WordPress at Metro
Project Overview¶
On October 20, 2009, at the request of Marc Littman, DEO of Public Relations, Douglas Goodwin and Sharie Powell worked with Steve Hymon to create a daily blog that covered Metro’s Board of Director and general activities. The Source, Metro Transportation News and Views, went live. With a directive to publish 5 to 7 stories per day to communicate to a new audience totaling 11,902 stories, 20,438 images, and 23 evergreen pages to date.
Project Timeline¶
Over a decade later, a WordPress Network of over 15 sites have been built on various platforms:
- The Source, using the Headways theme framework, is initially hosted inside the Metro IT Network;
- El Pasajero, the Source’s Spanish language sister site, created in April 2011 with Jose Ubaldo as Editor;
- Both sites migrated to WordPress VIP (on Douglas Goodwin and Sharie Powell’s departure in 2012);
- The Source and El Pasajero redesigned with shared Bromley theme on WordPress VIP’s multisite blog network in November 2014;
- The Source and El Pasajero migrated back in-house to Amazon Web Services (AWS) instances when Douglas Goodwin returns to Metro in 2015;
- Vanity websites created to address department requests for additional online project information; and
- Metro Lifeboat websites launched to address performance and archival issues on legacy Metro website in 2021.
Vanity Sites¶
To address a demand for project-related, date-sensitive topical or ‘vanity’ websites that separately housed with Metro’s Report to the Communities of LA County on Squarespace by Akemi Shimbasi in 2015. A self-hosted solution was preferred and subsequent sites were built using WordPress.
| Website | Project Description | Documentation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| America Fast Forward | Website covering a national initiative to build infrastructure and create transportation projects at americafastforward.metro.net. | YNAW | Archived |
| Annual Report | Metro Finance’s digital version of Metro CEO Phillip Washington’s Report to the Communities of LA County at annualreport.metro.net. | Pending | Archived |
| Developer | Originally set up to be a public access point or repository for developers who needed transit data and services. | YNAW* | Live |
| El Pasajero | Originally set up as the sibling site to Metro’s the Source to a Spanish reading audience. Jose Ubaldo and Maria Luisa Arredondo Pagaza lead the editorial team. | YNAW | Live |
| Help | How to’s and tutorials for Agency staff on various Metro Lifeboat tasks. | Pending | Live |
| Metro Primary Resources | Transportation Library and Archive link aggregator site. Hosted and maintained by Records Management staff. | Pending | Live |
| Making Metro | Brand Standards offer vendors guidelines, examples, and password protected assets at brand.metro.net. | Pending | Live |
| Metro Micro | Initially created as a traffic funnel for ad buy for new Metro ridesharing service. | Pending | Live |
| More Expo | Metro Expo Line Grand Opening at moreexpo.metro.net | Pending | Archived |
| More Gold | Metro Gold Line Grand Opening at moregold.metro.net | Pending | Archived |
| The Plan | Originally set up to be the landing page for Metro’s Ballot Measure M initiative. Measure M ballot initiative website featuring multi-language content and menu system. | YNAW | Live |
*These sites require additional access, please contact [Joe Simpson].
Lifeboat¶
- [Metro Lifeboat]
- Metro.net
- Art.metro.net