This page is intended as a brief introduction to the reorganization of SABR's web sites that is now in progress. It should give you an overview of the changes coming in the next year and how it can benefit your committee or chapter.

The core principle of this plan is that the SABR Staff will provide the framework described here, as well as the work needed to get research online and make it available. No one in your group has to learn anything new if you don't want to - but you are free to learn and do everything if you'd like more control.

Overview

We have already started the transition to a new SABR website. The sites you may have seen for the Minor Leagues Committee and the Origins Committee are some of the first committee sites online. We are applying staff time to get the rest of the committee research that is currently stored at www.sabr.org onto these sites.

Once we have that done, we will be free to replace the main sabr.org website, which we will do this fall. At that point, visiting sabr.org will give you two choices:

• Find research – to find research either by field of interest (committee sites) or topic (Encyclopedia)
• Join or login – to switch to "logged in" view

And you will proceed for there. The rest of this page exists to explain what you'll actually find in those two choices, and how we will help you make it happen.

Finding research

Finding research is very hard at SABR right now. We have a lot, mostly published in committee newsletters, that is almost impossible to get to. It's easy to read last month's newsletter, but hard to find something like "all articles about Wade Boggs ever published in a committee newsletter". Both should be easy, and this plan will make that possible. Here are the steps:

1. Publish research articles online. This primarily means drawing from articles already published in newsletters. We can provide staff time to get these online as web pages, which will make them easier to find, and open the research up to more people. This will attract a larger readership for research already being done, and potentially stimulate interest in a wider group.
2. Make it easy to find research on a topic. This is the role of the SABR Encyclopedia. Starting in March, 2010, the Encyclopedia will automatically create links to research articles published on committee sites. So, for example, if you write an article that mentions Eric Gagne, and link to his page in the Encyclopedia, the next day there will be a link to that article on his page. This will make it easy to find all the articles on a topic. It doesn't just work for players – it will work for any article in the Encyclopedia.
3. Keep members up-to-date on what new research is being published. The new logged in view will keep you up-to-date on research on topics that you're interested in. There's more on that in the next section.

Searching the Encyclopedia and viewing committee research sites will work the same whether or not a person is logged in, although of course the personalized "logged in" experience won't be available. There will also be some resources (such as oral history interviews) only available to logged in members, but most research will be public.

The "logged in" experience

Upon logging in, members will be brought to a page similar in style to a Facebook homepage, with the majority of the page taken up by updates. The nature of the updates, of course, will be different from Facebook.

This part of the plan isn't as important for committees as it is for chapters, but I think its important to know that when research is published online, members will be automatically notified - by email if they prefer, or on the web page. 

Updates on this page will include:

• Notifications of new posts to mailing lists. All chapters and committees will have built-in mailing lists (rather than Yahoo Groups) which members will be able to check from one central location. People who wish to keep up with SABR by email will see very little change, but we will have the added option of visiting the website to see everything at once.
• Notifications of new research. Whenever new research is posted on a committee's web page, it will appear for members of that committee.
• Other SABR News. As of today, the only way to keep up with general SABR news is to check the website regularly, wait for "This Week in SABR" emails, or wait for paper bulletins (being phased out). The new system will allow you to receive immediate updates.

More choice, easier access to research

The important thing about these changes is that they only offer more choices. Anyone who likes to read emails and bulletins to keep up with SABR can still do that. People who would rather have a web view for updates and read research online will now have that option, too.

With a few notable exceptions, SABR has not yet started using the web. We use email very well, but this plan is an attempt to take the next step, and make effective use of the web to share research with everyone, in and out of SABR, who is interested in interacting with the Society online.

And yet, by offering staff time to get research online, and by maintaining options to maintain the old member experience, I believe that we can do this without taking anything away from those who do not wish to participate. If anything, their SABR experience may be enhanced by renewed interest in research topics that could come from exposing more people to what has already been done.