Welcome to the new homepage of the Caribbean, Central and South America Network for HIV Research. Our new website offers a redesigned interface with an easy login system, updated content that reflects CCASAnet in 2013, and useful Members-Only materials.
Is that a new URL?
Yes! We are now ccasanet.org instead of ccasanet.vanderbilt.edu. It's a little easier to remember, but mostly it conveys that CCASAnet is a collaborative network of many institutions and investigators.
The old website will be going away soon, but we will keep the ccasanet.vanderbilt.edu URL for the Secure Data Uploader. Our group mailing list will also stay the same.
What else is new around here?
Almost everything! This website is built on a new content management system we hope will be easier for all users. We're still developing content and arranging functionality here -- please contact Stephany if you encounter any problems with the website.
We've updated our About Us descriptions -- please check the listing for your site, especially your Site Type and List of Investigators. Email us if it needs corrections.
Our Publications list is now built directly from the content of the CCASAnet Zotero group, which you can join and use to generate paper citations.
There's a new Calendar page to help us keep track of upcoming meetings and conferences, Data Clinics, IeDEA working group calls, and VDCC events.
You can register and log into CCASAnet.org by creating your own username and password, like a traditional website, but now you can also register and log in with Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter using our Social Login options. It's a great way to reduce the number of passwords you have to remember!
When you register for the website, don't forget to select your name and CCASAnet Site! The VDCC will review your registration to make sure you're actually associated with CCASAnet and then promote you to full Member access on the website.
Logged in CCASAnet members also have access to a new Members-Only Intranet page that puts concept sheet lists, data protocols, DTP version, resource links (data uploader, REDCap, ROCKET), deadlines, and VDCC updates in a single place.
The new CCASAnet.org is mobile enabled, too. The website is based on a Responsive Web Template, which means it can accommodate screens of different sizes, including mobile phones and iPads without losing functionality.
Why did the website need updating?
The old CCASAnet website was built in 2008 and quickly became outdated. Five years is a very long time in the world of web technology. The registration system, login, and password retrieval were difficult for users to manage, so nobody logged in. The website received massive amounts of email spam that were time consuming to moderate and was not enabled for the mobile devices that are common nowadays.
We moved the old website to a different server about three years ago to take advantage of a better physical location for the computer, but the associated changes made the website content difficult to edit. The administration panel was not intuitive by recent standards, so nobody at the VDCC could update the content easily to reflect the changes in the our CCASAnet research agenda and sites.
The previous website was weighed down by features that we never used, including project tracking, meeting documentation, file hosting, and data handling. Nowadays, CCASAnet has easier and more collaborative tools for these functions, including Dropbox, ROCKET, and REDCap.
CCASAnet’s website is a critical component of our public image; a modern website conveys that we are a modern network. IeDEA as a whole is receiving renewed pressure from funding agencies to promote its capacity and accomplishments. This is one part of enhancing CCASAnet's public presentation.