann Llauderes, Jigger Labergue, Mae Abeja , Leomel Pasquin, members; Felipe Vista IV, R6 IT Coordinator and yours truly, the Webmaster/News Editor. This is a special project of the Provincial Planning and Development Office headed by Provincial Government Department Head Mario Nillos.