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We're currently putting the finishing touches to our major release of Firefly, and we're all really excited by the new version.  Here is just a summary of some of the big changes and new features.

As schools' Firefly sites continue to grow, one of our key focuses this release was on navigation - how to make it easy for people to get to the content that is most relevant to them.  So we have made big changes to both the ways people can personalise their Firefly experience, but also made Firefly a lot more social - allowing editors or others to recommend content to you, as well as allowing you to follow changes to content or discussions more easily.

More personalised and social for teachers and pupils

• All new dashboard

  Building on My Feed, all logged in users now get a personalised home page showing them targeted information - messages, bookmarks, tasks, feedback on work and more.  Users will also see a user bar at the top of each page, allowing them to jump back to the dashboard, their tasks, etc easily.
  

• Bookmarks

  Bookmark pages on the site that are useful to you for quick access from your dashboard or bookmarks page.  You can also recommend bookmarks to others - for example if you have just built a revision sheet for your GCSE set, you can recommend the page to them and it will appear on their dashboard.

• Tasks

  Now you can easily create tasks for your students, with work collected either offline or online.  Keep tabs on how many have been completed and mark online if appropriate.  Students can sort and colour their tasks to keep them organised.
  

• Redesigned profiles

  We have updated profiles to bring together even more information on individuals and groups, including pulling through profile pictures from the MIS where available.

• Improved notifications

  Now you can choose whether to follow a page or follow its comments, or follow the posts on a forum.

Easier to edit and share for content editors

• Pasting just got a lot easier

  Choose whether to maintain or strip formatting when you paste so that your documents look great on the web with minimum fuss.

• Sharing your content

  You can now recommend your content to groups or individuals.  Even better, the system knows which groups you work with most often.

Example templates provide inspiration for site owners and designers

• New example templates

  We're building more and more example templates so that you can use them immediately on your site, or use them as a starting point if you like to get your hands dirty with HTML & CSS.

More flexible and pluggable log in options for system administrators

• Deeper integration with MISs

  Last year's live MIS integration was just a start.  We have built a framework to pull 'relationship' information from MISs so Firefly will know who teaches whom and so on.  This allows Firefly to display more relevant information to different people.  We are also working on pulling student and teacher timetables from a number of MISs.
  

• More flexible login system

  Enable Active Directory and database user accounts simultaneously to avoid creating accounts in the AD for parents, governors or alumni.  Alternatively, we or you can use our expanded API to write your own login/single sign on integrations.

Last Friday most of the team decamped to Brighton for dConstruct 2011, organised by our friends at Clearleft.  Josh, our Project Director, took sketchnotes of each of the talks, and we thought you might like to see the results!

This post has now been filled.

Our software powers learning platforms, intranets and websites for dozens of the top schools in the UK.  Now we're looking for a front end developer to join our growing team.

We're looking for a web designer/front-end developer to work both on our own products and on bespoke sites for our clients.  You'll need to be able to prototype ideas quickly and then implement them in good HTML and CSS.  A good eye for visual and UI design and knowledge of Javascript would be advantages.  We know that some people will be more code/markup focused and others more design focused, but we'd like you at least to have a basic understanding of both.

Key things you'll need to know about:

• Visual design
• HTML
• CSS

Knowledge or experience with these would also help:

• Javascript
• jQuery
• XSL
• ASP.NET
• Project management

Most importantly, we're looking for someone friendly, enthusiastic and good at picking up new skills quickly.

About us

We're small but dedicated, which we means we can stay close to our clients and develop and improve our products very quickly to meet their needs.  It also means you'll get great exposure to all of the things that go on in a fast growing business.

We're committed to your own professional development, so we offer a flexible training budget for you to spend on attending conferences or other events.

We're based in Hammersmith, West London, though there'll be opportunities for travel.  We're also happy to consider flexible working arrangements, so you wouldn't necessarily need to be in the office all the time.

School holidays are upon us so we are beavering away on the next major release of Firefly.  We are adding a number of new features, making some existing ones even easier to use, and adding a number of new default templates or skins.  Stay tuned for more but here's a taster of what we're working on at the moment.  Please note, these top secret screenshots are from a work in progress...

Please note that the content of this page was updated on Monday 30 April 2012, to include amendments and clarifications that have since emerged regarding the legislation discussed.

We've had a number of clients ask about the new EU cookie law and how it affects their school website. I thought I'd put together some quick information on the cookie law and how it may or may not affect yours.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your computer as a way of remembering a visitor between webpages. Cookies are often used for login, remembering settings, analytics and tracking and more.

What is the new law?

From May 2011 a new privacy law came into effect across the EU requiring all websites ask visitors for consent before using certain types of cookies. Note that cookies that are deemed "strictly necessary" to a particular task the user is performing - for example keeping track of what is in a user's shopping basket on an online shop - do not require prior consent.

As the law is going to create a lot of work for website owners and developers, the UK government has said that it will not be taking any action before May 2012.

How can websites get consent?

This is where the law is let down by practicalities (did that ever happen before?). In theory as consent must be given before cookies are used, websites using cookies that are not "strictly necessary" will have to place some kind of pop up or prominent message as soon as the user enters the site asking whether they give consent to cookies being used. This will result in every website displaying the same/very similar splash screens that users get used to just clicking "OK", scared that the site will not function correctly if they choose the "No thanks" option.

Is my school website affected?

You need to ask the developers of your website whether and how cookies are used. For Firefly schools, we only use one cookie out of the box for guest users, and this is a cookie managed by our web framework, Microsoft's ASP.NET, that tracks the visitor's session between pages but does not store any user identifiable information.

Tracking the session is necessary for any functionality that needs to 'remember' what the user is doing between web pages - eg adding items to your Firefly shopping cart. As this cookie is part of the underlying Microsoft framework, it's likely that it will be regarded as "strictly necessary". Indeed, that is the approach that the Information Commissioner's Office have taken on their newly updated website: "One of the cookies we use is essential for parts of the site to operate and has already been set" refers to the same cookie we use.

This cookie is also used when/if users, such as current parents or staff, log in to keep track of their login session.  Further cookies are also used by the edit tools to remember recently inserted pictures, the position of the toolbar, and so on.  Consent for these can easily be added to your terms & conditions/acceptable use policy/parental agreements that you already have before giving a login to school systems.

If you use Google Analytics in your website to get statistics on incoming visitors, this uses cookies that are unlikely to be classed as "strictly necessary".  As useful as the statistics are to you, it's difficult to see how you could argue they are necessary for your site to function for the visitor.  As a result, if the law comes into force in May 2012 in its current form, you would have to get consent before using the Google Analytics tracking cookie.  This means it is highly likely that a significant proportion of your users (those that decline) will go untracked by Google.  They may still be tracked by your site's built in tracking system if it has one (Firefly has a built in hit statistics module).

Do I need to do anything?

It would be sensible, if you haven't already, to do an audit of what cookies are used by your site.  Ask the developers of your site and post a clear summary on the terms and conditions page of your website.  If you use Google Analytics, mention this and explain that it uses cookies to gather non personally-identifiable statistics on visitors.  If you have secure areas of the site, include in your terms and conditions of getting an account that the user agrees that cookies will be used to secure access and for various pieces of functionality on the site.  Remember that you only need consent ahead of time for cookies that are not strictly necessary.

Find out more

The ICO has published further advice on the new cookies regulations. 

Please note, we are not your lawyers!  To find out more please seek legal advice from your school's legal team or solicitor.