Welcome to the new-look APO

Although still "under construction" Australian Policy Online has finally been upgraded with a new look, a new architecture and a new content management system. This may come as a surprise to some readers while for others it may seem to have been a long wait. As we've just moved into our new home things are not all in their right places just yet. We appreciate your patience as we put on the finishing touches. Feel free to let us know what you think and if there are any problems we'd love to hear about them. 

What's new?

Of course all the things our regular readers love about APO are the same – we will still provide the latest public policy research and opionion delivered online and to your email inbox or RSS reader each week. As before,  new reports and commentary are easily accessible from the home page along with events and jobs. What has changed is the way we are able to present and deliver those reports and articles has been improved in lots of ways.

For starters, it's now much easier to browse reports within ten broad topic areas and also to drill down into over 100 subtopics. Each major topic presents content related to that topic – effectively making them specialised subsites. So if you're only interested in one topic bookmark this page as your default APO home page and avoid being overloaded with irrelevant material.

The database hasn't all been reclassified, however, so please bear with us as we gradually work our way through over 6000 entries. Not to mention the multiple authors! If there are any librarian types out there with a yen to do some catalogueing we'd love to have some volunteers.

But if you just want to see a list of all the latest reports or commentary regardless of topic click on Research or Commentary (in the top navigation bar). While you are there you'll notice APO now provides listings of web resources, audio and video of interest to policy makers and researchers. The old research tools section is now called Guides and will provide snapshots of key policy issues (in production). We are keen to build up our content in these sections so please let us know about any great resources we should add.

For a full list of all content, topics and subtopics see the A-Z page for the contents of the site.

As well as events and jobs, the APO classifieds section now includes submissions (calls for papers, journal articles, public inquiries, grants, awards etc), courses (undergraduate, post graduate, short courses etc) and Books. There is also a Noticeboard for free listings of general interest items relevant to the APO readership. Our new system will allow advertisers to add their details online and pay with credit cards using our secure online payment system.

If you're new to APO check out the About us page (you can get to it from the link on the footer of the page) or view our list of over 160 member organisations and supporters.

Guided search

APO is now able to offer readers guided search. After search terms have been entered a selection of categories appears in the middle column allowing the searcher to narrow their search using these terms. For example, if you search for refugees, a list of results is displayed. The middle column then allows you to narrow that search to only commentary articles, or refugees results from 2007, or refugees items also catergorised in politics. New fields will appear shortly for narrowing search results by publication type, publisher type (academic research centre, government, NGO etc,) and coverage of particular Australian states or overseas countries.

Weeky Briefing Subscriptions

Some readers may be familiar with "tailored email", a service offered by sites such as the New York Times. APO has installed this facility which allows readers to customise the content they receive each week by email. So if you only really want to know about politics and economics you can choose to only receive updates from these topics. Simply register or login and you will be able to modify your subscription anytime. If you are happy with the Briefing as it comes then there is no need to do anything.

New functionality

There are a few more features that will be coming online in the next few weeks including reader comments and bookmarking of reports and other content.  We hope you find them useful and appreciate your patience as all the nuts and bolts are put together.

Testing and improvements

We will also be doing testing of the site with readers and expect to make various modifications as a result. The wonderful thing about a website is it is always a work in progress. So do let us know what you like and dislike about the site or if there is anything that doesn't work, deadlinks etc - click here to email us. Reader contributions really are essential to maintain a healthy website.

Links to the old APO website

We have planned to maintain the links to reports and commentary from the old website, and these have been migrated, however at this point many of these are not going through to their destination. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and we are working to make all old links valid. However, in the long term, we would recommend updating your links to the permanent url listed on each report page.

About this project

This upgrade has been made possible thanks to Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Funding grants in 2008 and 2009. The site uses the open source content management system Drupal built by Emspace with site design by Reactive. APO would like to thank Infoxchange for many years of hosting and site development.

Content management, editing and architecture developed and maintained by Australian Policy Online at the Institute for Social Reseach, Swinburne University of Technology. 

For comments or feedback please email admin@apo.org.au

— APO editors

Comments

You will soon be able to make comments on the site directly, in the meantime, we will post feedback we receive here.

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4 May 2009 l From Jenny Pitkin, AccessCare Southern

Love the new look. Well done.

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3 May 2009 l From: Peter Reay-Young

Excellent--much easier to read and not so 'busy' as previously

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2 May 2009 l From: Barry Leighton, Principal | Directeur principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Dear APO Editors:
Thanks for getting in touch with us about the delays. No problem for me.
I'm a senior manager in the federal government of Canada and enjoy reading your weekly e-zine. We have nothing like it here. I very much appreciate the broad scope of information and materials included and I frequently pass on relevant reports etc to my colleagues. So your hard work is very much appreciated up here.
Cheers - Barry

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1 May 2009 l  From: Derek Henderson, Detective Senior Constable, NSW Police Force

The new format is excellent. Thanks,

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1 May 2009 l From: Fiona Farnworth, Court Librarian, Auckland High Court

If you would like to some feedback on the new design, my comment would be I preferred the old format.  I find the new layout too 'busy' with too much detail.  I would prefer drop down menus on each subject rather than a large layout with everything on it.

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30 April 2009 l From: David Owen, Policy Officer, Volunteering Tasmania

Just a short note to acknowledge that while I hate changes to oft-read websites, and was horrified to see that you have made such sweeping changes, it is in fact a considerable improvement. Congratulations on what would have been (okay, continues to be) a massive job.

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30 April 2009 l From: Robyn Taylor, Information and Research Officer, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria>

Firstly I have always found you website/resources v useful - 1 minor
complaint about the new site is the grey text - makes reading from the screen a little difficult.