Website life

The first IMA web site was created in 1997 by Marco Pasero under the frame of the Working Group on Databases and Computer Applications (WGDCA). Information were provided by the IMA secretary Tamas Weiszburg. You may have a look at the pages of the initial web site registered in December 1998, and later on in December 2001. Since that time, records of the IMA web site are stored within Internat Archives which are located in the Presidio of San Francisco.

In 2002, a new IMA secretary, Maryse Ohnenstetter, was elected in Edinburgh. During the business meetings, major modifications were decided relative to the IMA Commissions and Working Groups. The WGDCA was ended and a new Committee was created to develop IMA communication, and to provide technology services for the IMA web site The new Committee on Computer and Technical Applications (CCTA) has had to prepare a project to be examined by the Council in Nice, in 2003. It was proposed to enhance the IMA web site, using an independent domain name, with improved opportunities for information exchange. The group was chaired by B. Devouard and comprised nine people. Following the Edinburgh meeting, several IMA Commissions and Working groups have developed their own web site; a link to their respective web site is available below:

Commission on Applied Mineralogy

Commission on Museums

Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification

Commission on Ore Mineralogy

Commission on Physics of Minerals

In April 2003, the IMA web site moved to Clermont-Ferrand with the following address : wwwobs.univ-bpclermont.fr/ima, with B. Devouard as the webmaster. A new site was designed with the help of Pierrette Tremblay, coordinator of the Mineralogical Society of Canada, who provided several days for maintenance. This was done by Marisol. A plan to develop the future web site was reported in the 2003 IMA report to IUGS (chap. 14.1) and within the annex (chap. 14). This led to the creation of a new layout; the home page of IMA web site was modified to display the logo of most member societies, and to report activities sent by Officers of Commissions and Working Groups, as well as information from the IMA Executive Committee. In addition, the list of National representatives and Officers was checked.

In 2004, the IMA web site changed significantly as the Council decided during the council meeting in Nice to fund Christine Lecluse for the maintenance of the IMA web site Christine revisited the web site in February 2004 to give a new look to the Web site and to incorporate new data, up-to-date information about the IMA, and links with other web site of interest for mineralogists.

Later on, in August 2004, the design of the web site was modified by Christine Lecluse. At the same time, the IMA web site received a domain name which is still used: http://www.ima-mineralogy.org. The name was selected among several others by the IMA Council and the Committee on Computer and technical Applications.In summer 2005, the site moved to Nancy to update it as soon as information arrive at the IMA Secretariat. A list of meetings of interest for earth scientists was added to the IMA web site, and additional information was reported under the different items created in 2003 and 2004.In 2006, the pages for the IMA Commissions and Working Groups within the IMA web site were modified to add two specific pages for scientific and business activities of IMA Com-WG in addition to the one displaying the commission strategy and addresses of officers of commissions and sub-commissions.

In december 2006, a special page devoted to the IMA secretary bulletin was created. A bulletin is prepared every three months from news received from the different IMA components.

In 2007, a page called social events was created to report photos taken during the IMA sponsored meetings. Photos taken during the different ceremonies occurring during the 2006 Kobe General Meeting are now reported in the IMA web site Additional photos of the directory members are also progressively added.

An IMA medal page was created following the Kobe decision to create an IMA award FOR EXCELLENCE IN MINERALOGY.

In June 2007, the IMA medal was shown to the IMA councilors during the annual council meeting held in Cambridge, and a picture of the medal was put on the IMA medal web site page. This page describes the award, give instructions to nominators and has a link towards a web page with a limited access. The limited access page is devoted to the Medal Committee members who can read files of nominees placed on the IMA website by the chairman Joel Grice. The restricted page was created with the help of Sylvie Niquet from the CIRIL [Centre Interuniversitaire de Ressources Informatiques de Lorraine]. This implied to move the IMA site on an Apache server, thanks to the help of Annick Faucourt from the CIRIL .

In november, the IMA council was informed on the necessity for the IMA web site to evolve towards a dynamic web site.