My spouse's I.D. card is expiring, so I go on-line to this "wonderful" one-stop shopping CNIC web site to find out the requirements, hours of operation, etc. There is a link on top entitled "PSD." So, I click on it and there's ABSOLUTELY NO INFORMATION LISTED! Doesn't anybody at CFAY or PSD ever go into those links and check to see if there's anything listed. This sucks and I will be submitting an ICE soon. You would think a tenant command with such a high profile would be monitoring this closely. Wrong! Maybe they figure if they don't publish their working hours less people will wait two hours to get their i.d. cards!

This is what you see on the home page:



This is what you see when you press the PSD link:



This is what you see when you press any of the links: Nothing listed for anything!

Rotsa,

I would have to agree with you.

The problem is that they dont have enough personnel to ensure things are always 100% up to date. I know most of the people that update the site, and I dont think its their fault.

The people who are responsible are tasked with other things like video, and also public affair matters.

They need to hire a designated webmaster who is #1 paid well (which wont happen due to CNIC policy, and $ problems) and #2 who is primarily responsible for just the website only. Will this ever be the case? Probably not. Its not just Yokosuka that is the problem. Visit several CNIC portals. They are all the same. Incomplete.

I have heard rumors there is a brand new site coming out soon, and the contractors that the govt has hired is working on things for them. I am just curious but didnt they just release this new portal less than 2 years ago? Why another brand new development?

Seems to be, things were not planned correctly on the initial launch. You would think as massive as CNIC is, and as many bases as they support, they would of atleast ensure the developers provided a great product the first time.

Anyhow, I hope they do improve things so it makes things easier for me to use their information Thanks public facing govt websites.....

Thanks Adam for that update. Fact remains that somebody should be held responsible for the failure of the information being put out, plain and simple. Whether that's the CO, XO, CMC, PAO, I don't really care. Hopefully the contractor will do a better job, but you never know with how the U.S. Government bids out contracts. I'll still ICE it and see what happens via that route.

Let us know how that works out. I know some people that told me, that every time they visited the CNIC website and couldn't find something they submitted an ICE comment. He was a LCDR. So I think people underestimate the fact, #1, people need to find resources quickly, efficiently, and the navigation/speed needs to be compatible with everyone's bandwidth issues, including afloat forces.

We will be making a low bandwidth version, and a mobile website as well..

I dont want to hear from anyone that personnel are the issue, because I am 1 guy. I work almost 18 hours a day. EVERYDAY! So you do the math.. There are some people that are dedicated, and some that aren't. If you dont pay people well for the govt, they won't have the care factor which is the most important part in any employee you ever hire.

I wish them all the best, and I would love to see them improve things. Some people have criticized my website, and said, that it would never succeed. I can assure you, no one will ever work, or care about a website like I do. I may fail, but I will continue to try and make things better every single day until things are perfect. I appreciate all those dedicated members, that are with me to watch the site evolve. I think you will all just seem improvements every single week released, and I appreciate everyone's feedback to continue to make our site the best site in Japan.

This gets more and more interesting. I just visited the ICE Link at:

http://ice.disa.mil/index.cfm?fa=se...ite_id=14.

Guess what command is not listed? Yeah, you guess it, PSD. So, I sent an email to the Webmaster asking what's up with that. It baffles me. I know it's probably a "we're low on manpower" issue, but it still needs to be addressed, whether on this site, in a public forum, or elsewhere.

Thanks Adam for putting all the hours here on the site. You are much appreciated.

[quote]

I have heard rumors there is a brand new site coming out soon, and the contractors that the govt has hired is working on things for them. I am just curious but didnt they just release this new portal less than 2 years ago? Why another brand new development?

[/quote]

'Cause the current one sucks! See if you can find the CNFJ instruction library in less than 10 minutes.

I still haven't heard back from my ICE complaint. Now it's time for a Captain's Corner gripe.

Rotsa,

I have spent most of the weekend on the CNIC yokosuka site, collecting info for this website, and I know what you mean by the PSD tab. Do you know how long its been like that?

I know PSD yokosuka use to have their own website, but what it looks like to me, is they want to merge all their info to the CNIC portal.. Thats fine, and it looks like they began with the layout structure, because they have already created all of PSD's tabs, just no one has entered in the data yet.

Things like that take time. I am interested to see what they say back to you though.

In the future, you wont have to visit any of these official sites, because "ALL OF THERE" info which is publically viewable will be on japanbases.com

Thats why I am merging all their info and making it easier to navigate and find things within 1 site, throughout all of Japan.

It will take a few months to a year to get everyone aligned, but I will continue to work at it. From there, its going to just be UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE..

How often to do they really update their site? Practically never, besides an occasional newsletter here and there.

The MWR section for Yokosuka is the most up to date area, which I do give them credit, it has come a long way from time in the past, but even their area, will be completely migrated over to japanbases.com under the Yokosuka - MWR tab.

I have not allowed anyone to see this area I am building just yet, but in time, it will all be functional..

Let's see, it's 15 March and there is still no info. I went on today for ID card info and all pages are still blank. CFAY should realize that there are people in the community that can volunteer to at least provide a simple update to get useful information on the website. IIt shouldn't take their webmaster more than four months to populate a page with information. There needs to be a priority on informational pages like PSD ahead of MWR Super Bingo events.

As long as we're talking about how much the CNIC web site lacks in information.... I can't believe nobody mentioned how long it takes just to load the home page, let along navigating to other pages within the site. I know people like colorful backgrounds and fancy images, but it really does impede the progress of getting to the intended destination and information. If the site is changing I hope this is taken into consideration.

Jenn, your absolutely correct. It is a problem, that goes unnoticed. Why, how? You got me...

Yoko-lulu, your right as well. The problem is the servers they purchase, are very bogged down, and are run through contractors back in the states. The fact they are contractors is not the problem, but from what I have been told about the CNIC contract, is the hands have been changed several times in the past few years.. Why? Why not get it right in the first place..

So this is what I suspect that happened. You have 1 contract company come in, and build this entire solution. Then the contract is replaced with new people and a new management team. They dont know how, or the backend solution for why it was built the way it was, so they decide, LETS JUST BUILD IT FROM SCRATCH AGAIN.

This is what I have heard is happening right now. Instead of fixing the problem, we start over.

I have had discussions with CNIC personnel, and my feedback to them was this.

IT DOES NOT MATTER THE TEMPLATE OR SOLUTION YOU CREATE THE LOCAL BASES, someone here locally still has to update it. The PSD should have the ability to, but its not being done. They all have access. Doesnt mean that it gets done. MWR gets their portion done, because its MWR's responsibility. No one person is responsible for managing everything. Everyone's piece is broken up.

I want them to update things.

That way, I can copy and paste it onto JapanBases.com

From their official website:
https://www.cnic.navy.mil/CNIC_HQ_Site/PrivacyPolicy/index.htm

"All information on this site is public domain and may be distributed or copied unless otherwise specified. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested."

You see above where is says "ALL INFORMATION" and the REQUESTED does not say "REQUIRED"..

I'm going to stick my nose into this argument, because I was the Webmaster for the Sasebo Web site when I was there, and this is a big hot-button for me. I redesigned the Sasebo site in September of 2007, and was really proud of my work -- got commendations from the CO, lots of positive comments from the general public, etc.

THREE MONTHS LATER, the word got handed down that we were required to ditch our old site immediately and convert to the CNIC template. The reasons given were:

1. It will save server space to have everything in one place (actually NOT true, because we were told to never delete obsolete files, just put new ones on the server).

2. It will be more secure (again, NOT true, as before we had to be on one of only three computers on base in order to update the site, and with the new site, we could update from any computer anywhere in the world with no need for CAC access...and the username and passwords they gave us were first-initial-last-name for the username and first-initial-last-initial-123 for the password. Ummm...which means ANYONE can figure that out and log in, right? The ONLY good thing about this is that departments like MWR can now update their own section of the site, which is why the MWR sections of many CNIC sites are pretty good -- MWR tends to be more motivated.)

3. There will be a common template, so everyone can find information in the same places for every Navy base in the world (would you believe NOT true again? There were absolutely no branding standards given out to anyone, and when I asked about the style sheets, which showed a choice of over fifty styles, I was told "we don't know what all those styles are, make the site look however you want." So, every single base has different tabs, different headlines, different fonts, different items on the home page, etc. The only consistency is the big ugly waste-of-space banner on each page, and the background color.)

I was a volunteer for the first year working in that office, just to give myself something to do, because they had nobody else in the office who knew the first thing about HTML, and because I believe that good communication can really help Navy families enjoy their stay in Japan. The office ended up offering me a contract, which was renewed twice, for a total of a year and a half's work. I worked my butt off to make the Sasebo CNIC site as informative and easy to navigate as possible, within the stupid framework of the CNIC site.

When the contract ended, I stayed on as a volunteer until we left Japan. Now that I'm gone, it is not updated as much as I'd like (changing the clocks on the front page to reflect Daylight Savings Time, anyone?), and the template has gone from clean to rather screwed up (all three front page columns used to be even, not one longer than another) -- BUT I can guarantee there are no blank pages!

Here are some of the reasons the current CNIC sites suck:

1. Lack of training and lack of direction. Very few of the people running the current sites have any training in HTML, and even though there are "wysiwyg wizards" in the CNIC template, if you don't understand HTML, you can't do the little tweaking that's necessary to make the site look good.

2. Lack of oversight. For most COs and PAOs, if they've followed the letter of the instruction ("we need a tab for Job Listings? Check! Doesn't matter if the listings are months out of date -- I did what I was told!") and they've covered their butts, then they don't really care about it. They don't check every day to see what needs to be corrected or updated. They aren't moving here with a family, so they don't care if the pet information is out of date, or if the FFSC e-mail has changed, or the Housing Newsletter is still up from December.

3. Young Sailors without families (this is no slam on young Sailors -- just a fact that a lot of them don't have families, and so don't have the same priorities as Sailors with a spouse and kids). A lot of the time, the people actually doing the Web site are Junior Sailors, and they really don't know to check that the school information is correct, or they don't care if the Family Readiness Center calendar is up to date. They have to be taught how and why and what to do, and then checked to make sure they follow up. I read every page EVERY DAY to make sure stuff was up to date. I used to pitch a fit when the Movie Listing for Monday through Sunday didn't go up until Monday afternoon -- what if someone wanted to make plans ahead of time? Same with the Galley Menu -- the Monday through Sunday menu needs to go up BEFORE Monday afternoon!

4. We've been hearing since March of '09 that a brand new Web template was coming down the pipeline "very soon". That information breeds the attitude of "well, if it's all going to have to be changed, why work hard to fix it now, then change it in the near future? We'll just fix it all when the new template goes into effect."

5. Despite Oracle somehow convincing some sort of congressional appropriations committee and a bunch of Admirals that the CNIC site would be a perfect fit for the Navy, it is NOT. When you get into the "backstage" portion of the site, anyone can realize the entire structure must have been built for some other industry or need, and is now being "forced" to fit the Navy's needs (and very poorly at that).

6. Sailors with no training are being transferred places, then told "hey, you are now in charge of the Web site!" There are no Webmaster positions for trained civilians (or at least there wasn't such a position in Sasebo!) and the process to create such positions takes years.

Whew...sorry! This really does make me so angry! I firmly believe that if military families arrive in Japan with most of their questions answered, and prepared for life in Japan, they are going to be happier, enjoy the country more, and be less the stereotype of the "whiny American." I also believe that the Sailor does a better job if his or her family is happy as opposed to miserable. Seriously, it is NOT THAT HARD to make a good, informative, easily navigated Web site -- but you have to give a damn!

How can we fix it? ICE them. Over and over and over. Not frothing at the mouth, but politely and firmly ICE them and ask "why is there no PSD information?" "When can we expect PSD information on the Web site?" "Other sites have PSD information, why doesn't ours?"

Make sure and use a name on your ICE, and an e-mail address so they can respond to you, even if you have to create an address just for this, like "curious-in-yoko@gmail.com" or something. Our old CO once said "If an ICE comes in with no name and contact information, don't bother to forward it, just throw it away. If they don't care enough to put their name on it, then I'm going to assume it's just an emotional diatribe and not worth paying attention to."

Sorry for the long post.

Great post and agree completely. Being a programmer I saw the same things you saw. I am friends with the cfay webmaster. Your right about a lot of things that happen. Thank you for sharing.

www.japanbases.com

Its been over 7 months, and PSD still doesnt have any information on their pages...

https://www.cnic.navy.mil/Yokosuka/PSD/index.htm

What they did just add is this:



Does it really take that long to organize the data, and post it?

I mean, your not even building the framework, your just editing and putting up information.

Can someone please finish this section.  I need to copy some info from it, and finish up the JapanBases.com PSD section... 

Adam, you are so right. It's RIDICULOUS. It would take about three minutes to upload a couple of .pdf documents with their current information, and then link them on those pages. Or it would take about three minutes to copy and paste info into an HTML page.

SO frustrating!

I think I have been patient long enough, and I do want their content to improve, so I can copy everything, and create a massive directory for information throughout all the bases. I am focusing primarily on Yokosuka right now, and then will begin all the other bases and do the exact same thing.

Its been over 7 months, and PSD still doesnt have any information on their pages...

3 more months have gone by.

Still PSD pages have a WEBSITE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

We are now going on over 9 months. Same thing..

Its truly ashame that they still haven't done anything. I am so glad we have this site back up and running.

Its funny, but CFAY and CNIC don't even realize that they have created the need for and empowered japanbases.com by not providing for the community what they want. Granted they can't provide the forums for complaining, but I come here for a lot of basics because its so difficult to access their site. I can't even check the movie schedule without my computer security system having a nervous breakdown over visiting the site. Certificate not trusted...come on!

btw, PSD has some stuff on it!

thanks adam for pointing me this way. the website still SUCKS!! I have been trying to access it from home and I keep getting sercuity errors and interent can not connect.

I have been trying to access it from home and I keep getting sercuity errors and interent can not connect.

There is a post on JB discussing the Security Certificates errors people receive.

Try visiting this page:
http://www.japanbases.com/forums/aft/2202.aspx

I made a post on that page with the step by step, to avoid this problem in the future. Good Luck

Posted By Adam Jones on 12-17-2009 9:22 PM
Let us know how that works out. I know some people that told me, that every time they visited the CNIC website and couldn't find something they submitted an ICE comment. He was a LCDR. So I think people underestimate the fact, #1, people need to find resources quickly, efficiently, and the navigation/speed needs to be compatible with everyone's bandwidth issues, including afloat forces.

We will be making a low bandwidth version, and a mobile website as well..

I dont want to hear from anyone that personnel are the issue, because I am 1 guy. I work almost 18 hours a day. EVERYDAY! So you do the math.. There are some people that are dedicated, and some that aren't. If you dont pay people well for the govt, they won't have the care factor which is the most important part in any employee you ever hire.

I wish them all the best, and I would love to see them improve things. Some people have criticized my website, and said, that it would never succeed. I can assure you, no one will ever work, or care about a website like I do. I may fail, but I will continue to try and make things better every single day until things are perfect. I appreciate all those dedicated members, that are with me to watch the site evolve. I think you will all just seem improvements every single week released, and I appreciate everyone's feedback to continue to make our site the best site in Japan.

I cant even get the CNIC sites to come up at home. They always come back with an error msg and will not display. Adam, your website is amazing! All of your hard work and effort shows. This has been my 'go-to' site since arriving in Japan. Great resources, all in one place. Doesnt get any better than that.