Note: this proposal has been agreed to, though the dates have changed. See Noelle's letter of 8 January 2013 for agreement. Please send comments to efc@clst.org.

On 13 November 2012 Noelle and I had a conversation about the future of the Edible Cleveland website. During this wide-ranging conversation we agreed that it would be worthwhile for me to investigate moving the site out of the Edible Communities Joomla system and into an independently run WordPress system. On 19 November Noelle asked that I "draft a scope of work that includes some idea of reasonable timeline and fees so we can make it official and make sure our expectations are aligned." This is that proposal.

Definition of Role

I would create an independent WordPress site hosted within 919 Media LLC's current BlueHost account. This site will include the following features:

• a page for each issue of the magazine
  • link to issue PDF
  • link to issue "digital edition"
• a page for each story published in the magazine
• a page listing all recipes
• a page for each recipe
• the ability to create links between stories and recipes
• a subscription page with PayPal button
  • a buy one get one offer on the subscription page
• an invitation to advertisers
  • link to the media kit
  • link to the rate sheet
• an invitation to contributors ("join the team")
  • contributors
  • volunteers
• a "find a copy" map and list of advertisers
• a google calendar events page
• a sample facebook feed and link to facebook
• a sample twitter feed and link to twitter
• basic information about Edible Cleveland
• a blog with stories that Noelle and Jon (and others) could create, independent of the magazine

The door would be left open to community participation via comments on stories.

An initial version of this website would be made available in by early December with only partial contents from past issues to serve as a model. Noelle and Jon and I would discuss design choices and refinements and a revision of the site would be made available in early January with full contents of past issues.

I will probably use a MySiteMyWay theme as the basis of the WordPress theme for this site. Considerable enhancement of this theme is likely to meet the goals of the publication.

Once we have the site ready to roll out, Noelle and Jon will share news of the theme and my availability to help other Edible publications establish similar WordPress sites within their Edible network.

I will handle the technical work required to establish hosting for the ediblecleveland.com domain. Initial hosting will be in the same BlueHost account used for 919 Media LLC, since that will add no expense. However, if that account proves inadequate to the task, I will be prepared to establish hosting at DreamHost or another provider. Note that we do not have control of DNS for ediblecleveland.com, which could lead to some additional difficulty actually moving the hosting for the live site.

I will establish a prototype WordPress site at ec.919mediallc.com so that I can develop the theme without control of the ediblecleveland.com domain. This will be where both versions of the website (early December and January) will be presented.

I will make the changes required to refer to the site as ediblecleveland.com once we know who controls the DNS and how to coordinate with them. If they are willing to hand control of the domain to 919 Media LLC, I will establish DNS hosting for the domain as well.

I will provide a brief manual that includes basic information about how to maintain the WordPress site and accomplish tasks such as creating a new issue and adding new recipes. This manual will also include a section with account information for all the hosting and domain providers.

Scope

I will provide design and programming services to accomplish these tasks. I will work closely with Noelle and Jon on design decisions. However, I only anticipate a development cycle with one major revision and then further minor refinements. All parties will have to be very clear in the time between the initial and final version of the website about the changes they require.

Once the revision of the website has been produced, I will be available to move it to the real ediblecleveland.com domain once that domain is ready for relaunch.

Once the site is live, I will be available for continuing support should 919 Media LLC determine they want my continued help.

Although I will migrate contents from existing issues as part of this project, the ongoing migration of magazine content into the website is not included in the creation of the site or the anticipated continuing support.

Timeline

Initial version of the site: 7 December 2012. (Actual, late January)

Revision of the site: 4 January 2013. (Actual, February)

Anticipated public launch of new website: late January 2013. (Actual, 6 March 2013)

Costs

As a consultant, I do not charge by the hour. My charge for creating the initial site and revision and assisting with the public launch of the site would be $10,000. However, given the financial realities of 919 Media LLC and the potential to reuse much of this work with other Edible sites, I will discount this work to a charge of $2,000. The first $1,000 would be payable upon delivery of the initial version of the site in early December [actually January], and the second $1,000 would be payable after the launch of the public site, or by the end of January 2013 [actually March], whichever comes first.

If 919 Media LLC would like to retain my services for continuing support, I will be available for $500 per month for the first three months (February, March, April 2013 [actually April, May, June]) and $250 per month ongoing. This is assuming only a couple hours of work in each ongoing month.

Additional costs for the basic theme that serves as the foundation for the Edible theme or for additional hosting costs of either the website or domain will be charged back to 919 Media LLC in addition to the fees above.

Eric Celeste

Eric brings over 15 years of library and 30 years of technology experience to his consulting. At MIT Eric shepherded the creation of DSpace, open source digital repository management software developed with HP and now deployed at hundreds of institutions worldwide. At the University of Minnesota Libraries he encouraged the development of the UThink blog service, a wiki-based staff intranet, LibData, and the University Digital Conservancy. He works with non-profit institutions on appropriate uses of technology for informing, communicating, and collaborating with their constituencies.