as Forrest Gump observed ... IT happens!

I certainly know that one of the reasons much of this week has disappeared in something of a time "sponge" is as a result of our efforts to readjust our IT operations. I hope the following does not get too arcane, dear reader, but just enough to give you a sense of what I have confronted.

As you may know, one can divide the various "bITs" of interacting with the internet through websites into, variously, domain registration, website hosting, website design and construction, website maintenance and development (a variation on the 'design and construction'). Each of these different bits can be done by a company or a combination of companies. Indeed the permutations are myriad. Our own website was designed by a company which also arranged the domain registration and hosting (with another company) on our behalf. This company had also been charged by us with the continuing maintenance and development of our site.

What we hadn't appreciated was that the company had interposed itself between us and the domain registration/hosting company, had constructed the website using non-html/php code, and had adopted a postmodern approach to its maintenance and development responsibilities (this means, dear reader, that the company defined reality, rather than there being anything objective - something had been done or not done because representatives said so, not on any empirical basis). We had reached the stage by the end of last week where this latter approach was sufficiently distracting (and frustrating) that we determined to detach from that company's reality and create our own. Deconstructing that reality was not as easy as we anticipated, however, mainly due to the first two actions of the company.

I had identified Servage as a good alternative reality in which we could exist on a more sustainable basis and set about the process of registering domains and beginning the migration process. At this point, I am reminded of the old adage "The best way to learn is to do it. But sometimes the lesson is, don't do it!". I had begun deconstructing without have constructed the alternative reality in the first place.

First we had to get accurate information about the actual hosting company and then the correct information to be able to access our own website (both the basic site and the database, hosted elsewhere, so we found out). This took several attempts and a visit to the company's offices to achieve. OK so now we've got the files (or so we thought, coz it turns out we didn't have the database files, but that's the next part of the story) and load them up to the Servage site (by this stage, I've got everyone running on emails from the new host and very pleased with myself) but bugger me if they won't "spark". Servage has a great customer service centre and the folks there calmly shepherded through the various stages of exasperation and triumph until the "crunch" - we're sorry, they say, your files are in ASP; we don't support ASP. ARRRRGGGHHH!

You may have heard that exclamation from me, dear reader, almost no matter where in the world you were at the time - more an existential, cri de coeur than an actual scream, but piercing nonetheless. With a great mate in Sydney (thanks Jen!) an ASP translation program was identified and, as we went to the next stage of the migration process, we confirmed that, while the structure files were written in ASP, much of the space taken up by our 65mb website comprised jpeg, doc, pdf and vid files. While there were several hundred files to deal with and a weekend of "cut ASP, paste ASP, translate to php, cut php, paste php, save file" to be had, the likelihood of getting the site back on the rails by Monday seemed doable (by this stage, I had learned the wonders of FTP, constructed and uploaded an "emergency" one page web site, and begun to come to terms with the labrynthine nature of what it is to be a webmeister).

Then the Good Lord smiled on me through one of his children in Calicut, whose boss had met one of my bosses in Dubai and offered to help. In a gentle email, he basically offered to relieve me of the whole translation process and contribute to a reconstruction of our website that will very much be a "new, improved" version, and still within our desired timeframe. So, I look forward to Monday and hope that the short break I will take tomorrow to visit the Kochi Backwaters with Freeda and one of her friends ( a Bollywood director, searching for possible film locations) will be both rejuvenating and occuring against a background of positive activity in other parts of Kerala. So I end this blog with the fervent prayer that IT will happen. :-)