BLE Focus

Winter 2000
Volume 107 - No. 4

New Technology

Members who surf the Internet have noticed quite a few changes to the BLE website in 2000. These changes were made in order to serve the members better and can be seen as a sign of things to come in the future.

This year, the BLE totally revamped its website. Many hours were spent working on the various upgrades and the membership has responded well to the dramatic improvements.

The most recent changes include a web-based member discussion area, which supplements the members' e-mail list. The member discussion area is divided into sections so that members can join discussions on issues meaningful to them, such as the elections and Railroad Retirement. It serves as a sounding board for the percentage of the membership with access to the world wide web. The BLE leadership believed that it was important to create a discussion forum so members could express their views on various issues.

A search engine also was recently added to the website. The search engine enables visitors to look up information of importance to them without having to manually look through all of the information on the site.

Auto registration was added so that members can easily gain access to the members-only sections of the website.

The BLE Education & Training Department is preparing to convert many of its materials to a format that can be used on the BLE's website. The goal is to make as much education and training available on-line as possible. Earlier this year, training videos on locomotive inspection and the Hours of Service Act were made available in a streaming video format at both fast and slow connection speeds. The BLE was the first rail union to make such videos available through its website.

A look ahead

The year 2001 holds great promise for further technological improvements for the BLE. The website is still being improved and things are being added to make the site more user-friendly.

The Information Services Department is beginning work on other enhancements to the website to allow Secretary-Treasurers to make changes to their membership statistics online. The ultimate goal will be to allow online purchases and dues transactions, and to reduce and streamline the workload of the Record Department. However, since this task involves interfacing with and possibly replacing legacy applications, it will be expensive.

"When I came to Cleveland in 1988, the BLE had one big server and dozens of dumb terminals for text-based applications," said Chuck Anderson, BLE Information Services Coordinator. "This system worked well for us in the 1980s, but it became increasingly clear that, especially with the expansion of Education and Training and arbitration duties at the I.D. , we needed to develop some graphics capability, as well as the ability to share files over a network."

Over the past few years the I.D. has done just that, culminating in the development and enhancement of the BLE website and multiple, dedicated network servers.

All of this is not without cost, however. With the expanded role and complexity of servers and networking components, critical systems sometimes go down.

"I can't tell you how many times I made a trip downtown after hours or on weekends to restart a balky mail or web server," Anderson said. "But then again, going to work at odd hours is what I used to do as a routine, and what the vast majority of our members do nearly every day of their lives."

Now, the IS Department is implementing new software that will automatically restart failing computers and services and then notify IS personnel by telephone.

The BLE also is exploring its options when it comes to online training and tutorials for officers such as local chairmen and secretary-treasurers. Webmaster Walt Schmidt hopes to add more videos and Power Point presentations to the site in the future.

The BLE Seventh Quinquennial Convention in 2001 is expected to be the most wired event in BLE history. When the last convention was held in 1996, the BLE website and the Internet in general were still in their nascent stages. The convention in 1996 was a major technological jump for the BLE, shifting away from the old-fashioned method of voting with paper ballots to voting machines, which cut the counting process by at least a day. The BLE may go the next step in 2001 - touch-screen voting. Also under investigation is streaming video, which would allow live viewing of convention events through the BLE website.

Several improvements are being made that, while not necessarily visible to the membership, will help BLE staff and employees do their jobs more efficiently.

By January 1, a wide area network ("WAN") link will be in place between the Cleveland headquarters and the Washington office. For the first time, the National Legislative Office will be networked, enabling it to connect with Cleveland for e-mail, exchanging files, and running client/server applications, such the new PAC Fund software that recently has been installed.

A new client/server application has also been installed for the Accounting Department, which allows it to more efficiently maintain its ledger and accounts payable and receivable. By the end of the year, this system will streamline the manner in which the BLE purchases supplies and equipment.

The BLE Building Association will soon be using this application as well, allowing it to be more efficient in managing building assets, which the BLE owns. ·

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