Website and Community for the European Radio Network Euranet
The foundation for our ambitious project has been laid with flying colours: a radio web communication about life in Europe in 23 languages by journalists from 27 European countries.
Important for Euranet was and remains not only the ongoing uncomplicated development of the multilingual Euranet online presence to achieve the goal, but above all the dynamic cooperation and exchange of ideas of a silver.solutions team that is always thinking more European with us. Last but not least, the underlying open source enterprise content management system from Ibexa naturally gives us the opportunity to do this.
Overview
Another task that Euranet has been charged with is the creation and continuous further development of a multi-language Internet platform. The European orientation necessitates a platform that can be extended to include all 23 EU languages. In order to ensure the website remains attractive during the entire project period, the possibility to extend its range of functions was also a key requirement of the contract. In addition to the website, the creation , further development and integration of a community platform is also indispensable for promoting communication.
The solution in detail
The website conception and development of the design was realised by the longstanding silver.solutions partners at “Konradi Agentur für Gestaltung”.
The radio function represents the centrepiece of the platform. An upload function for MP3 files has been provided for editors in the backend. The website allows radio programmes to be listened to live via a live-streaming process. Furthermore, the contributions are also made available as podcasts. All radio programmes are archived and an integrated filter function enables them to be filtered according to time and language.
In addition to the radio programmes, the website also offers editorial content to citizens in the form of news, files and general contributions. All contributions can be made more attractive via a multimedia box, which can be used to add images, videos and audio content. Interactive elements have been provided for the editorial part of the site, such as a comment function and alternating opinion polls. An RSS feed is used for publishing the latest community contributions on the website.
The website was developed using the enterprise content management system by Ibexa.
The community platform went live shortly after the Euranet website and is also characterised by multilingualism. The platform is available in multiple languages and every user can add contributions in their own national language. The community solution from mixxt GmbH provides the technical foundation for the community. The mixxt community was extended to include a multi-language element especially for Euranet. The community offers members a variety of forums for exchanging ideas, individual blogs for each member and an area for publishing pictures.
The Euranet website is being expanded and additional functions added on an ongoing basis. For example, a microsite containing facts and background information on the European Elections in June 2009 has recently been integrated into the website. Animated, interactive elements, such as a European map and a timeline related to the history of the EU Parliament, encourage visitors to go on a tour of discovery. All this is rounded off with an event calendar and a newsletter.
The editors have recently started using the micro-blogging service, Twitter, to publish short, topical items of news. The Twitter messages are published on the Euranet website via RSS feeds.
