The following is a letter to readers of the ANI newsletter from Alastair Cooper, Director, Sea Power Centre – Australia.
Dear readers of the ANI newsletter
I’m writing as the current Director of the Sea Power Centre – Australia and a long time ANI member in response to the various articles about the new Navy website and the history and heritage content from the previous website.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.
The new Navy website was a necessary evolution for a range of technical and usability reasons. It is not a one for one replacement of the old website. It will be a mechanism to communicate about Navy to a much broader audience than the ANI membership, who are already hugely knowledgeable and engaged on all things Navy.
The history and heritage content in the old website has not been lost. I know how much time and effort was given to the creation of those resources and I know their value for Navy and for anyone looking to understand more about what the Royal Australian Navy has done to serve the nation.
What does need to happen is to update the platform by which those valuable resources are made available, to make them more easily accessible and relate them to the Sea Power Centre’s role to explain the importance of sea power to Australia.
While the longer term web presence is designed, there will be an interim website to host the history and heritage resources from the old website. The best estimate is it will be up by the end of the month.
I apologise for all the excitement caused and not having written this letter in advance of the various changes. Should ANI members wish, you can get in touch with me at alastair.cooper@defence.gov.au
Best wishes
Alastair Cooper. Captain, RAN. Director, Sea Power Centre – Australia
Note from the Content Manager of the ANI website:
In light of the above, I will refrain from publishing in Sunday’s newsletter comments about the original post as is usually done. They have already been published on the website. However, any new comments on this post will be put on the site and the newsletter in the usual way.
