How to create personal pages for staff members

Staff members may have personal pages on the institute's web site, in the simplest cases they only contain a name and a function (you can even decide not to have such a page at all). We think it is important that staff members themselves can define the content and we only ask that it should be similar in form and tone to a formal cv. Each head of a group decides whether this constraint has been met and a particular personal page of a member of her or his group can go online. Each author of a personal page is legally liable for the content she or he has created.

Here is an example of a personal page (English):
http://www.nf.mpg.de/cv/ricarda-schubotz.html

The staff members' pages can be accessed via the Staff Listing and the member lists of the individual groups. In addition, personal pages are available in this way:

http://www.nf.mpg.de/cv
http://www.nf.mpg.de/mitarbeiter

The last link refers to (optional) German versions - you are free to chose to have an English-only or German-only page instead and it is entirely your own decision whether the page contains a foto and/or email address, phone or fax number.

If you replace ".html" with ".org" you will get the plain text file from which an individual page was generated (see next section).

WARNING: We will try hard to quickly process any requests for changes of personal pages, however, please keep in mind that this is the age of global search engines which also keep older versions of web pages cached (our web site is by no means special in this respect) - so older versions might still be accessible somewhere on the internet, in particular content that has long been deleted here.

We have tried to keep the procedure simple: we will receive the content in plain text files in Org-mode format. This is a markup language which is very similar to what is used on a Wiki. You can use any text editor of your choice - in most cases it will be sufficient to adapt the examples given below to your personal needs and taste. We also have prepared some technical instructions (German): Technische Details.

The Org-Mode project, http://orgmode.org, is supported by the institute and the lead developer recently gave a guest talk: http://www.nf.mpg.de/orgmode/guest-talk-dominik.html.

Org (like LaTeX, Wiki markup and all modern CMS applications) separates content and layout. This allows us to significantly change how something will appear on screen or in print (e.g. by using a Cascading Style Sheet) without having to change anything in the org files we have received. It also generates a consistent "look" for all staff members. Please see the Colophon section of http://www.nf.mpg.de/kinderuni/report_en.html for more information.

We have prepared the following simple examples which should be sufficient to get you started. More information can be found here (German): Technische Details, in particular about the options in the mandatory header section: Besonderheiten des Kopfbereichs.

In the following examples, the second links refers to the text version (Org-Mode format), which was used to generate the HTML files. The org files are displayed as text by some browsers (they are indeed "plain text"), you can select parts of the text and copy/paste them into your text.

You can access a web service from within the institute's networks which turns a text file in Org format (and an optional photo) into an HTML file (this will look exactly like the online version):

http://flamel-intern/org
(this link only works within our networks)

We refer advanced users to our Emacs and CV introduction, which explains how to install and use the Emacs editor with a current version of Org-mode on their own computers, we provide some configuration files to simplify editing org files and creating HTML content.

When the org file (plain text, please, preferably with UTF-8-encoding) is ready, the head of the group should send it by email to nfhome@nf.mpg.de.

IMPORTANT 1: By sending an org file by email, the head of a group implicitly confirms that from her or his point of view the transferred content is "compatible" with the institute's mission and is similar in form and tone to a formal cv. The author of a personal page is legally liable for the content she or he has created.

IMPORTANT 2: Requests for small changes (typos, etc.) in existing personal pages do not need approval from the head of a group and can be send to nfhome@nf.mpg.de directly.