Web Managers Roundtable Discussion

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep up with all Q & A during this session, but will do my best. :-)

Right now just some introductions.

UPDATE 2:12 PM

Panel still introducing selves. might be taking up too much time. :-(

UPDATE 2:18 PM

Ok. now we're getting to Qs.

Q: who manages web policies at your school?
A: Bob: meetings, arguments about policies and web links. They "slog through it". They view the web as community property so they argue about links etc.
A: Rachel: independent authors so it's hodge-podge
A: Luke: they use their mission and fact that are a christian school, they use those as guidelines. seems to be a self-policing situation...don't use "hammer" approach. don't squash all that comes along.
A: Sri: marketing team sets the style and what goes on public web site. They are having the portal vs web site debate.
A: Doug: "our policies stink" {LOL} They don't have anyone to turn to in order to write policies or anyone driving the effort on their campus.
A: moderator: policies control what people can do and what's acceptable. style guide is a little different.

Q: how are you addressing social media?
A: Doug: they built their own social network for accepted students. only for admissions and recruitment strategies. nothing for current students.
A: Luke: no written policy as to how to use for admissions, but in PR he's picked up a twitter acct and a flikr account. They're hands off...more grass-roots. He did get a uni page for them on facebook. They're holding b/c if they get all these networks, who will manage it? They're getting mixed reviews: students=stay away from facebook; alumni=yeah, this is pretty good.
A: Bob: they're looking into some open source platforms to build several social networks from student to almnus.

Q: pros and cons of adopting google apps
A: Bob:
A: rachel: using google analytics at uni of iowa. that's all for now
A: Luke: some students in pilot program using gmail.
A: Sri: no longer using lotus notes and one option was google and gmail, but they chose microsoft in the end.
A: moderator: had some switch, but having probs with gmail switch for students. they're not getting all emails.

Q: are any of the panel involved in e-communication--newsletters for example.
A: Doug: his office creates templates for e-newsletters and emails for alumni office, admissions,etc. all use template created by web services office. His office sends out a quarterly e-newsletter.
A: Luke: they run a listerv and have several newsletters on campus. they send plain text emails with link to newsletters
A: Rachel: they use constant contact for newsletters. some set newsletters and some adhoc, such as homecoming.
A: Bob: fac/staff newspaper was redesigned in WordPress.

Q: use of video? what are the demands from depts? do you have the infrastructure?
A: Bob: they had a $10 million donation from a microsoft principle that should help with quality video and pushing it out.
A: Luke: youtube, google video that school pushes out, some are produced by students, but how can it be used? lots on facebook and all that but do you want others to see it? some have great content, but poor quality b/c are put out by students or are in bad file format for web. They're working on 2 minute videos.

Now discussing iTunesU. Bob says his overall data transfer went up 4x after being on iTunesU. Doug says on ning they have a place for students to upload own video. Is very popular on campus. Was done cheaply and low quality, but those were some of the best ones. Alumni liked b/c saw what students are doing on campus.

UPDATE 2:40 PM

Q: what is your web team structure? how do you handle rogue depts?
A: Bob: need more people, but those with the money need to be on board. rogue depts? he non-chalantly says he'll have to let the higher ups know about their "rogue-ness". New Q: do you have students work on the web? Bob says they try to use students for web 2.0 things, not so much for web developement.
A: Karen: have about a dozen people that contribute. used to be 70% communication 30% IT, now it's mostly IT b/c of budgeting, but she works with communication. They've hired a student that can use Dreamweaver. "we won't use contribute anymore."
A: Luke: They report to advancement office. has a coworker with a journalism background. need more developers, hoping for new position in web services. Does have a student worker. Says that students have a lot to bring.
A: Sri: they just went under a re-org. says content collaboration has taken a hit. they're working to address it. They do have student workers, even a programmer student worker.
A: Doug: reports to the CIO. grown from 2 to 10 people in the web office. the marketing people on their campus are trying to get them in their office.
A: moderator: Doug has done a good job of getting more dollars and more positions in the office. He makes a good business case for it and then delivers when he gets more resources. Doug: you have to make the case afterward as well.
moderator: Don't think about students as programmers. Content is king. Says can find good student writers.

Keynote--Jeffrey Veen

Man, this guy's resume is impressive!

Said the #heweb08 on twitter was hottest thing going on twitter this morning. WOOT!!!

Correlating web to the intricate choreography of the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics this year.
Giving a humorous bit of history starting in 1974 with watergate, gas price spike, and now discussing musical shifts, etc. Broke up the monopoly of telecommunications. Used the word internet for the first time in 1974 in a white paper. PONG! Tells of first time he saw a "tv with a glass top that he could control". With games came the ability to participate and create. Showing nice pics of old games/computer parts. :-)

IBM released first hard drive. It's about the size of a kitchen counter and cabinets. In today's dollars it cost about $100,000 per GB. now with Google can get storage for $0.15 per GB.

Every minute of the day at YouTube 13 HOURS of video are uploaded. {gasps}

UPDATE 1:05 PM

Showing how using some design and usability guidelines, can make a table of data more useable. "Fine line between information and decoration." You can lose the meaning if over-decorate the data. Spent 15 months at Google to work on google analytics on the dashboard.

Wow...looked at stuff from 1854 for design ideas:

• Cholera outbreak. 1 of 3 people had it and died. Dr. John Snow, one of first anastheisiologists. Mapped the cholera deaths in neighborhood of SoHo. convinced city council for London that the outbreak was being spread by water, not air. He took a drawing from a sewer engineer and edited it for his use. He used visualization to help prove imperical fact.
• Charles Joseph Minard had a chart of Napoleon's march. The graph shows 6 different variables. He wanted to create a graph so people wouldn't have to think in order to understand the data and see the patterns.
• Harry Beck worked for London underground. He drew a map of it in 1930's. he was an engineer so used that knowledge to create a very useful map. Users of the underground only care about where does it stop and what side of the river am I on?
• Jeff was watching Indiana Jones and got some inspiration for a chart on GA. Had a dream that Indiana flew his plane over the data. LOL
• Thought of ways to gain perspective. ex: 2 billion pennies. how to visualize that many pennies? Using images to gain perspective can help. Megapenny.com
• Chris Jordon, artist. uses small images on a large scale to create impact. chrisjordon.com. Point here is to find the story in the numbers and portray that on the web in a visual way.

UPDATE 1:20 PM

Talking about how designers for paper had a change in perspective when had to design for web b/c had to give up control. Control of size page, typography, had to be flexible. One of these designers started csszengarden.com

Realizing we can give up control of design. We can find the story in the data and help it with visualization, but giving the control to users so they can extrapolate what they want, to find their own stories in the data is powerful.

UPDATE 1:30 PM

Wow, he's such a dynamic speaker. Very engaging, knowledgeable and very timely.

Seems like he's saying that on the web we have control in that we create ways to allow the users to control their own data and create their own story or glean what they need/want from a system.

They provided filters to enable clarity. Ex: gapminder. This seems amazing. Note to self, I need to check this out.

New York Times has a casualties of War timeline that has just continued to run.

We need to not only tell stories, but allow discovery. Provide interactivity and allow filtering, not just our providing editing. Web 2.0 is collaborative, collective knowledge.

Teens have a different idea of private vs public.

Veen's fave example of meeting users' needs: us dept of ag: need hay or have hay? LOL

key pts: know yourself and understand the user.

http://veen.com/heweb08.pdf

Blogification

Well, I haven't blogged in month. :-P Just had too many other things going on, but now's the perfect time to get back to it: HighEdWeb conference is under way!

So far, it's been a bit of an experience. My friend and coworker is here, too but has had a bit of medical difficulties. She scratched her eye {winces}. I felt so badly for her yesterday. She could barely open it...all red and watery. We ate dinner in the hotel lounge (actually pretty good chicken sandwich). She then went to bed early and I met up with my old college roomie, Ang. She's in grad school here (what luck!)

So this morning I went with Ang to church and while I was away Cacy first texted me to go find and buy an eye patch. The next text read, "I'm gone to the urgent care clinic" :-O

So after we tracked her down this morning, we found a renewed Cacy: the doc numbed her apparently scratched cornea and gave her a 'script for some eye antibiotics.

Now that Cacy is feeling better and Ang has homework to do, we're ready to conquer the conference. :-)

I'll post from the conference, but since my readership aren't "in the biz", I'll post the OTHER side of the conference. I hear that Michael Fienen is going to live blog over at SuperSatellite for anyone interested in actual conference-topic blogging.