Miller_2002abstr
Mars Society Webmaster
In early 2002, the web site was moved to INTERLAND, the nations largest Web Hosting company. This is where the site resides at this time. The membership database, and several smaller databases are also hosted with INTERLAND. Today (third quarter of 2002) the web site consists of over a gigabyte of data, images, sounds, and web pages. Some of the larger Multimedia files are served by our own archive server, located in Southern Oregon. The web site is averaging over 26,500 hits/day.
We have links to many services available to our members and the general public. From the main page, users can jump to the NEWMARS Bulletin Board System, the On-Line Chat System, our Mars Store, and links to the MemberÕs Only area. Current events, news and projects are all available for those folks interested in Mars, or the Mars Society.
Thanks to folks like Bruce Mackenzie and Randall Severy, we have the ability to hold meetings online. The Mars Society Chapters Meeting Server allows a group of people to talk (type) in real-time, in a controlled environment. The organizer of a meeting can control who is heard and when. With the entire meeting on-line there is no need to take minutes, as anyone can log everything to their computer!
Any organization has a need to keep records and files. The Mars Society is no different, and a lot of those files are kept in secure, on-line storage. Members can access, update and review their own records, and on-line passwords via the ÒMembers OnlyÓ link on our front web page. Headquarters can generate reports and mailing from any location that has INTERNET access. Anyone can join the Mars Society, and pay for it on-line, or renew their existing membership. All of these features are possible because of the linkage between the SQL database server and our web forms.