Fuzzy Content

I just wanted to throw out a few events that will be at SXSW. For those who are going your first time you will be amazed. Since most people that read this site are higher ed people I will first mention:

SXSW Interactive 2007 - Higher Education Meetup
http://upcoming.org/event/136826/

Bar Camp Austin II
http://upcoming.org/event/119910/
http://barcamp.org/BarCampAustin

South by Northwest
http://upcoming.org/event/122872/

Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza
http://bowling.avalonstar.com/

Let us know if you will be there. If anyone has interest in meeting up contact me at
mherzberger [at] gmail [dot] com. Have fun and see you there.

This is call for discussion:

• Is there a hierarchy for web people at your school?
• Can people move up?

This is something I have been discussing with various colleagues at my university. Unlike IT which has System Analyst 1, 2, 3 and so forth. Or Computer Specialist 1,2,3… There are no steps to take for web people. At my school there is Web Designer, Web Site Administrator and I happen to be officially titled a Communications Specialist. This is the same title as the writer in my department. Go figure. What I want to know is do you face similar situations at your school? Do you have any way to move up? I think it is time that all schools recognize that the web is here to stay and not just a fad. I know DUH. But at a lot of schools web is the thing that gets overlooked and under funded.

Let me know your thoughts.

-Matt Herzberger 

You may have caught this in University Business, but on Saturday, February 4th, Oklahoma Wesleyan University began auctioning off a year of tuition, including room and board, on the online auction giant, eBay.

Although this is admittedly to gain publicity for the institution, don’t write this off too quickly. Text messaging, IM, mall advertising, and counselor posters all fall under the same category…Be where students are. Now eBay puts college tuition in the same place.

I doubt this is the new way to pay for college, but I’d be surprised to see OWU as the last institution to do this. We, at Fuzzy, believe that college recruiting is guerilla marketing. We also believe that we (as higher education folks) no longer set all the rules. We play on a field that requires us to catch the attention of students, parents, and other key audiences. This is a great example of not playing by the traditional rules.
Follow the 7-day auction. As of this post (2/6 @ 11:30 CST), the top bid sits at $16,100.

I recently caught a Webinar from x-pubs, which discusses the necessary changes that go into moving to full content management across campus. Emma Hamer discusses some of the problems and opportunities out there when changing to content management. Watch it all on YouTube.

For higher education, I work with many institutions that can underestimate the impact of a change to content management. To be done properly, please consider the following points:

• Start with goals and expectations. Many projects I am involved with are tied to a redesign of the entire .edu. Not only is content management being implemented, but also drastic navigation changes, a new interface design, and exciting new features. All this change at once can overwhelm users as well as authors and developers. Start with identifying what is not working on the existing site, what institutional initiatives impact the Web, and what the organization expects out of the Web in one, two, and three years. Without this understanding, it is difficult to determine success of the site, let alone how to fix a problem.
• Content management is not technology. I find myself saying this often. Besides a CMS being selected, an institution needs to identify who’s involved, what they will be doing, and what publishing and development processes need to be put in place. Also, all CMS providers are not created equal. Know what you want out of a content management solution, then seek CMS providers that match that criteria. Without a clear understanding of content management as a whole, no one CMS will succeed.
• Understand the hidden costs. CMS unfortunately is not a silver bullet. Once software is installed, the site does not build and manage itself. There is still initial training for authors and administrators, as well as periodic workshops to ensure all authors across campus(es) are on the same page. There is server installation and maintenance. And there are always new features and uses that can be incorporated to improve the user experience of your Web site.
• Get people involved early. With site redesign projects typically being on the “massive” side, those currently managing portions of the site will be impacted greatly. Whether site management is already decentralized or you are moving to distributed authoring, the people managing the site at the page level need to understand what is changing. They need to be able to provide direction, since they are the closest to site users. And especially if you are giving them ownership of the content (ability to directly publish), they need to have some say in navigation and interface changes. Don’t wait until all the big decisions are made. Bring them into early focus groups to share user stories. Involve them in changes to navigation. Ask them what they think the tone of the site should be. Trust me…they know.
• Understand your minimums. Content management works wonderfully, as long as there is central control of key aspects. The closer you get authors to only controlling content, the more successful your site will be. But there has to be a strong foundation. This includes navigation schemes, branding elements, and user resources that appear on every page. Understand what those are and who manages those elements.

As always, review site performance at least once a year, and don’t be afraid to make changes. A site redesign and content management implementation brings on so much change, you must keep what’s working and cut bait with what isn’t. You’ll be better off for it.