Why no more data.dte.org.au?
There are many reasons why no more and while it is accepted it does have a small fan base, it had become problematic.
Firstly the domain sits on a privately funded and privately administered server outside the control of the co-operative.
It does not declare to visitors it is not funded or administered by the co-operative.
The mailing list used by this domain to mail to members was not obtained with any authority from the co-op and when the board challenged the administrators, one a non member, all refused to grant access to allow the board to validate mail sent. This had become an unworkable situation.
data.dte.org.au is administered by a member who recently took DTE and some of its directors to Fair Work Commission costing the Co-op $5500.
This member has been advised that they are no longer to volunteer for the Co-operative and to hand over all user names/password to data.dte.org.au. They have not.
Given the the lack of credentialed access and an inability to consider the most basic of security for the information data.dte.org.au makes available compromises the co-operative and its members.
data.dte.org.au was also known to harbour defamatory links along with giving safe haven to the most toxic of mailing lists. These accounting for the vast majority of complaints.
Recent Steps
A few months ago the co-operative retrieved control of the domain dte.org.au, as a result it was able to
* redirect the emails to dte.coop leading to less confusion for the majority of current and new members into the future - a more streamlined administration
* shut down the dte.org.au mailing lists resulting in huge drop in number of complaints as new moderated lists promoted.
This situation has improved immensely since the introduction of moderated mailing lists on dte.coop and the reduction of email accounts and required domains .
The induction of our members is much easier now that we can focus our efforts on the one platform, one the board/community does have administrative control over. Currently there are over 25 members who can edit pages at dte.coop.
Going Forward
The page data.dte.coop has been put into place to help those who used the data.dte.org.au to find their way around the dte.coop landscape. The moderated chatbot/support is available to help those who are stuck.
Moving to Google (More Info)
We are moving away from sharepoint on our own server to utilising a Cloud based solution Google Works. You will notice in dte.coop where the integration between the website/forms/sheets truly democratising the creation and accessing community information.
Over time coding has changed and now most people have a rudimentary knowledge of a sheet, doc and chat.
Today we really don't need coders to code things for us. We can in these days and as a community democratise the way we collect our information by using tools the majority of us can affect changes in, not tools/platforms only one or two can.
dte.org.au does not operate with this in mind.
Credentialed access
Credentialed access is to become the norm. While we can err on the side of transparency some matters of the co-op are for its members eyes only requiring logging in to see. ie some documents are confidential.
To have absolutely no control over what malware could be uploaded is a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. This is why every website has a user login so you can see your stuff, not everybody else can see your stuff unless you wish it to be.
dte.org.au does not operate with this in mind.
This is why data.dte.org.au is no more.