Alumni Search capability

At the AA meeting last Wednesday, one topic that arose several times was to provide a searchable ‘database’ or our skills and experience that we could make available to SC.

We could do that with our current technology, although I am a bit of a skeptic. The challenge is defining the database. Given how disparate, wide and detailed our differing roles have been, it would take a lot of effort to work out all the fields. As an alternative idea, I have introduced a ‘google style’ search called Alumni Search, which searches your registered biography.

Using this, you can search for Sudan, South Sudan, or even for someone called Mark in Sudan.

Have a go and let me know what you think of it. This is a lot easier to do than a properly defined database.

You might want to upgrade your bio before we release this to SC. Go to Forum, then Profile (box on the top right) and you can see your bio there to edit. Nothing to stop you putting information at the bottom in note form; eg list of countries, programmes etc.

There is a limit at the moment on bios of 500 words and 5000 characters. i think that should be enough? If you are writing a long one, PLEASE save as you go through. I think there are bugs in the product on certain browsers when those limits get pushed. I don’t want you to lose lots of work.