re.web - The William & Mary Web Redesign

There's no place like home.

2008-07-31T12:35:00.004-04:00

The re.web project is officially complete today - on time and within budget.

http://www.wm.edu

Beginning August 1, 2008, we move from project to process. W&M's website will evolve and improve as we work to offer interesting, informative and engaging content for our visitors. To make this happen, we will continue to rely on all of you - the talented people who love the College.

We welcome your comments here or at web@wm.edu. This is our final post on this blog - we hope you'll visit the new Web Team Blog.

Until we meet again, just close your eyes and click your heels together three times.

Go Tribe,
re.web Team

Launch Time?

2008-07-31T05:56:00.002-04:00

We expect to launch the new William & Mary website between 12:00 noon and 1:00PM today.

Go Tribe.

10...9...8...7...

2008-07-29T13:12:00.007-04:00

Yes! The new W&M website is launching on Thursday. With any takeoff, there comes a bit of turbulence. Don't be alarmed if you are directed to a page you didn't expect or if you receive the ever comforting "page not found." You can expect some flakiness with links while we transition. We'll be dodging those air pockets as quickly as we can.

Please don't evaluate the quality of the search results from the new site right away. Search engines may take until Monday to catch up.

Send an email to web@wm.edu if you find errors after Thursday. We appreciate your patience through this transition.

posted by Tina Coleman

A letter home from "camp"

2008-07-29T07:26:00.006-04:00

Dear Family and Friends,

We are having a great time here at W&M Operation Launch! Our camp counselor, Reverend Blair, is making us all write to our families in case you saw the 404 page and worried. We are OK. Only 1 new page and 2 table layouts got washed away. Luckily, none of us realized because we were all arguing about web-safe colors when it happened.

Oh yes, please call Tina's mother and tell her she is OK. She can't write because she is way too busy cleaning up HTML. I got to learn some new unix commands today. It was neat. Roger won't let me use the rm -rf * - he's so mean. Mr. Tyler got mad at Mark for going on a Google search alone without telling anyone. Mark said he did tell him, but it was during the database failure so he probably didn't hear him.

Norborne isn't crabby like some camp directors. He didn't even get mad about the broken links. He can be demanding though. He asked Andrew to draw a new map of camp (with new driving directions) and give it to you after you get here.

We will be home on Friday if (when!) the new website launches. Lord Boutetort told Joel that with a site that old you have to expect something to look weird in IE. Do you think we could get everyone to use Firefox?

I have to go now. We are locking ourselves up in Blow 311 again today. Don't worry about anything. We are fine. Can you send more Fig Newtons? We ran out.

Love, Susan

P.S. How long has it been since we backed up our web files?

At least the people love us

2008-07-23T12:29:00.008-04:00

Back in May, the re.web blog was nominated for an eduStyle Award for "Best Institutional Blog."

Yesterday, we got the word that the re.web blog was named the People's Choice Winner. Since we're busy launching a website, we weren't on hand to receive the award at the eduWEB conference. (Missed a trip to Atlantic City!)

eduStyle Awards Announcement

Congrats to our colleagues at Missouri University of Science and Technology who won the top award for their Name Change Conversations Blog.

Be Our Guest

2008-07-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

We officially begin the soft launch of our new website today. In fact, you can already go to http://preview.wm.edu to see the new site. Readers of this blog are perhaps finding out about the soft launch address early, before our provost sends a message about it to the campus.

If you’ve been to a soft opening of a restaurant, then you probably get the idea of a soft launch. Giving W&M faculty, staff and students a chance to preview the new site is a lot like being invited to a pre-opening of a new restaurant - when the staff are still in training. You can tell it’s going to be great – but they’re still working out the kinks.

Our new website is mostly done but during the next 10 days we’ll put on some finishing touches and fine tune some things. And, to continue the metaphor, like a restaurant, we’ll have some specials on opening day.

http://preview.wm.edu

posted by Susan Evans

Mark's Shiny New Toy

2008-07-20T07:37:00.012-04:00

During the past few weeks, we created and posted a new position for the W&M web team. Lucky for us, Mark C. Windley has accepted the position of Web Project Manager/CMS Administrator. Based on his strong technical background and project management experience, Mark was the ideal candidate for this new job.

Here are a few other pluses about Mark that "factored into his promotion."

He's a William and Mary grad.
(Enough said.)

He has two bachelor's degrees - one in fine arts and one in computer science.
(How cool is that).

As predicted by the above, he's a great writer.
(Re-read his post about LEGOs.)

posted by Susan Evans

The Soft (not Grand) Launch

2008-07-15T07:55:00.003-04:00

Ever been to the soft opening of a restaurant? Well, the soft launch of the new W&M website will be similar! The fun is you get a chance to see it before anyone else does. The reality is that you are visiting when it's not quite ready for prime time.

We plan to provide a preview link of the new W&M site by July 23rd-ish. The preview link will give faculty, staff and students the chance to see the new site before the official launch on July 31.

The soft launch is a preview - not a grand opening. While you're previewing the new site, we'll still be working on it, fine tuning it, and correcting errors we're counting on you to find.

If you're a member of our Facebook group, you're likely to get a pre-preview ;)

posted by Susan Evans

LOL

2008-07-14T12:23:00.002-04:00

Jack Martin, professor in the English department and a member of the re.web advisory committee, sent me an email message about website photography for the new English site.

Dear Susan,

The English Department has been hard at work obtaining suitable
photos for the new departmental site.

Jack

I laughed out loud when I saw the photo he had attached. If you don't get it, try looking at this page first: http://www.wm.edu/reweb/designs/

Cascade on a need to know basis.

2008-07-13T19:56:00.006-04:00

The new W&M website will launch in less than three weeks. For now, learning how to use the new web CMS is on a need to know basis.

Tomorrow, we start week three of content migration - a fancy way of saying more W&M web managers will be coming to Blow 311 to create new websites in Cascade. We expect to see Kathy Larrieu this week as she finishes up some Arts & Sciences sites. And, Amy Sikes will be working with us on the new Financial Aid site.

David Williard is continuing the build-out of the new News & Events site - the functionality for adding multimedia files to Cascade should be ready for David to use. Last week, Erin Zagursky (also from University Relations) devoted some of her Friday afternoon to learning the new system for creating web pages.

The consensus is that Cascade is very easy to use. I'm enjoying the fact that folks are using it and we've offered no formal training and no documentation.

Quote of the week from Blow 311 came from Renell Franklin (Development). When asked about using Cascade, Renell proclaimed, "It's easy. You'd have to be a biscuit head not to understand it."

posted by Susan Evans

Migration Location

2008-07-09T18:05:00.002-04:00

Still at it. Migration of content continues. Several W&M web managers are using the new web CMS to build new sites for the July 31 launch. How do the web managers feel about Cascade at W&M?

Look at the big smile on John Wallace's face.

And, what are the web managers saying about Cascade at W&M?

The new product is actually much better than what we currently have. It's great being on the ground floor of this effort and having the chance to influence how Cascade will work for W&M web managers.

-German Mendez, Registrar's Office

posted by Susan Evans

Faculty are our best critics.

2008-07-07T14:32:00.000-04:00

We're lucky at W&M. Our faculty are enthusiastic participants and supporters of campus programs, initiatives, projects, and committees.

The re.web project is no exception. Because we've asked them to be, faculty have been our best critics ;)

Here is the honor roll of faculty critics - the individuals who have volunteered their time to review, edit, and comment on new copy for the relaunch of the W&M website.

Chuck Bailey, Geology
Larry Evans, Government
Geoff Feiss, Provost
John Griffin, Biology/Neuroscience
Pam Hunt, Psychology/Neuroscience
Laurie Koloski, Reves Center/History
Heather Macdonald, Geology
Dennis Manos, Vice Provost
Jack Martin, English
Jen Mellor, Economics
Scott Nelson, History
Sue Peterson, A&S Undergraduate Dean
Kim Phillips, A&S Educational Policy Dean
Christy Porter, Psychology
Margaret Saha, Biology
Laurie Sanderson, A&S Graduate Dean
Joel Schwartz, A&S Honors/Interdisciplinary Studies Dean
Kate Slevin, Sociology
Carl Strikwerda, Dean of the Faculty
Gene Tracy, Physics
Tom Ward, Education

Thank you all,
Susan

"This is actually going to work."

2008-07-04T10:12:00.008-04:00

This is actually going to work.

I'm quoting an unnamed, but accurate and authoritative, source here (cough, Andrew). Cascade Server is working for W&M!

The re.web team and several key W&M web editors were on task last week. We completed a successful four days of migrating sites from our legacy web server to Cascade. And, we were fortunate to have the patience and flexibility of Josh Henry (Admission), Luke Gill (Dean of Students), Kathy Larrieu (Arts & Sciences), and German Mendez (Registrar's Office) as we worked out the to-be-expected kinks in any new system.

Next week, we expand the migration party, bringing David Williard and Suzanne Seurattan (University Relations), Renell Franklin (Development), and John Wallace (Development) into the mix. We anticipate great things from week two!

posted by Susan Evans

Storytelling

2008-07-02T10:05:00.000-04:00

Behind the scenes, in the still of the night, between meetings, from Aggie-land in Texas, and upon arrival in Cape Town, the W&M Bloggers are, well, blogging!

We have talented admission interns writing about their summer work (and adventures), their life at W&M, and eels at the Williamsburg Farmers Market.

We have exceptional graduate and undergraduate students writing about their love for the College, summer internships, Sam Sadler, and addiction to Wawa coffee.

We have committed professors and administrators writing about how to stump an admission dean, how to empower a community through medical outreach, how to be dean on duty, and (my personal favorite) how to structure readings and assignments for a fall freshman seminar.

Although they may not realize it, our official bloggers are storytellers. Powerful web communication comes from the personal stories of the W&M community. Less convinced? Recall Andrea's post on the topic.

Background on W&M Bloggers.

posted by Susan Evans

Cascading

2008-06-30T20:33:00.000-04:00

Migration of content officially started today!

Blow 311 is regularly booked now as Cascade Command Central. W&M's Cascade web content management system is now ready to hold "standard content pages." We'll need a few more days of programming by Global Image before the less standard pages (like news articles, SPIFFs, and other widgets) are ready for content.

So today, we started with the bravest web editors we know - Josh Henry from Admission, Kathy Larrieu from Arts & Sciences and Luke Gill from Dean of Students Office. Tomorrow, we expect German Mendez from the Registrar's Office.

In my view, a primary goal of re.web is nearly accomplished. Because of the CMS, the technology behind the web pages is not the focus. It's all about content now; it's all about what we have to say about the College.

Need a refresh on the goals of re.web?

To send the critical message that content is what matters most on the web

posted by Susan Evans

Don't try this at home.

2008-06-30T11:51:00.000-04:00

We've occasionally blogged about what's going live when the new website launches on July 31. Until now, we've summarized it qualitatively.

Last week, we built out the information architecture for all of the go-live features, pages and sites within Cascade. Despite an IA that requires 1,150 rows in an Excel spreadsheet, we finished on time. Andrew, Joel, Mark, and Tina: you always meet the goal!

---------------------
**Warning: Spoiler**
(if you are involved in the build-out and migration of the new site, you may want to stop reading here)
---------------------

So let's go quantitative this time: there will be at least 808 new web pages on July 31. And the vast majority of these new pages will have all new content! Want to know why the number of rows in the spreadsheet exceeds the number of new pages? Because we also built folders in Cascade for images, graphics, and documents in the new sites.

This 808 page total doesn't even count the individual blog entry pages that our brand-new student, staff and faculty bloggers are currently writing. I'm betting we hit 1,000 pages.

And photography - do you really want to go there? Okay, latest count, there are nearly 350 photos (and we are identifying more as I write this).

posted by Susan Evans

I'd like to be a college student again . . .

2008-06-28T15:18:00.004-04:00

I've been reading drafts of some features that mStoner is writing for the psychology department. (Sidebar: the psychology department is a part of the initial re.web launch on July 31!)

I should have taken more psychology as an undergrad - the courses described in these special interest features (SPIFFs) drafted by mStoner are catching my attention. The subject of one SPIFF is Professor Connie Pilkington's annual "neuron firing event." In Psyc 201, Professor Pilkington takes 300 undergrads outside to explain the complex electrochemical process that makes neurons fire.

A second SPIFF is about Psyc 422, Behavior Modification. Professor Janice Zeman offers a unique assignment and personal way for her students to apply what they've learned about behavioral theory.

Look for these and other great features in just 33 days.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - It's Academic

2008-06-27T06:40:00.002-04:00

In this week's copyWrite, we post an entry with a bit of copy from the new Academics section of the new W&M website.

Academics
The best small public university in America. Period.

William & Mary is an academic powerhouse. Our undergraduate and graduate students choose W&M because of its celebrated liberal arts tradition and commitment to hands-on, original research. They know they’ll work hard, but that their uncommon efforts will be personally, academically and professionally rewarding.

Our faculty members are not only internationally recognized leaders in their fields, but passionately engaged educators. They understand that original research, meaningful community service, and a first-person global perspective have the power to turn an ordinary class into an unforgettable experience.

Academic life at William & Mary is spread across five schools and dozens of academic departments. If we do our job right, then you’ll step foot in nearly all of them. Our students are too multi-talented and intellectually curious to be pigeonholed as a “chemistry major” or a “law student.”

If you’re seeking to be challenged, engaged, inspired—to be educated—you belong at William & Mary.

posted by Susan Evans

Shiny, Slick, and There!

2008-06-21T13:20:00.004-04:00

The new hardware and software needed to launch the "production Cascade" at W&M is shiny, slick, and there. Not a day behind schedule, our technical and engineering teams are unquestionably reliable.

I love it when I get an email message filled with acronyms, technical terminology, engineering references, and server names. It usually means things are going well. Roger Clark's Friday afternoon message didn't disappoint - the bottom line, we have the web server and software environment we need (and deserve!) to re-launch www.wm.edu.

Many thanks to Andrew Bauserman, Roger Clark, Clarke Morledge, Eric Myers, Chris Peck, and Mark Windley. I know you were just doing what you do - but chocolate cake will arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

Other readers of this message: your chocolate cake is virtual.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - W&M Impact

2008-06-20T07:23:00.005-04:00

In this week's copyWrite, you'll find a sample entry for a special interest feature (SPIFF) that will be called W&M Impact. This spiffilicious example, written by Erin Zagursky in W&M University Relations, will be one of many profiles and stories showcasing the many ways W&M makes Williamsburg, Virginia, and the world a better place to live.

W&M Impact
Service: W&M's Hottest Ticket
At W&M, service trips are worth sleeping on the floor.

At William and Mary, students aren't lining up in sleeping bags to wait for concert tickets. They're camping out and sleeping on floors in hopes of getting the trip of a lifetime. Service trips are the hot ticket at William and Mary.

Helping others is infectious here. At last count, students spend more than 323,000 hours doing community service each year - across the globe and locally. In the 'burg, they tutor or read to "adopted" grandparents, and in Uganda, they build schools for orphans.

"Service is in the best tradition of William and Mary," Interim William and Mary President W. Taylor Reveley III told students during a spring dinner. "I'm very proud of you."

This year, the Office of Student Volunteer Services offered more international service trips than ever. The 16 trips - to locations like Honduras and Tanzania - had students setting up medical clinics, providing educational programs, doing research and building relationships. Along with the international trips, students served in the good ol' U.S. of A. with seven spring break service trips. Spring break trips are so popular among students that they have camped out the night before sign-ups. This year, the students were entered in a lottery where hitting the jackpot meant spending their spring break in places like New Orleans, helping with disaster relief.

"I've been doing community service for a long time and I don't have anything planned over Spring Break, so what better to do than to help some people out while I'm on break," said student Lamar Shambley.

posted by Susan Evans

With a careful eye

2008-06-17T07:06:00.003-04:00

Joel Pattison put together a photo bank of 11 shots that might work as banner images for the Psychology Department's new website. Faculty and staff in Psychology are reviewing this set of images with a plan to settle on 6 - 8 of them for the rotating banner on their site.

Possible Banner Images for Psychology

Once Psychology makes some choices, Joel's work begins (again) - he'll do some magic, enhancing and optimizing the final photo choices.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - VIMS Featured Research

2008-06-13T06:20:00.001-04:00

copyWrite is a feature of the re.web blog. Often on Fridays, we'll show you a snippet of some of the new web copy. In this week's copyWrite, we highlight a new special interest feature that will be available on the new website for VIMS. Dave Malmquist wrote this sample for Featured Research - the new VIMS site will also have Featured People and Featured Programs.

Featured Research

Seagrass? Me neither
A study led by Dr. Robert Orth reveals a troubling decline in seagrasses around the world. He’s now striving to inform the public about why these grasses are so important, and how their loss affects humans and marine ecosystems.

Seagrass crisis global

Dr. Robert Orth has studied Chesapeake Bay seagrasses for more than 30 years. He knows that this vital resource is in serious trouble—with excess nutrients, turbid water, and a warming climate as the main culprits.

Now, a study by Orth and a dozen international colleagues reveals what may be the most troublesome finding of all: seagrass loss is global, but the public remains largely unaware of both the problem and its consequences. Seagrasses provide a home for many important fish and shellfish species, limit erosion, soak up nutrients, and help improve water clarity.

The study was conducted by Orth and other members of the Global Seagrass Trajectories Working Group, part of a national effort to promote the analysis and synthesis of ecological information.

Orth's team found that reported cases of seagrass loss haven risen by nearly a factor of 10 during the last 40 years. Says Orth, "We compiled reports of seagrass loss from as far north as Denmark, as far south as Australia, and from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and Japan."

The scientists argue that these losses, caused mostly by human activities in the coastal zone, constitute a global crisis for seagrasses.

Despite the magnitude and rapidity of these losses, the team found that seagrasses receive from 3- to 100-times less media attention than coral reefs, salt marshes, and mangroves—even though seagrasses deliver "ecosystem services" that are at least twice as high as these other imperiled habitats.

Orth attributes the public's lack of knowledge to the "invisibility of seagrasses." "These plants grow underwater," he notes, "and in very shallow areas that most boaters avoid. Also, the animals that seagrasses harbor are often small and hidden, in contrast to the large and dazzling organisms that attract the general public to coral reefs."

Orth's team recommends a two-pronged effort—increased conservation efforts and education for the public and resource managers.

"One of our goals," says Orth, "is to educate people about the value that seagrasses provide and how important they are compared to coral reefs, mangroves, and other coastal ecosystems. Right now we're the 'ugly duckling' of these charismatic habitats, but hopefully we're going to change that."

posted by Dave Malmquist, VIMS Director of Communications

Do You Want the Good News or the Bad News?

2008-06-11T19:17:00.013-04:00

When the new W&M website launches on July 31, it'll all be good news because News at W&M will be displayed in a robust and carefully planned News & Events site.

Mike Connolly, Brian Whitson, David Williard, and Joe McClain spent two hours in our favorite windowless conference room on Tuesday afternoon. Ben & Jerry joined us - we also consumed Dove Bars and Reese's PB cups!

Andrew, Mark and I walked through the technical implementation of the design mock ups that we'd finalized back in March. The news for News is good because we'll have a site that can showcase the audio, video, features, galleries and micro-sites that are the hallmarks of the current News site. The work of University Relations offers compelling profiles of faculty research, and great coverage and stories of the activities and goings on of W&M faculty, students, and staff. This is going to be a great new site; I'd like to think there's another CASE award in store for University Relations . . .

We covered a lot of ground between frozen treats and we have a plan. They were okay with the bad news too. When it comes down to it, building a new website is just a lot of hard work. The reality is that individual news stories and press releases from 2008 will need to be migrated. (Migrate: a fancy word that when you're lucky implies automation; but in this case means someone has to copy and paste content from the legacy web server to Cascade.) Let's not even talk about the photos that need to be cropped and optimized for the web.

In early July, we start pouring content into Cascade. This will require more Dove Bars and plenty of pizza. Wonder if our colleagues in University Relations like pepperoni, anchovy, or sausage? Maybe they'll post a comment letting me know ;-)

posted by Susan Evans

We're Psyched

2008-06-08T09:12:00.001-04:00

The Psychology Department is working on transitioning their website, with an eye toward launching it with the rest of the College's new site on July 31. Steve Otto and Connie Pilkington met last week to plan and talk about options.

Using the new layouts for Arts & Sciences departments, we're glad to report that the new website for Psychology will also have a special interest feature bank. This SPIFF bank will offer short features about Psychology students, faculty, research, and more. The mStoner writers will use suggestions from the Psychology to whip up some features to unveil at launch. In fact, we already have a list of faculty who have agreed to be contacted by the mStoner writers. Thanks all!

We'll also find some new photography for the Psychology site - the new rotating banner image on their site will include eight or so different images. With some direction from the Psychology Department, Joel will be on the hunt to propose photos that work.

posted by Susan Evans

They're Great and So Are You

2008-06-07T15:40:00.001-04:00

Official W&M Bloggers are already writing. We are fortunate to have the Summer Interns in the Admission Office churning out some great stuff.

You'll have to wait to see the Admission Blogs ;) but here's a note I sent to Henry Broaddus, Wendy Livingston, and Randy Tripp:

Henry, Wendy, and Randy,

I'm writing to let you know that I've been following the Admission Intern Bloggers with sheer delight. Their posts are entertaining, fun, and honest. I don't view myself as someone who needs convincing that blogs are a powerful communication tool. Yet, your bloggers' genuine and thoughtful posts did just that.

On behalf of the aspirant W&M web presence, thank you, thank you. W&M Admission (no "s") is amazing!

Sincerely,
Susan

posted by Susan Evans

You can't get by without the right people!

2008-06-07T10:25:00.003-04:00

Teri Edmundson in Publications was a lifesaver this week. Seriously, Joel and I (well, mostly Joel) are identifying photography for various sections of the new website. As we nailed down which photos will go with which SPIFFs, we called on Teri for help.

I'm almost embarrassed to say how many times I emailed her to ask for a particular photo - sometimes it was a fabulous Salpukas' shot I'd seen on our current News site, perhaps it was a great pic from a back issue of Ideation. As I sent my 100th (exaggerating) message to Teri, Joel was in his office composing his 50th (still exaggerating) similar message to Teri.

As hard as we tried, we weren't able to overwhelm her ... thanks to Teri, we have all the photos we requested (for this week at least). Wonder if Teri realizes that "no good deed goes unpunished" - does she realize that these email pleas are likely to continue?

You can't get by without the right people ...

posted by Susan Evans

Information Architecture = A Family Tree in Cascade

2008-06-05T08:25:00.000-04:00

Tina Coleman and I headed over to the Discovery Office Building in New Town yesterday. Renell Franklin invited us to a meeting of the Development Communications team and the agenda was the IA for the new Giving section of the W&M website. Renell, John Wallace, and David Morrill had done their homework and the IA for Giving is in great shape.

We've blogged about Information Architecture before - see Andrew Bauserman's post from last September. At a minimum, think "outline your 15 - 20 page research paper before you begin writing."

You might be interested to know that when the IA hits Cascade, it turns into a family tree. Let's use the Giving IA as an example. When we create the Giving section (one of the eight main links on the global navigation bar) within Cascade, the IA will be the blueprint for a set of folders with a familial relationship. The Giving IA will dictate the following 6 parent folders:

Why Support W&M?
Impact of Your Gift
Ways to Give
Designate Your Gift
Recognition and Thanks
Contact Us

When six web pages are created in each of these six parents folders, the six left menu options that visitors to the W&M website will see when they click on Giving will be dynamically generated by Cascade. Cool.

Parents have children, right? So let's use parent 2. as the example. In Cascade, adding four children folders (with web pages inside them) will dynamically generate the four menu options that visitors will see if they click on "Impact of Your Gift."

2. Impact of Your Gift (parent)

2.1. Impact on Students (child)

2.2. Impact on Faculty (child)

2.3. Impact on Facilities (child)

2.4. Impact on Programs (child)

You can guess what's next - yes, grandchildren are possible. For example, any folders with web page content placed in 2.1. above are grandchildren of the parent folder, "Impact of Your Gift."

Does this all seem a little fuzzy? No worries. The W&M web team will help guide you through the steps of outlining your site and translating it into an IA. Most likely, we'll be the ones setting up the family you'll need in Cascade.

posted by Susan Evans

And now we wait . . .

2008-06-01T19:23:00.000-04:00

W&M's re.web blog was nominated for the "Best Institutional Blog" award presented jointly by eduStyle and "CollegeWebEditor's. During the month of May, People's Choice Voting was open on the eduStyle site.

We didn't tell you last month 'cause we wanted to stand on our own merit and not stuff the ballot box with on campus fans of our blog who might swarm to the eduStyle site to vote. ;) People's Choice Voting is just one part of the selection process. As background for the judges, I answered a few questions from Karine Joly about the re.web blog.

The winners of the eduStyle Awards will be announced at the eduWeb Conference in July. It's an honor just to be nominated!

eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher ed websites.

posted by Susan Evans

Are you talking to me?

2008-05-29T09:53:00.000-04:00

Probably not yet!

A brand new W&M website will launch on July 31 but not every W&M site will be included in this initial launch. There are hundreds and hundreds of W&M websites, you know. Actually, if your departmental site will be using the new design suite beginning July 31, you'd already know it!

The sections of the W&M website launching on July 31 in the new design will also feature new copy and new photography. Also, these sites will be built out in the Cascade content management system. Using our new information architecture to display it, we do have a detailed list of websites going live on July 31 (PDF). Beyond this list, these web pages and features will also launch on July 31:

Audience Information Gateways

for Current Faculty & Staff

for Current Students

for Alumni

for Parents

for Friends & Neighbors

W&M A - Z

Special Interest Features (SPIFFs)

W&M Inquiry Stories
W&M Impact Stories
W&M Style Stories

W&M Bloggers

posted by Susan Evans

Final Paper due before 5:00PM on July 31

2008-05-24T08:22:00.005-04:00

You got the syllabus on the first day of class and you have clear recall of the prof's words . . . "the final assignment due for this course is a 15 - 20 page paper that represents your best thinking on the material we'll cover in the next 16 weeks."

There are some striking similarities between the launch of the new W&M website on July 31 and the final paper due in some courses. To prepare, you gather information and read what others have to say on the topic. Perhaps you develop an outline to help structure the content you'll present and often, you have a first draft.

You get where I'm going with this - some of you already have a knot in your stomach remembering your own student paper-writing days. At some point, and not two night's before the due date if you can prevent it, you have to start writing. In 20 years of teaching at W&M, I've heard my husband Larry say this many a time to the panicked voice on the other end of the phone, "Okay, what I want you to do is make a pot of coffee, sit down at your computer, and start typing. Don't edit, just let the ideas flow, you'll go back and perfect it later. Before you realize it, you'll have five pages."

We're about there with re.web - it's time to make the pot of coffee and not look up until the soft launch we're planning for just prior to the real launch on July 31. We're likely to begin posting to this blog once a week instead of almost daily. Hope you'll understand our singular focus in the next 10 weeks.

posted by Susan Evans

re.Mason :)

2008-05-23T23:04:00.000-04:00

mStoner wrapped up a two-day visit to campus this afternoon. Complete with sandwiches from Lenny's Gourmet, we kicked off a series of meetings planned by Andrea Sardone and Jeff Swingle on Thursday, May 22. During Thursday's meetings, Voltaire Miran and Mark Sheehy met with about 20 administrators and faculty members in the Mason School of Business. Today, Voltaire and Mark had the opportunity to talk with Dean Larry Pulley.

The mStoner team's project portfolio includes work with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

posted by Susan Evans

R U Blogging?

2008-05-23T07:30:00.003-04:00

We can provide lots of information on our website for prospective students and parents about the many majors and programs we offer, the cost to attend and how great campus life can be. But, let’s get personal (and honest).

Isn’t it logical to think that reading about W&M from the view of a current student, staff or faculty member would be interesting and appealing? We think so. So, in the new world order for the W&M web, we will have blogs.

So, who’s going to blog? Not long ago, we solicited bloggers using a form in myWM (our campus portal) and received over 80 responses within a couple of weeks. Wow!

Next steps? Given the work still to be done for the July 31 launch of the top-level W&M sites, we’re going to start the blogs in baby steps.

We’re very lucky to have a great partnership with the Undergraduate Admission office as they recognize the value and impact blogs can have. Over the summer, they will task about a dozen student interns with blogging for the W&M web. We’ll hopefully be able to include a couple of faculty and staff bloggers as well. Then, in the fall when the dust has settled a bit, we will expand our list of official bloggers from our list of eager respondents.

posted by Tina Coleman

New Websites for Arts & Sciences

2008-05-22T17:23:00.001-04:00

Departments, programs and office in Arts & Sciences will represent 35 - 40 websites in the new W&M web presence. Steve Otto, Joel Pattison, Kathy Larrieu, and I spent a couple more hours in windowless conference rooms talking about design details - with good results.

Introducing the revised mock ups for Arts & Sciences - with a relocated global nav bar.

posted by Susan Evans

Location, location, location

2008-05-21T20:13:00.001-04:00

Dear Readers,

Late this afternoon, the re.web and mStoner teams finalized the change to the location of the global navigation bar.

Check out the revised design suite. Keep clicking to see the changed layouts.

Ciao,
Susan

PS The mStoner team is remarkable. I am convinced there is NO other firm in the country that would have been as creative and as understanding on a late-in-the-game design change.

It's Like Legos

2008-05-21T09:30:00.002-04:00

My son is a big fan of Legos- He's got quite the collection, too. Mostly vehicles, Mars Mission, Star Wars, Aqua Raiders, Batman. There was a time when he needed my help to build these things and I was all too happy to oblige. He would dump the pieces in a big colorful pile on the floor, open up the instructions and we'd sit together criss-cross-applesauce in the middle of it all counting Lego circles and glancing back and forth between the picture on the box (which is usually ripped beyond recognition by the excitement of getting started), the pictures in the instructions booklet, and the connected pieces as they begin to take form.

But all too quickly the time of needing Dad's help in this process has passed and I've been relegated to the proud parent who watches the operation from a perch on our couch, occasionally setting down my coffee as I am called on to rake the carpet for a missing light saber handle or booster flame. I have to admit I really miss being down on on the floor where the action is- for a couple of hours reliving the simple joys and occasional frustration that come with being an anxious kid.

Well, it seems I'll have my chance again. W&M bought a HUGE Lego set called Cascade Server and guess who gets to play with it... Yes, that's right! Mom, more Ovaltine please!

So now we have our Lego set and we've dumped the pieces on the floor. We have our nice picture on the box, a beautiful suite of designs provided by mStoner. (Ok, so maybe we ripped the box a little in our excitement, but can you blame us? It's been 7 years!) So, where are the instructions? Here's where the anology turns just a little. Cascade Server has tons of Legos and there are instructions for building some really cool things, but not exactly the cool thing that we see on our box. So Global Image is helping us create our instructions. Grrr... but I want to play with our toy now!

“Patience child,” my mother would say.

We could probably jump right in and slap something together that looks like the picture on the box, but I imagine within a few minutes of playing the wings would fall off and when we'd try to squeeze the wings back into place the tail would get loose or the cockpit would pop out of place and we'd raise our fists and stomp our feet and toss what is left in the basket where toys we never play with go to die.

Building our CMS the right way is worth the time it takes and if we have patience I know we'll have something special. Maybe it will sit on our dresser in the toy hall of fame- the first toy we see when we open our eyes in the morning.

But wait, I haven't mentioned the best part about Lego toys- when you are tired of playing with whatever you constructed, you can transform it. A car can become a boat or maybe a ship or maybe even the ever famous, most awesome flying boat/car with triple boosters and rocket launchers! I think with Cascade Server the fun is really just starting and it doesn't end July 31st.

posted by Mark Windley

What's up with Cascade?

2008-05-20T09:10:00.002-04:00

An interesting 2 weeks in Williamsburg:
Our new development server is up and running. We've used it to build some sample pages that we can publish to a development web server. And since users will eventually need to login with the same WMuserid and password they are using everywhere, we'll be setting up that connector as well. There's so much more Cascade can do that we're still anxious to see...

Work in progress:
But our own Cascade server is not where the real action's taking place. Our friends at Global Image are doing the heavy lifting for us—customizing their own install of Cascade with our Templates and the functionality we've been defining over the last month. We're continuing our weekly phone calls and email exchanges with Michael Burks about this "Functional Spec."—which we've hopefully nailed down after our recent modifications to the design suite. On top of this, we are now 4 calls into a 3-calls-a-week technical implementation schedule with our programmers, Kevin Zink and Joel Stevens. Kevin and Joel have their jobs cut out for them—walking us through implementation choices and data definitions, building templates and layouts for each of our page types, and helping us understand the magic behind the curtain. Did I mention they have only 5 weeks to get this done?

The two shall become one:
All of the programming, layouts, data definitions and templates from the Global Image server will migrate onto our own test and production servers in early July for Beta testing and sign-off. Then the final phase begins–pouring in pages and pages of content in time for launch.

There's plenty happening behind the scenes. We'll try to keep you updated as things move along.

posted by Andrew Bauserman

Moving on up . . .

2008-05-19T10:06:00.013-04:00

A site is more usable if global navigation exists. And, site visitors should be able to count on finding your global navigation in the same spot throughout your site.

The global navigation bar* on the new web designs for W&M is moving - up!

We're working with on- and off-campus design professionals now to create the revised designs with the global navigation bar moved to the top. Of course, we'll post the updates to the blog. :)

I'm not a designer - don't know exactly how the updated designs will look, but this new placement of the global navigation bar will be consistently applied. And that's a good thing.

*Global navigation on the new W&M site includes the topics: About W&M, Academics, Admission, Research, Campus Life, Athletics, News & Events, Giving.

posted by Susan Evans

There are modifications and there are issues

2008-05-18T10:05:00.011-04:00

Arts & Sciences departments represent a major portion of the College - both in practice and within the W&M web presence. For the past nine weeks, I've worked directly with Carl Strikwerda (Dean of the Faculty), Sue Peterson (Dean of Undergraduate Studies), and Steve Otto (Director of Communications) on the unique page layouts and designs proposed for Arts & Sciences.

There are modifications!
After three rounds of design revisions and enhancements, we now have two home page options to offer to Arts & Sciences departments. At the request of the dean's office, we've also changed many other design aspects like font color, icons, background colors, images, and logo placement. All along, we've planned for flexibility and the widgets in the new designs can be turned on or off - and reordered - to suit. Widgets? The functional elements like the Events box, the stacked news items, and the departmental special interest features (e.g., Footnotes).

There are issues!
The more the Arts & Sciences designs change, the more the issue stays the same. From the beginning of our discussions, Carl Strikwerda, Sue Peterson, and Steve Otto have consistently requested that the global navigation bar be removed or relocated to the top of the designs used for Arts & Sciences sites. From their perspective, the global navigation bar (About, Academics, Admission, etc.) is unnecessary and confusing for visitors to Arts & Sciences sites. A number of A&S department chairs share these concerns - many of them spoke about this at presentation/feedback sessions we hosted. I've heard from many chairs and many faculty through email messages, phone calls, and casual conversations on the paths around the Sunken Garden. Most have offered constructive opinions and feedback - some have been less than civil.

In my professional judgment, global navigation must be obvious and in the same location on all web pages. Consider the global navigation on these familiar sites. In my view these websites represent the current best thinking on interface design and web navigation.

Flickr
Yahoo
Google
eBay
Amazon.com
Apple
Facebook
CNN.com
BarnesandNoble.com

We have used experts to test our design and navigation choices. During usability testing, we included three tasks proposed by the dean's office. The dean's office chose tasks that were intended to get at possible confusion between global navigation and departmental navigation. All of the prospective students we tested were able to accomplish the tasks proposed by Arts & Sciences - 87% (13 of 15 testers) used the navigation offered by the A&S menus and 13% (2 of 15 testers) used the global navigation. The two testers who used the global navigation made a navigation choice that A&S viewed as not ideal; but still, the link the testers chose led to what they were seeking. In my professional judgment, the global navigation bar in the new W&M design works - even within an Arts and Sciences site.

Many faculty have pointed to numerous other college and university sites that do not employ global navigation within their web presences. Unfortunately, there are all too many examples of higher education web sites that are constructed like organizational charts. Yet, this University Business post calls "2006 the year of the redesign for institutions of higher education." In my professional judgment, there is much to be gained from a navigation scheme and information architecture that allows our website visitors to find what they seek without understanding the complicated structure of W&M units and departments.

posted by Susan Evans

It's always easy when you don't have to do it.

2008-05-17T08:51:00.010-04:00

Key communicators at W&M have been volunteers for the re.web writing effort - Henry Broaddus, Renell Franklin, Joe McClain, Steve Otto, Melissa Pinard, Andrea Sardone, John Wallace, Jaime Welch-Donahue and Brian Whitson are contributing ideas for W&M Impact, W&M Inquiry, and W&M Style. If you've been following the weekly CopyWrite feature on this blog, you know we're working on special interest features for the new website.

It's always easy when you don't have to do it.

So I think I'm a decent writer - I've been posting to this blog, I've been writing for IT for 10 years, in fact, writing has been a part of every job I've ever had. How hard could it be to write a 350 word SPIFF?

So early one Saturday morning, I opened my laptop, and copied a story from W&M News into a Word doc. Armed with a cup of coffee and my keyboard, I planned to follow a good friend's advice - "when writing a SPIFF, boil it down and punch it up."

It's always easy when you don't have to do it.

I've been thinking about what Henry Broaddus said yesterday during our third SPIFF-writing meeting. Loosely quoted, "Are the best SPIFFs born as SPIFFs?" In my words, perhaps we shouldn't start with an existing magazine or news item by default. Some of these pieces will be spiffable, some will not.

None of the features appearing in W&M Impact, W&M Inquiry, and W&M Style will be written by me. I can't write one, but I know a great one when I read it.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - W&M Inquiry

2008-05-16T09:00:00.002-04:00

This week's copyWrite post presents a sample entry for a special interest feature that will be called W&M Inquiry. Working with Arthur Knight of W&M's Film Studies Program, the writers at mStoner drafted King Kong Eats College Town. This profile will be used for a series showcasing research from all units within the College as well as other ways, contemporary and historic, in which W&M has put itself ahead of the curve.

W&M Inquiry
King Kong Eats College Town
Film fest paints portrait of Williamsburg reflected off the big screen.

There’s more to Williamsburg’s history than fifes and three-cornered hats. This past February, the William & Mary community celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Kimball Theatre (formerly the Williamsburg Theatre), an old-fashioned single-screen beauty right in the heart of Duke of Gloucester (DoG) Street. Forget the Governor’s Palace; this is where the real Williamsburg history lives. It’s a history of great cinema and a thriving movie-going culture in one of America’s classic small towns.

Williamsburgians toasted the Kimball’s 75th birthday with a unique, four-day film event called “When the Movies Come to Town! Williamsburg and Film History.” Audiences enjoyed free screenings of cinematic classics like King Kong, Gone With the Wind and The Godfather prefaced by scholarly presentations with a Williamsburg focus.

“It combined the best features of a film festival—getting to see great films and have fun watching cool stuff—with the best features of a public intellectual event,” explains Arthur Knight, director of W&M’s Film Studies program and associate professor in both the American Studies and English departments.

The event launched with a special Valentine’s Day show featuring Roman Holiday. Before the show, two William & Mary students shared stories they’d gathered from community interviews about the Williamsburg dating and dancing scene of the 1930s and 40s.

“And then some students from the College’s Ballroom Dance Club and Swing Dance Club gave dance demonstrations interpolated with clips from classic American musicals,” says professor Knight.

The film event proved that we can learn a lot about the values, prejudices, and shifting attitudes of a town and its citizenry by examining how they received the most influential and controversial movies of their time. Something the organizers wanted to examine fully was the history of race relations in Williamsburg and how those played out at the movies.

“That’s one of the things that’s a fraught element of our theater,” explains professor Knight. “The Williamsburg Theatre was segregated until the early 1960s. When Gone With the Wind played there, African Americans couldn’t see the movie.”

The festival’s screening of the groundbreaking 1967 film In the Heat of the Night included a roundtable discussion of race relations “in and at the movies” with scholars from W&M, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia.

The idea for the four-day film event was the brainchild of the Global Film s-GIG (sustained Global Inquiry Group). Professor Knight and his colleagues hope to make the film festival an annual Williamsburg institution, where students and locals can gather to enjoy the best of American and global cinema, and get a little scholarly insight with their Raisinets.

posted by Susan Evans

An Index, not a concordance

2008-05-15T21:04:00.007-04:00

Concordance is a word I've always like the sound of - it's fun to say. A concordance is a list of words or phrases and where they appear and the new W&M A-Z on www.wm.edu won't be one.

The new W&M A-Z will be an index of sites at the College. According to the American Society for Indexing, an index is "a systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable users to locate information in a document." Now that's more like it - we'll have one of those.

posted by Susan Evans

Mason, mStoner, May

2008-05-13T11:20:00.000-04:00

On May 22 and 23, Voltaire Santos Miran and Patrick DiMichele of mStoner will be on campus to meet with small groups in the Mason School of Business. Jeff Swingle and Joel Pattison are finalizing the details of the visit. Voltaire and Patrick will use the info they gather to propose a new information architecture and home page design concept for mason.wm.edu.

W&M's business school is planning for a spring 2009 re-launch of their website using a new home page concept and design from mStoner.

posted by Susan Evans

For You (whoever you are!)

2008-05-12T20:43:00.011-04:00

We've blogged before about the audience gateways we're building. The idea is that from any of the W&M web pages, you (whoever you are) can visit a page that is customized for, well, you!

View the brand-new page layout for the audience gateway pages. When we launch the new website, we'll have gateways filled with useful links and information for:

Parents
Current Students
Faculty & Staff
Friends & Neighbors
Alumni

posted by Susan Evans

The State of Cascade

2008-05-11T09:10:00.008-04:00

Thanks to some quick and excellent work from Roger Clark, we have a development instance of Cascade Server! But Roger's work isn't done . . . he will now begin the build of test and production environments for Cascade.

Future blog posts will keep you up to date on Cascade at W&M. Mark Windley and Andrew Bauserman are in regular contact (three conference calls per week!) with mStoner's sister company, Global Image. The new W&M website will actually be built off site by Global Image and then transferred to Roger's shiny, new production instance of Cascade later this summer.

Recently Hannon Hill had some nice things to say about the W&M web redesign project on their team blog.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - W&M Style

2008-05-09T12:24:00.005-04:00

In this week's copyWrite, we are previewing a sample entry for a special interest feature that will be called W&M Style. Drafted by the writers at mStoner, this entry profiles the quietly quirky, eagerly earnest--but always fun and entertaining--student life and traditions at W&M.

W&M Impact
Wren Ten
A cappella for the people.

William & Mary gets a little crazy about a cappella. With 5,500 undergraduates and 11 different a cappella groups with an average of 15 members each, that means… well, you do the math. But if you attend W&M, chances are you’re either in an a cappella group yourself, are dating someone in an a cappella group, or have had nightmares involving an a cappella group living under your bed.

We hear that some people still don’t understand what’s the “big deal” about a cappella. That’s probably because they’ve only witnessed a cappella in a formal setting, like a big concert in the Wren Great Hall or the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. Sometimes the magic of great a cappella—the seamless harmonizing and vocal acrobatics—are lost when there’s so much distance between the performers and the audience.

That’s why the William & Mary A Cappella Council (yes, there’s an a cappella council) came up with Wren Ten. Wren Ten is the polar opposite of a formal concert. Every Wednesday night at 10pm, one of W&M’s a cappella groups crowds into the Wren Portico for an up-close-and-personal look at world-class a cappella in action.

Why is Wren Ten different? First of all, it’s all about having fun. The performers joke with the crowd, take requests and perform even cheesier skits than usual. Hardcore a cappella fans love it because they can see all of their favorite groups in a casual setting. Newbies love it because it showcases what’s best about a cappella at W&M: the variety of styles, the breadth of repertoire and the fun-loving attitude of the students.

Consult the A Cappella Council [http://www.wm.edu/so/acappellacouncil/councilperformances.htm] website for a current schedule of Wren Ten concerts and experience one of W&M’s most beloved musical traditions in a whole new way.

posted by Susan Evans

From one 'burg to another

2008-05-08T22:28:00.000-04:00

I took my first trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania about two years ago - a few of us from W&M presented at Portals 2006 hosted by Gettysburg College. The folks at Gettysburg (the College that is) put on a great conference and we went back for Portals 2007.

In June 2007, Tina Coleman and I had a chance to hear a presentation led by Paul Redfern (Director of Web Communications & Electronic Media). I remember scribbling down his advice - after all, he'd been through it.

Paul's still helping us out . . . but this time through his blog ("Higher Ed Web Marketing"). Just this week, Paul wrote about the transition of Gettysburg's Web Task Force.

What works in one historic, college town, 'burg works in another, right? Thanks for the lessons learned, Paul.

posted by Susan Evans

Design Previews for Arts & Sciences Faculty

2008-05-08T22:01:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we offered open sessions for Arts & Sciences faculty. After working with the Dean's office for nearly eight weeks, we wanted to give all faculty members the chance to see and comment on the designs proposed for Arts & Sciences.

Over the course of the three sessions, we saw twenty or so faculty and staff from Arts & Sciences. Thanks all for your interest as well as your thoughtful ideas and impressions.

posted by Susan Evans

GUEST BLOGGER: Using Tribe Voices to establish and consolidate your online identity

2008-05-07T07:57:00.002-04:00

Before reading the next paragraph, open up a new browser window or tab and Google your name. What do you see? Perhaps a record of a concert or sports event you were in a few years ago, some similarly-named actor's IMDB entry, or an embarrassing blog of yours from middle school? Take a closer look. Do any of the entries on the first few pages really represent you? In an age when increasing value is placed on internet communication and presence, it's useful to spend time establishing a representation of yourself online. Just like you wouldn't wear dress pants and a pizza-stained t-shirt to an interview, it makes little sense to let net presence fall by the wayside. A bit of time spent establishing this presence can go a long way.

To be more specific, here are three reasons why this should be a priority:

You can control what others see about you. If a future employer, family member, or other individual searches for you online, you want to know exactly what they'll be seeing. If you direct them to your personal homepage, they'll stop there, rather than potentially observing incriminating Facebook photos, an old article you wrote for a high school newspaper, or your recent posts on an internet bulletin board. You're able to portray yourself exactly as you'd like to be seen, publicly.
You can connect with a wider community. Once you're online, people all over the world can interact with your page. Whether you use this advantage for discussing political opinions, finding competition for your favorite PlayStation game, or showing off pictures of your adorable cat, greater accessibility means more meaningful interaction.
You can tie up your 'loose ends' across the internet. If you're particularly proud of a blog of yours, your Flickr photos, and your self-starring YouTube videos, why not make it easy for everyone to find your content in the same place? Link your different identities across the Web with one main page.

Why this post, right now? With last week's release of the Tribe Voices web application, there's been no better time to establish or consolidate your online identity, your home on the Web. With this software, you can easily create a functional and aesthetically-pleasing site for yourself that is easy to maintain. If you haven't set up a Tribe Voices page for yourself yet, click here to get started. The intuitive and convenient walkthroughs and help menus will get you started in a snap.

Once you're set up, here a few tips which can help establish your net presence:

Name your site your real name. This is step #1 of making everything come together online. It's not an ego thing, but an issue of practicality: If you call your site your name, that's the first bit of your site that will show up on Google. Drop a cutesy name for one that gets to the point quickly, or potential visitors will go somewhere else.

Blog regularly. If you build up an archive of posts with Tribe Voices' easy-to-use blogging integration, visitors will realize that you're invested in your site and that what they see in front of them is not only current, but established.

Link freely. Use the external link options to point to your photos, academic work, or school. Just make sure that you're okay with every potential visitor following each link.

Use multimedia. Although simple is best in this sort of environment, engaging media, especially if its yours, will help tell others about you in a way that works. Consider starting up a small podcast or video blog to connect in a way that text alone cannot.

Read up on search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization, a multi-million dollar industry, is the science of improving the volume and quality of traffic your website receives. It's a pretty technical topic, but worth a little bit of further reading. Take a look at Wayne Smallman's Blah, Blah! Technology blog for some beginner articles.

Hopefully this little bit of advice and encouragement will help with the extremely rewarding process of establishing your internet identity. If you've got any questions, feel free to e-mail me here or visit my personal site at www.andydesoto.com. Most importantly, though, check out my Tribe Voices homepage, as it's an example of what can be done in less than an hour with this vibrant and robust new tool.

Get started with Tribe Voices by clicking here!

posted by K. Andrew DeSoto, '09

GUEST BLOGGER: Building a Site with Tribe Voices

2008-05-06T21:47:00.006-04:00

The College’s new web-design software is great!

Last year I taught myself how to use the old software that required us to map drives, and then this year I had a class that taught me how to use Dreamweaver. Building a site through W&M Tribe Voices is so much faster and easier, and looks a lot better. I've definitely been advocating on behalf of Tribe Voices. I've been telling everyone I’ve run into that they can now make websites in 10 minutes (that's about how long it took me to get started).

The new software will be particularly useful for student organizations. I currently serve as president of the William & Mary NAACP. As much as we try to plan in advance, we often find ourselves having to respond immediately to situations/issues that arise unexpectedly. Getting essential information out to members and to the general public is often crucial. The new web-design software allows us to do that in ways that were impossible before.

Every person on our four-member Executive Committee has access to the new NAACP website. Anyone of us can update it immediately at any time from any place that has internet access. We were actually discussing having the NAACP go green next year. The new software will definitely aid us in doing that. We can now easily and quickly upload minutes, meeting agendas – whatever documents we need – to the site.

While getting adjusted to the software, I found myself wishing there was a way to change text colors and create sub menus. Other than that, it's been perfect.

I just wanted to thank the re.web Team for pushing forth this much-needed initiative.

Check out the two sites I've created (it honestly took minutes):

http://wmpeople.wm.edu/naacp

http://wmpeople.wm.edu/jgreid

posted by Justin Reid '09

VIMS Chooses a Design

2008-05-06T16:20:00.005-04:00

Kudos to Barb Parcell and Dave Malmquist. Together, they presented two web design concepts and led the VIMS community through a successful review and comment period. I've done it - it ain't easy.

Have a look at this fabulous new home page design for VIMS.

Here's what top-level pages will look like.

Now let me hear you say, "Aaaahhhh."

posted by Susan Evans

GUEST BLOGGER: It's not about us anymore...

2008-05-05T12:26:00.001-04:00

I had several titles for this post, including:

The more things change, the more things REALLY change...

Out with the old (marketing), in with the new (marketing)....

We're hearing a lot about web 2.0 these days. We've watched YouTube videos and joined LinkedIn and we've even visited some of our colleagues' MySpace pages. However, some of the conversations I've been having with our content creators in the Mason School and with those in the re.web project, indicate that we still operate under the impression that web 2.0 is for them and we'll just keep doing what we've been doing. After all, we ARE William & Mary for crying out loud!

Newsflash: Web 2.0 is for us because it is about THEM.

Business to Consumer marketing (B2C) is over. It's Consumer to Consumer (C2C) marketing now. People are highly sophisticated (and a little cynical) when it comes to parsing out what's important to them. THEY are not interested in what we have to say unless we're talking with them and not AT them. The old marketing was to blast a consumer with images and messages. New marketing is to get people talking about the product and recommending it to each other. People still trust each other when it comes to decisions. Word of mouth and referrals from friends and family are still the way people make decisions and form opinions. The web can facilitate this in ways we've never imagined.

We can do this in the form of blogs. Yes, it's a little scary but there are ways to moderate them and bloggers have a great way of policing themselves, too. Because of the viral nature of the internet, blogs are indexed, tracked, and spread around the world. Blogs index each other, so one article could become singled out and influential. (Remember the old hair shampoo commercial--and they told two people, and so on, and so on...)

Technorati.com has tracked that there are over 80 million blogs worldwide now. The conversations are happening between people and we will be smart to join the conversations and give people opportunities to talk with us and about us.

Realize this: A post on a blog anywhere in the world can be ranked higher in a Google search than the same information posted on a website by a company or an organization. This means that what WE say doesn't matter as much was what the bloggers say. Major news organizations are now dipping into the "blogosphere" for news!

People are sharing opinions and insights about products, institutions, and ideas that carry a lot more credibility than we can ever dream of. The point is that the best way to get more people talking and thinking about William and Mary is to to encourage more talking and thinking about W&M. The bottom line is that ideas that are spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas that are delivered at an individual. The idea of William and Mary is a powerful one. Our students that come here know this and the more they talk about it, the better. Their experiences and the viral nature of the internet is a powerful combination.

We need to embrace the C2C concept and create more access points for our stories to be told and heard and repeated, an so on and so on. Blogs, wikis, vlogs--it sounds like a different language. Because it is. The internet has created a whole new world for communication.

posted by Andrea Sardone, Director of Marketing Communications, The Mason School of Business

Where in the world is roclar ?

2008-05-04T11:16:00.010-04:00

roclar = the WMuserid and nickname for Roger Clark, the IT Unix engineer who is a favorite guru of the re.web team

We don't know where roclar is right now, but we do know what he's doing. Last week, we got the license for Hannon Hill Cascade and Roger (think roclar) is doing what it takes to install it on campus. Never underestimate the complexity of installing enterprise software - Roger will orchestrate many inter-related elements like:

hardware (web servers)
database
security
load-balancing (multiple web servers in case one fails)

Thanks in advance for the great foundation, Roger.

P.S. Check out the Hannon Hill announcement about W&M as a new customer.

posted by Susan Evans

Come see for yourself

2008-05-03T09:02:00.004-04:00

On May 6, 7 and 8, we are hosting three sessions open to all Arts & Sciences faculty. Please join us to see the proposed web designs and page layouts for Arts & Sciences. We need your thoughts, impressions, and feedback.

Tuesday, May 6 at 2:00PM

Wednesday, May 7 at 10:00AM

Thursday, May 8 at 11:00AM

All sessions will be held in Blow Memorial Hall, Room 311. Refreshments provided.

posted by Susan Evans

Standing Room Only

2008-05-01T19:48:00.010-04:00

Joel Pattison and I ended the day today with about 50 faculty members in Arts & Sciences. After weeks of reviewing, discussing, and modifying page layouts, we presented these design concepts, created as possible layouts for departmental web pages in Arts & Sciences, to the Dean's Advisory Council.

Joel and I enjoyed hearing the feedback about the concepts firsthand. I am regularly encouraged by the commitment and concern of W&M faculty. Our new web presence will be outstanding because those who are the heart of the academic experience are a part of re.web.

posted by Susan Evans

Please Heed College Web Guy

2008-04-30T19:46:00.002-04:00

College Web Guy is right - "university org charts aren't road maps for web architecture."

'nough said.

posted by Susan Evans

Reading Papers, Grading Exams, and Reviewing Web Copy

2008-04-29T07:51:00.006-04:00

Last week, I put out a call to a few on the W&M faculty. Not so perfectly timed with their simultaneous responsibility for reading papers and grading exams, I asked some professors to review and comment on the web copy we're preparing for launch.

We are lucky at W&M - our faculty gladly agree to participate in campus-wide projects like re.web. Already, I have a commitment from Chuck Bailey, Jen Mellor, Dan Cristol, Kate Slevin, Pam Hunt, Margaret Saha, Heather Macdonald, Laurie Koloski and Eric Jensen. Thanks all!

Larry Evans also spent a Sunday morning reading through a few sections of copy - course he's living and breathing re.web right along with me. Probably didn't think he had much of a choice . . .

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - W&M Impact

2008-04-25T08:50:00.000-04:00

This week's copyWrite post is a first peek at a sample entry for a special interest feature (a SPIFF) that will be called W&M Impact. Written by Joe McClain, Alma mater of the national bird will be one of several stories and profiles showcasing the many ways W&M makes Williamsburg, Virginia, and the world a better place to live.

W&M Impact
Alma mater of the national bird

Seeing a bald eagle is a thrill that never wears thin and some of the best places on the East Coast to see our national bird are within a few minutes drive of William and Mary's campus.

You can occasionally see bald eagles from campus, but a surer bet is to go out to the Colonial Parkway between Jamestown and Yorktown. Eagles nest on Jamestown Island and they’re a common sight from the meadows and beaches along the James River.

It's poetic justice to have bald eagles so accessible to us, since two of our researchers have deserved a lot of the credit for the comeback story of the bald eagle. Mitchell Byrd and Bryan Watts of William & Mary's Center for Conservation Biology have documented the return of the bald eagle in the Chesapeake Bay region from near-zero numbers to the point where there were enough of them for the species to be removed from the federal endangered species list in summer of 2007.

Each year, the Center for Conservation Biology conducts census flights during nesting season over the shoreline of the Chesapeake and its major tributaries. Quite often, it's Byrd and/or Watts climbing into the cockpit of a Cessna 172 operated by a former fighter pilot known as Captain Fuzzzo—spelled with three z's. “The middle z,” he says, “is silent.”

The Endangered Species Act allowed for eagle nesting areas to be protected from development. The Center for Conservation Biology’s flights pinpointed the areas—even the individual trees—which needed to be protected. For their contribution to the eagle's comeback, Byrd and Watts received National Recovery Champion awards from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March, 2008.

The story of the eagle is not over. Removal of the birds from the endangered species list will open up lots of prime real estate that once only eagles could call home.

"About 95 percent of the eagle nests are within three kilometers of the main river channel. Eagles feed on fish and other aquatic prey, so they live in close proximity to the main shoreline,” Watts said. “Delisting presents a potential conflict because the shoreline property is the most valuable property for development."

posted by Susan Evans

We're not testing you, we're testing the website.

2008-04-24T15:02:00.000-04:00

Six high school juniors made their way to the former rubber factory that is home to mStoner in Chicago. Henry Broaddus and I watched intently as Patrick DiMichele or Sarah Weidaw asked each student to perform a series of tasks on a mockup of the new W&M site.

I wish the room had been big enough for all of you to be flies on the wall. It was fascinating, rewarding, and even a little nerve-wracking to observe the prospective college students surfing our site. Fortunately, a detailed report of the usability testing will be prepared by mStoner. Until then, here are a few of my anecdotal observations:

Almost without exception, students clicked on Admission to find the cost of tuition; and on Campus Life to find out about student clubs.

Almost all of the students commented about the beautiful photos of the W&M campus.

Many of the student testers suggested that we make the list of "majors and minors" easier to find.

Lots of students mentioned that they'd like to see more about athletics on the site.

A good number of the students indicated that they would enjoy reading student blogs.

By the way, we're not done yet . . . we're in the midst of testing 10 more juniors as I publish this post.

posted by Susan Evans

Usability Testing Part 2 of 2: The Product

2008-04-24T13:04:00.002-04:00

Last week I blogged Tribe Voices: new software being developed by the IT Web Team.

Tribe Voices isn't part of re.web, but it is related. As you know, the College is purchasing a web Content Management System (CMS) to run websites for William & Mary's academic and administrative departments. The newly-designed W&M site will offer faculty/staff directory pages, but complete personal web pages will not be a part of the CMS. Tribe Voices, designed for faculty, staff and students, will create personal websites-- thus bridging the gap.

We wanted Tribe Voices to be easy to use, so we conducted usability testing on a model version of the software in early 2008. Our testing helped us design a logical user interface, and it gave us some ideas on the features people wanted.

When Tribe Voices is released on April 30, 2008 it will contain many of the things people requested. Among other features, it will:

- Include a "wizard" that helps first-time users create a website quickly

- Have a main menu that makes it easy to find everything you need

- Be completely web-based. You can create, edit and publish web pages without ever leaving your web browser. (No mapped drives!)

- Automatically build a website navigation menu (that you can edit if you wish)

- Have a simple blogging tool that allows comments and RSS

- Allow you to place Flickr badges, maps, movies and Facebook info on your site

More information on the IT site: http://www.wm.edu/it/tribevoices

posted by Joel Pattison

Letter to a W&M Web Editor...

2008-04-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

Dear W&M Web Editor,

Thank you for writing. I know you have a lot of questions about re.web, and what it means for your website.

We've created a timeline for moving departmental websites into the CMS and design suite. It will begin in June: mStoner and the re.web project team will transition top-level websites as we prepare for the launch of the College's new home page on July 31. After the July launch, departmental websites will gradually migrate to the new web content management system.

With guidance from the Web Advisory Committee, the W&M Web Team will manage site transition and provide central support for departments. Rather than simply moving existing sites into the CMS, our goal is to redevelop sites using a comprehensive approach. This means working on information architecture and examining content, copy, photography and multimedia.

A copy of the transition plan is now available (PDF).

Thank you for your interest and support of this project.

Sincerely,
Joel Pattison
re.web project team

Beauty AND Functionality

2008-04-23T11:02:00.003-04:00

This face was bred for Beauty. I cannot smell a thing.
(Tiger, the Persian cat in the film Over the Hedge)

We are fortunate to be working with talented designers at mStoner, and equally skilled programmers at Global Image. Design is about beauty. Programming is about functionality. A talented designer considers usability and interaction during the design process. And a skilled programmer considers how best to preserve the look and feel of a design as he or she is programming.

But design and programming are very different disciplines. The programmer literally slices apart every element the designer created. Each component must individually be made functional.

Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.
(Frank Lloyd Wright)

And this is where skilled project managers meet with the obsessive client representatives to hash out the idiosyncrasies of implementation. The culmination of this process is a document called the Functional Specification (or Functional Spec, for those conserving syllables).

Yesterday, the re.web Implementation Team had our first conference call with our project managers—Patrick diMichele and Michael Burks—regarding the Functional Spec. An exciting two hours later, and we have a first draft covering 5 of the 12 layouts to be built within the Cascade CMS as part of our implementation contract.

Getting back to the difference between designers and programmers, here's a real-life issue we are addressing:

William and Mary decided on Concept One for our new home page. One of the elements of this design is the Rockwell font in the tactical navigation bar (starting with Information For), the primary navigation bar (starting with About) and other text on the page, such as Education Unplugged, Events, William and Mary News and Read More News/RSS.

This raises implementation questions. Since Rockwell is not a font available on all computers or browsers, should these elements all be created as graphics? Or should some of them be created as styled text with some magic web toolkit to make them display correctly. A few web programmers addressed this specific issue in 2004, creating just such a magic web toolkit dubbed sIFR.

One two-hour conference call down, and I can't yet give you the definitive answer on implementation of the Rockwell font. We will probably use creative combinations of graphics and sIFR on different layouts for different purposes.

We just thought some of you might like to know what's going on behind the glass, as we sit around the speaker-phone in our conference room, ~~eyes glazing over~~ spellbound.

posted by Andrew Bauserman

W&M Law School Chooses a Design

2008-04-22T14:10:00.002-04:00

Just got the word today that the W&M Law School plans to use this design for their new website. Trotter Hardy and Jaime Welch-Donahue are planning for the relaunch of the Law site and expecting to include new, and revised, content.

Three special interest story banks will be surfaced on the new home page:

First and Foremost
featuring “firsts” that communicate the Law School's quality, mission and culture

Try This
focusing on students taking advantage of "out of classroom" opportunities — internships, clinical experiences, and study abroad

Citizen Lawyers
telling stories about students and alumni using the law to make a difference

posted by Susan Evans

Looking for a few good students.

2008-04-22T07:23:00.003-04:00

By the time students return in the fall, the current W&M Web Redesign Advisory Committee will have morphed into a permanent advisory group for www.wm.edu. We're looking for a few good students to serve on this College-wide committee.

If you are interested, apply at the Student Affairs website. The deadline for applications is 5:00PM on Monday, May 5.

posted by Susan Evans

It Just Makes Good Sense by Joel and Andrea

2008-04-21T16:33:00.001-04:00

Timing is everything. A couple of weeks ago, I got a well-timed email message about design from Joel Pattison. His message was right on and parallel to a recent decision by the Mason School of Business. Joel wrote:

It seems it has been a "W&M tradition" to let a design grow very old and stale and then replace it with something that looks radically different. In my opinion, well executed web design is actually a series of natural evolutions that keep a site looking fresh -- each iteration of the design should build on the previous version and pave the way for future versions.

What Joel described in his gem of an email is actually underway at W&M's Mason School of Business. What makes sense to Joel makes sense to Andrea too. Working with mStoner and the re.web project team, Andrea Sardone, Mason's Director of Marketing Communications, is planning for the natural evolution of their site. In early 2009, our business school will open a new building and do what make sense for mason.wm.edu.

posted by Susan Evans

R U Blogging?

2008-04-21T12:50:00.003-04:00

Lots of colleges and universities are including blogs on their web sites and William and Mary would like to do the same.

If you are blogging now, or if you'd like to, tell us using the the R U Blogging? channel in myWM. You'll see it in the upper-left corner of the myWM Home tab.

posted by Tina Coleman

It's Windy, but a Great Place for Usability Testing

2008-04-20T12:45:00.007-04:00

Henry Broaddus and I will spend April 23 and 24 in Chicago for usability testing. From 1:00PM to 8:00PM both days, we'll be at mStoner's main office as high schools juniors in the Chicago area arrive to test drive a mock up of the new design for the W&M web site.

Using the expertise of Patrick DiMichele, we have a draft usability testing protocol that will help us evaluate and confirm choices we've made about navigation and information architecture. Thanks to Steve Otto, we have some tasks that will be used to test terminology and organization for academic department web sites.

Thanks also to Joel Pattison for being the warm up act for this post! As Joel related in his description of the software development process for Tribe Voices, we want to do real-world testing of our new W&M web site while there is still time to make adjustments.

Here are just a few of the tasks that the testing moderator will prompt the Chicago high school students to do on a mock up of the new W&M site:

Find a list of majors / minors.
Find information about student clubs.
Visit the English Department site.

I'll blog while we're there. For the very interested, I offer a more complete version of our draft usability testing protocol.

posted by Susan Evans

Usability Testing Part 1 of 2: The Process

2008-04-18T09:22:00.009-04:00

Have you ever wondered about the phrase "web usability testing?" In short, usability testing takes real-world users and asks them to perform tasks on a demo website. Their success (or lack thereof) is recorded and the website may be revised as a result.

Case in point: new software being developed by the IT Web Team called Tribe Voices. Tribe Voices isn't part of the re.web project, but it is related: the software will make it easy for students, faculty and staff to create personal websites. (More about this next week in Part 2.)

From the beginning, we knew two things:

1. Tribe Voices needed to make building websites simple.
2. People who create and maintain websites for a living aren't the best judge of web simplicity.

To solve this problem we conducted usability testing. Before a single line of code was written, we created a "model" version of Tribe Voices. It looked and acted like the software in every way except one: it didn't actually work.

Next, we sat down individually with half a dozen students, faculty and staff and asked them to perform some tasks in the model version of Tribe Voices. When the testers found something confusing or difficult we took careful notes. We revised, retested and in some cases, revised again.

Some of the things we asked our testers to do:

- Edit and save changes to a webpage
- Upload a picture and place it on a webpage
- Reorganize the site menu
- Customize the appearance of the website
- Rename the entire website

Our usability testing resulted in concrete changes to the software. Tribe Voices will be easier to use and understand because we took the time to conduct usability testing.

After testing was complete, our team began software development (which is still underway). Tribe Voices will be released in late April 2008-- more about that next week in part two of this post.

posted by Joel Pattison

One Year Ago Today . . .

2008-04-18T07:54:00.002-04:00

. . . the W&M Web Redesign Advisory Committee met for the first time! This committed and talented group has offered direction to the campus-wide effort to redesign the W&M web site. If you have the opportunity, please thank these individuals for their great work.

Ginger Ambler, Student Affairs
Chuck Bailey, Geology
Andrew Bauserman, IT
Henry Broaddus, Admission
Courtney Carpenter, IT
Mike Connolly, University Relations
Patrick Donaldson, W&M Student
Susan Evans, IT
Renell Franklin, Development
Stewart Gamage, Public Affairs
John Kane, Alumni Association
Jack Martin, English
Jennifer Mellor, Economics
Sarah Rojas, W&M Student
John Wallace, Development

posted by the re.web project team

Drop by and see us sometime.

2008-04-17T16:52:00.003-04:00

Just took a sec to view the stats on the re.web project site. Our total number of hits for the period of January 1, 2008 through April 17, 2008 is 23,290! That averages out to 6,654 per month.

Thanks for noticing.

posted by Susan Evans

VIMS Design Concepts

2008-04-17T13:57:00.012-04:00

VIMS has a tough selection to make. mStoner recently presented two beautiful design concepts for VIMS to choose from. Dave Malmquist and Barb Parcel have been busy showing these designs to members of the VIMS community and gathering feedback. You can see both of these design concepts in their entirety:

VIMS Design Concepts

While the VIMS designs are complimentary to the W&M design suite, the engaging color palette, curving lines and wonderful photography make it clear: VIMS' three part mission translates beautifully to the web.

posted by Joel Pattison

Come back when you have a SPIFF !

2008-04-16T20:52:00.006-04:00

Some of the most talented communication professionals at W&M showed up to talk about SPIFFs today. By the time the new W&M site launches, we'll have 15 - 20 entries in three special interest feature banks called W&M Impact, W&M Inquiry, and W&M Style.

I brought the M&Ms and Reese's Pieces, but Renell Franklin, Brian Whitson, Henry Broaddus, Steve Otto, Jamie Welch-Donahue, John Wallace, Melissa Pinard, Joe McClain, and Andrea Sardone went away with homework. We agreed to meet again in two weeks and share the SPIFFs we'll write in the interim.

Hmmm . . . I may even write one myself - anyone feel like suggesting a topic?

posted by Susan Evans

"It's always funny until someone gets hurt."

2008-04-15T20:41:00.011-04:00

I'm regularly reminded that the smallest design elements can draw a lot of attention. I love the small paper airplane that adorns the designs for the School of Education. Today, Andrew, Joel and I attended a meeting to review the two options under consideration. We were joined by Dean Ginny McLaughlin, Tom Ward, Dot Osborne, Jennifer Putnam, and Sue Thompson. We talked about photo choices, search boxes, testing driving the new CMS, and a a three pixel tall horizontal bar.

The Dean's Office has a plan for sharing the two design options and collecting feedback from the School's various stakeholders. We should be able to reveal the rest of the design (what goes with the paper airplane) by the end of the month.

posted by Susan Evans

First Meeting of the re.web Editorial Board

2008-04-14T16:31:00.002-04:00

Today, the WEB met for the first time. WEB = web editorial board and its members are Henry Broaddus, Susan Evans, Jack Martin, Joe McClain, and Brian Whitson.

The Web Redesign Advisory Committee supported the creation of this temporary editorial board to oversee the review and publication of content needed for our July 31 launch. During our first meeting, we talked about exciting and excruciating detail like the serial comma (red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue). Who knew?

We are lucky to have many faculty, staff and students who are already reading through sections of new copy for the new web site. For instance, Ginger Ambler is coordinating the review of the Campus Life copy by many in Student Affairs. Copy about Graduate Admission is being carefully reviewed by Faye Shealy and others. W&M professors, along with Sue Peterson and Steve Otto (A&S Dean's Office), will soon review copy for the Academics section. The WEB will authorize and make final decisions about the content the world will see on July 31.

Want to know a bit more about the new web copy? See our collective CopyWrite posts.

Want to know what we decided about the serial comma? Stay tuned.

posted by Susan Evans

Official Student Bloggers at W&M - rewind

2008-04-14T16:29:00.002-04:00

If you've looked at the new design for the W&M Home page, you may have noticed the Student Blogs in the bottom-right corner. Although an exciting and eagerly anticipated component of our new web presence, official W&M blogs written by students are actually a thing of the past.

How's that you say? Yep, three years ago the W&M Admission Office sponsored By Royal Decree as a communication tool for admitted students.

Planning for the 2008 version of W&M student blogs is underway - more soon. By the way, check out Real Life at Ball State.

posted by Susan Evans

Project >> Process

2008-04-13T09:35:00.009-04:00

Nearing the end of the re.web project, the W&M Web Redesign Advisory Committee is already talking about sustainability. Aptly put by our partners at mStoner in a W&M Web Strategy Report they prepared in November 2007:

The reinvented wm.edu going live in 2008 is the tip of the iceberg, as the College transitions from the idea that its web presence is not a project but an ongoing process.

At our April 11, 2008 meeting, the web redesign advisory committee endorsed a new governance structure for the W&M web. Key to that new structure will be a permanent W&M Web Advisory Committee (note we cleverly renamed it by dropping the "redesign"). The post-re.web advisory committee will be co-chaired by Mike Connolly (University Relations) and Susan Evans (IT).

As we evolve the current web redesign advisory committee, we'll increase the membership to more broadly represent the campus. We talked specifically about adding representatives from Administration, Arts & Sciences, Athletics, Business, Education, Law and VIMS. Also, student members will be undergraduate and graduate students. The Faculty Assembly will soon offer the names of three faculty members to serve on the permanent committee.

We'll keep you posted.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - Historically Innovative

2008-04-11T13:30:00.001-04:00

The copyWrite post for today is more copy from the About section - this web page will probably be titled "Cool Facts." Take a quick read through these; whether you're a seasoned member of the W&M community, or a graduating senior, you may find some nifty surprises here.

About W&M
Cool Facts

Founded in 1693, William & Mary is the second oldest educational institution in the U.S.

Four Presidents of the United States benefited from educational programs offered by the College: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler.

Although William & Mary retains its traditional title of "College," it is in reality a small university that offers advanced degrees in several fields.

The average SAT score of William & Mary's incoming first-year students is higher than that of any other Virginia institution.

Phi Beta Kappa, the premier academic honor society in America, was founded by College of William & Mary students in 1776.

William & Mary was the first college in the nation to institute an honor code of conduct for students.

William & Mary is one of only eight U.S. institutions of higher education designated a "Public Ivy." A Public Ivy is a state-assisted institution which offers a superior education at a cost far below that of Ivy League schools.

William & Mary's 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio is among the lowest of national public universities, a factor that helps strengthen the College's traditional commitment to teaching.

Founded in 1842, the William & Mary Society of the Alumni is the sixth oldest such group in the U.S.

Named for its presumed architect, the Sir Christopher Wren Building was completed in 1697 and provided classrooms, library, dining hall and a chapel for generations of William & Mary students. It is the oldest academic building in continuous use in the U.S., and classes are still taught within its walls.

A recent NCAA study shows that only William & Mary and Stanford University reported student-athlete SAT scores of at least 1,000 in eight categories based on gender and sport.

A succession of influential individuals—including President George Washington, President John Tyler, Chief Justice Warren Burger, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger have held the post of Chancellor of the College of William & Mary. In 2006, Sandra Day O'Connor, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was installed as the College's 23rd Chancellor.

William & Mary has the highest number of per capita Peace Corp volunteers in 2008 who are alumni.

posted by Susan Evans

Am I Re-living Her Life?

2008-04-10T19:40:00.002-04:00

I met Nancy Prater from Ball State University recently. I'm finding that her role in the relaunch of the BSU site is eerily like mine for the W&M site. At first, I thought the extent of the comparison was that, like me, Nancy benefited from the experts at mStoner. Now I know from reading an interview Nancy did with Journalism Hope that we think alike too.

My favorite part of Nancy's interview about the BSU relaunch is that when K. Paul Mallasch asked, "I like that you call it a re-launch rather than a re-design. Can you explain the difference between the two for our readers?" Nancy replied:

Sure. I think this is an important distinction, too. The big difference is that a redesign implies a simple face lift of how the site looks. However, ours was more than just a face lift - it really was an "extreme makeover." The site now has a fully-planned information architecture, which is just a fancy word for site outline or plan. This may seem like a minor thing, but Ball State's Web site was like a lot of Web sites of large universities - it grew organically over the years, with no real plan for growth. That has all changed.

Preach it, sister. This is precisely why we decided to call ours re.web.

posted by Susan Evans

SPIFF and why the extra F ?

2008-04-08T09:22:00.004-04:00

If you've been following the re.web project, there's a good chance you've heard one of us use the SPIFF acronym. Calvin's alter ego has no relation to the W&M web site. So what the bleep is a SPIFF?

Despite the extra F in the acronym, a SPIFF is a special interest feature. Although I've been asked, don't expect me to know the why on the extra F. This question stumps even mStoner's Editorial Creative Director, Mark Sheehy. Moving on.

The new W&M web site will have a plethora (meant to distract you from the extra F) of SPIFFs including W&M Impact, W&M Inquiry, and W&M Style. The plan is to launch the new wm.edu with 5 - 8 stories in each SPIFF bank. Consider:

W&M Impact - stories and profiles showcasing the many ways W&M makes Williamsburg, Virginia, and the world a better place to live

W&M Inquiry - a series of profiles showcasing research from all units within the College as well as other ways, contemporary and historic, in which W&M has put itself ahead of the curve

W&M Style - stories and profiles showing the quietly quirky, eagerly earnest--but always fun and entertaining--student life and traditions at W&M

Did you get an immediate idea for any of the three SPIFF banks when you read their descriptions? If so, please send it to me, now, at sevans@wm.edu.

posted by Susan Evans

re.web Podcast (an encore performance) - We're Buying Cascade

2008-04-06T19:20:00.002-04:00

Episode 16 of the re.web podcast is called "It's worth saying out loud."

Links to the re.web content within the W&M on iTunes U site:

subscribe to podcast (does not require iTunes)

download episode 16 (does not require iTunes)

posted by Susan Evans

The Heart of wm . edu

2008-04-05T09:44:00.007-04:00

The subject of frequent discussion, email exchanges, and meetings is the design and structure of 35 academic departments that are the heart of the College. I am enjoying the conversations with Carl Strikwerda (Dean of the Faculty), Sue Peterson (Dean of Undergraduate Studies), and Steve Otto (A&S Director of Communications). With a collective goal of translating the very nature of Arts & Sciences to the web, this language on the current A&S home page is keeping us focused:

Arts & Sciences is the College's largest academic unit, with several dozen departments and interdisciplinary programs. Together they represent the historic and academic heart of the College of William and Mary, inheriting and building on a long tradition of excellence.

A design layout and information architecture for Arts & Sciences and 35 departments, ranging from English to Biology to International Relations is in the works. We are planning for a presentation to the Dean's Advisory Council, a meeting with the Faculty Affairs Committee, and open meetings for any member of the Arts & Sciences faculty.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - Campus Life = Service

2008-04-04T09:03:00.003-04:00

This week's copyWrite offers another writing snippet from the future Campus Life section of the W&M site. Many, many W&M students commit to community service during their time here. This draft copy offers insight about Service as a part of life on campus:

Service
Someone’s got to save the world. Might as well be us.

A William & Mary education is a “scholarship of engagement.” Other people just complain about the devastating effects of third-world poverty, homelessness or global warming. We go out and do something about it.

Seventy-five percent of W&M students participate in service projects, contributing an astonishing 323,000 service hours each year through 90 regional partnerships and dozens of national and international service trips.

The Office of Student Volunteer Services is the hub of service life on campus. OSVS runs the college’s core youth mentoring and tutoring programs and helps professors integrate service learning into their curriculum. OSVS also supports and trains individual students and campus organizations that want to start their own service projects.

Some of the most powerful and successful service projects at W&M are run by students. The annual Alan Bukzin Bone Marrow Drive is the largest college bone marrow drive in the country, collecting thousands of individual blood types to add to the national registry. And student-led organizations like Project Mexico, Schools for Schools and Destination China send W&M volunteers across the world.

Every year, 75 motivated students live and serve together as part of the Sharpe Community Scholars Program. “Sharpies” might take a special seminar on African American Vernacular English while participating in youth tutoring and mentoring programs, or study historic building preservation while lobbying to save a local landmark.

This scholarship of engagement affects and informs the lives of our graduates. W&M produces more Peace Corps volunteers than almost any other mid-sized college in the nation.

posted by Susan Evans

Dear VIMS,

2008-04-03T17:46:00.007-04:00

Here's a message sent earlier this week to members of the VIMS community from Dean/Director John Wells.

Members of the VIMS community,

Over the last few months we have been laying the groundwork for a re-design of the VIMS web site. This effort is proceeding in collaboration with the "re.web" project at W&M. This letter is meant to bring you up-to-date on the current status and next steps in our redesign process.

Strategic Discovery
The College has engaged the web consulting firm mStoner to partner with VIMS on the redesign of our website. Last December, members of the mStoner team led a series of meetings at VIMS as part of the process of "strategic discovery." A synthesis of their findings is now available via http://www.wm.edu/reweb/vims.php. Your comments on this document are welcome via the reweb blog at http://reweb.blogspot.com/2008/03/vims-web-strategy-report.html

Usage Survey
One goal of our web redesign process is to create a site that maximizes usability and accessibility. To that end, we encourage you to complete the usage survey at http://www.wm.edu/reweb/vims.php. We will use the results from this survey and a parallel survey of our external audiences to help identify the most useful navigation tools and content for the VIMS web site. We also plan to conduct user testing of our website for additional guidance.

Web Redesign Advisory Committee (VIMS)
The purpose of this committee is to provide broad representation from within VIMS concerning the content and design of the new VIMS web site. The committee includes representatives from the VIMS faculty (Carl Hershner), student body (Lindsey Kraatz), and staff (Karen Reay); as well as from SMS (Iris Anderson), DRAS (Lyle Varnell), Communications (Dave Malmquist), Development (Anne Marshall), OSP (Jane Lopez), Library (Carol Coughlin), ITNS (Barb Parcell), CBNERR (Willy Reay), and Sea Grant (Lee Larkin).

Content Management System
One of the most exciting aspects of our collaboration with the W&M web redesign team is joint adoption of a "content management system" (see http://www.wm.edu/reweb/whatisacms.php) The CMS software will make it much easier and faster for members of the VIMS community to create, share, and update web content, while at the same time allowing the web editor and webmaster to ensure a consistent look and feel across the site. VIMS and W&M staff had an opportunity to evaluate potential CMS vendors in January, and W&M is now beginning negotiations to purchase Hannon Hill's Cascade Server. Notices concerning CMS implementation and training will follow.

Writing Assignments
As part of CMS implementation, we are in the process of meeting with faculty, staff, and students to allocate writing assignments for various components of the new VIMS website. A list of these writing assignments is available via http://www.wm.edu/reweb/vims.php. A training session on writing for the web is also in the works, stay tuned for details.

Background
If you'd like more information on the W&M Web Redesign Project (of which the VIMS web redesign is a part), visit http://www.wm.edu/reweb and http://reweb.blogspot.com/ for background and updates.

In short, the purpose of the redesign is to ensure that the VIMS web presence includes the following elements:
a user-centric focus, including provision of intranet capabilities to serve the internal VIMS community
a clear, persistent navigation scheme
a balanced approach to respond to our diverse audiences
a robust and effective search feature
an intuitive information architecture with a focus on usability and accessibility
a well-structured content model for marketing, news, and multimedia
We welcome your input as we move forward with this important project, and look forward to your comments.

posted by Susan Evans (for VIMS)

Up the Hill and on the Other Side of the Lake

2008-04-02T20:35:00.005-04:00

Sometimes something just plain nice happens. Last week, I got an email message from the technology director at Walsingham Academy (located up the hill and on the other side of the lake from W&M). Walsingham has a great new web site and David Jenner sent an encouraging word to an IT colleague.

Ms. Evans,

I am the Technology Director at Walsingham Academy just up Jamestown Road from William and Mary. We recently re-worked our website last summer. I am sure our project was a much smaller undertaking than yours, but if there is anything I can do to provide some assistance, please let me know. I have come to know a few of your IT staff, and feel like our two schools are sisters.

I am sure you have put much thought into how you are going to get your new website built and off the ground. I am probably many moons late in mentioning anything (and maybe way out of line). We used YourMembership.com to create our website. If I may say so, we found they were a great web company to work with. They have completed web sites for many universities, so they are used to working with large colleges. You might consider browsing their site a little. Perhaps you have already settled on a vendor or maybe you are building your sites in house. I just thought I would share this neighborly info with you.

Here is our new web site: http://www.walsingham.org

Best of luck with your project. I hope it is a huge success!
David Jenner
Technology Director
Walsingham Academy
Williamsburg, VA

posted by Susan Evans

Countdown to Launch

2008-04-02T16:58:00.001-04:00

Gulp.

We've set a launch date. The re.web team is planning for an official go live date of July 31 (yes, I mean 2008) for the new www.wm.edu. There's nothing like a deadline to help with determining priorities.

Stating the July 31 launch date will also increase interest in our upcoming response to the most recent Guest Blogger's post. Holly Agati, Webmaster for Residence Life, asked some burning questions and we'll have responses soon! At a recent W&M Web Redesign Advisory Committee meeting, we endorsed some plans for providing centralized support as departments transition to the new CMS.

Watch this blog for more ...

posted by Susan Evans

Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

2008-03-30T20:39:00.009-04:00

Has everyone noticed that the new W&M home page will have a student blog in the lower, right-hand corner? More than two years ago, Henry Broaddus noticed - that is, he noticed that W&M hadn't yet ventured into a world where student bloggers help tell the story of a campus.

The first time I read a blog that was established as a component of a university communication strategy was in January 2006 when Henry recommended the MIT Admission blogs. I have admired the candid, fun, and direct writing ever since.

Yesterday, Henry sent me a link to Snively's blog post about laptop options at MIT. Turns out, I can't be reminded too frequently about the effectiveness of the student voice. The MIT blogs offer a compelling insider's view.

In the next couple of weeks, we'll see a wireframe for the future W&M student blogs - one more step towards a dream come true for our deserving dean of admission.

posted by Susan Evans (inspired by HB)

VIMS Web Strategy Report

2008-03-28T16:18:00.013-04:00

To members of the VIMS community:

As you may know, the College engaged mStoner to partner with VIMS on the redesign of the VIMS website. Last December, members of the mStoner team led a series of meetings at VIMS as part of their strategic discovery process.

A synthesis of their findings is now available (PDF) for your review.

We encourage you to use the re.web blog to comment and discuss this report.

posted by re.web project team

copyWrite - Connecting with Potential Donors

2008-03-28T13:50:00.000-04:00

In copyWrite this week, I'm including copy that might work for the Giving section of the new College site. Giving, one of the eight main navigational links on all pages of the new site, will connect potential donors with information about W&M.

This first draft of Giving copy makes a compelling case:

Giving
Excellence doesn’t happen by accident.

William & Mary thrives because we’re blessed with one of the most generous support systems in the country. During the groundbreaking Campaign for William & Mary (2000-2007), you helped raise half a billion dollars for this remarkable institution. But our work isn’t over.

We want to continue to attract the top students in the nation and extend the reach of a W&M education to every deserving applicant. That means more need-based and merit-based scholarships.

We want to reward our hard-working faculty members who are both world-famous scholars and committed teachers. That means more endowed professorships, research grants and competitive salary packages.

We want to continually expand and improve our historic, beautiful campus. That means more state-of-the-art research, performance and athletic facilities.

We want what you want. A William & Mary that never falls short of its own inspiring vision.

posted by Susan Evans

Dodged a Bullet?

2008-03-27T17:35:00.009-04:00

Anyone catch this article on CMSWatch.com? Serena Collage to go off into the sunset

Yikes! Serena Collage was a content management system on our short list just a few months ago! It appears to be a solid product and we heard positive reports from current higher ed customers, but I have to admit, this announcement does not come as a complete shock. The first warning flag popped up in my head when I tried to find Serena Collage on their web site. It was not mentioned on their home page and not listed in their fairly extensive Products menu. Rather, it was listed as it is today on the “All Products” page... Can you find it? Just s-c-r-o-l-l...d-o-w-n...t-o...t-h-e...b-o-t-t-o-m. There! Hmm, An outer province of an overextended empire? Maybe Serena Collage fell to the Visigoths?

I am not so far removed from the private sector to remember that “business is business” and restructuring of this sort, especially in the technical world, is commonplace. It's Starbucks in a suburban strip mall. (You're among friends here, you can admit that their coffee drinks are pretty darn good. Does anyone remember Orange Julius? What ever happened to that guy? Coffee and corndogs- Anyone doing that yet?) Dementia aside, I feel sorry for Serena customers who will scramble over the next few months to revisit their content management strategy. But they will prevail. Great thing about working in Higher Education, it is just this sort of challenge and adversity that provides the spark needed by those waiting for an opportunity. And besides who is to say Serena Collage will not be bought by one of the big fish who'll make it even better?

Should we worry that the same thing could happen to Cascade Server? I suppose anything is possible, but as if this mere thought “put it to the universe”* (maybe with a little help from Google Alerts) check out the quick response from Hannon Hill in a March 18^th Press release:

Hannon Hill Reaffirms Commitment to Clients of Higher Education Industry - Redefining 'Best Practices' for CMS Vendors

We have talented people here at W&M and no doubt we would have survived using a potential end of life product. But, are we comforted knowing the long-term commitment Hannon Hill continues to demonstrate to Cascade Server and Higher Education customers? Absolutely!!! I think....

Posted by Mark Windley

* A phrase common in my house. When I dare to have a negative thought I am scolded be my wife, “Don't put it to the universe!” This is an increasingly difficult situation for an aging pessimist such as myself. That being said, I expect a lot of traffic on the ride home for writing this.. or maybe a flat tire...

GUEST BLOGGER: Letter from a W&M Web Editor...

2008-03-26T22:25:00.008-04:00

Dear re.web team,

I am beginning to make plans for the summer and I wanted to get a bit of information about the re.web project and its timelines. I typically review my site in the summer and want to plan effectively; knowing how the re.web project will affect me would be helpful. I have a few burning questions:

Is there a timeline for the campus to migrate to the new look and content management system (CMS)? If so, when will I be asked to do this?

Also, as we migrate, it seems there should be a change in the tone or feel of the content. Is this something everyone will need to do on their own, or will there be some assistance?

Okay, you can you tell I am excited and a bit anxious about moving to the new format. As a web editor, I am curious about what all this means for me. Any insight would be great.

-Holly Agati
Webmaster for Residence Life

Gracias College Web Guy

2008-03-23T00:03:00.005-04:00

College Web Guy's right. What he knows is that it all starts with having something to say. What he doesn't know is that I've been struggling lately. No worse, discouraged (anyone get that movie reference?)

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to plan for what seems a monumental task - having great copy ready for launch. Our partners at mStoner are writing some fabulous copy but W&M web writers will have to produce some too. College Web Guy, without realizing it, your words have encouraged me. Thanks!
http://collegewebguy.com/2008/03/21/it-all-starts-with-copy/

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - Thousands will click here.

2008-03-21T10:53:00.003-04:00

In this weekly installment of copyWrite, we'll share some copy that might be like the narrative that ends up on the Admission section of the new web site. Admission will be one of the eight main navigational links on all pages of the new site.

Breeze through this draft web copy created as a first draft for the Undergraduate Admission section of the new www.wm.edu:

Undergraduate Admission
Don’t let our looks fool you. We have big brains under all our beauty.

William & Mary consistently attracts the most exceptionally talented high school seniors from Virginia and across the world. Last year, nearly 11,000 applicants fought for 1,350 spots in William & Mary’s class of 2011. Take a look at the numbers for this year’s freshmen:

* 79% graduated in top 10% of their class
* the middle 50th percentile on SAT was 1270-1430
* the class includes 77 high school valedictorians and 33 salutatorians

But what really sets W&M students apart is a passion for learning. There are no one-dimensional eggheads around here. (Though there are enough smart alecs for us to anticipate some crack about eggs being three dimensional.) Chemistry majors write poetry for the literary magazine, business majors volunteer in soup kitchens, and football players star in Shakespeare. It’s all part of the proud intellectual culture at W&M, extending from the classroom to the dorm room and everywhere in between.

Yes, we work hard. But that’s because we’re working on things that we love. Our professors—hands down the most committed and engaged in the country—inspire us to go one step further, to challenge conventional wisdom and uncover new truths.

posted by Susan Evans

A New Look for Law

2008-03-20T09:54:00.006-04:00

Members of the W&M Law School got a first look at design concepts for their new web site yesterday. Eight members of the Law School gathered in the North West Faculty Room for a 10AM conference call with mStoner.

Those in attendance included Lynda Butler, Interim Dean; Faye Shealy, Associate Dean of Admission; Jamie Welch-Donahue, Director of Communications; and Trotter Hardy, Associate Dean of Technology. Professor Eric Kades, Liz Jackson, Melody Nichols, and Ramona Sein rounded out the group.

After carefully contemplating the College's new web design they quickly came to a consensus about the look and feel of their own web site. Watch the re.web home page for a preview!

posted by Joel Pattison

Note to Self: Measure Results

2008-03-19T16:20:00.006-04:00

Michael Stoner joked that 11 or so years ago when he judged the national CASE awards for websites for the first time, he had to,

unplug the fax machine to dial in on a computer to view the one entry in the website category.

Over the past two days, we spent hours examining 33 institutional website submissions and 99 special purpose site entries. No surprise that, since 1996, the overall quality and impact of higher education websites is certainly much higher. Colleges and universities now get it - a school's website is the major communication asset.

Most interesting to me was the often missing description of outcomes on most of the submissions. The ability to measure results after the launch of a comprehensive, and often expense, web design/development project still eludes university web professionals. Very few entry forms included comprehensive and specific data on outcomes. Agenda item for re.web project team next week: what data do we need to capture pre-launch for reporting results a year from now?

posted by Susan Evans

Next Stop, Philadelphia

2008-03-17T10:49:00.000-04:00

I write en route to Princeton; by way of Richmond, Washington, D.C. and Wilmington, Delaware. Amtrak is the way to go - power at every seat and the "quiet car" is for introverts and business travelers who want uninterrupted time to concentrate.

I'm thinking about tomorrow and Wednesday when, on the campus of Princeton University, I'll be one of 15 judges for the web site category of the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.

So what makes a good web site? I did a quick search of the CASE site and found the 2007 Judges Report for the Web Site category. You can read it in its entirety, but I found this section to be good preparation:

What makes an award-winning institutional Web site? We asked ourselves that question before we began viewing the sites. Here are some important elements:
a sound strategy
sound information architecture, navigability and usability and good search
content developed for the site and deployed effectively across the site
effective management
distinctive or appropriate design—the look and feel of the site
technology used on the site and adherence to standards
evaluation plan—and results
strong institutional identity that is consistent deep into the site

By the way . . . the Amtrak web site, though not a CASE entry, satisfied many of the elements above and oriented me for my first train ride in 27 years.

posted by Susan Evans

How's it looking?

2008-03-16T16:22:00.002-04:00

For the past couple of weeks, we've been meeting with University Relations to talk about the News & Events section of the new W&M web site. Brian Whitson, Joe McClain, Cindy Baker, and Mike Connolly are reviewing the details, discussing the layout, and perfecting the look. Here's the prototype for a dazzling News & Events site.

mStoner desingers are creating an exceptional suite of page layouts that we'll use when we launch in late July (gulp!). We've featured some of these page layouts in earlier blog entries - Undergraduate Admission: now and later and But what will my department's site look like?

Stay tuned for a look at the designs for Arts and Sciences, Law, Education, and VIMS.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - What's it all About?

2008-03-14T09:10:00.002-04:00

Ready to read about About? In this weekly installment of copyWrite, we'll offer up some of the copy drafted for the About section of the new web site. "About" will be one of the eight main navigational links on all pages of the new site.

The current About section of www.wm.edu provides this summary:

About
Making the Connection

America's second-oldest college is also the best small public university in the nation. To find out more about William and Mary's heritage, reputation and notable achievements, explore the links below.

Now take a look at a couple of paragraphs intended for the new About section - drafts, of course:

About
Where professors and students are partners in discovery.

William & Mary attracts the type of student that’s itching to explore a topic beyond the textbook. We’ve found that W&M undergrads are ready—from day one—to work closely with our experienced faculty on research projects of real academic consequence.

In an intellectual environment as fertile as W&M, a good research idea can come from anywhere: professor, graduate student, undergrad or member of the community. The result is an intellectual partnership where each member of the team brings something important to the table, whether it’s the youthful idealism of the undergrad or the sharp analytical eye of the professor.

Let’s take a look at some of the incredible student-faculty collaborations from 2007-2008:

Two W&M undergrads, with the help of mentors in the English and Theater departments, wrote plays that were accepted and performed at the New York International Fringe Festival.

Freshmen members of the Sharpe Community Scholars Program took a seminar on historic building preservation in which they researched and wrote a full proposal for a Richmond building’s nomination as a National Historic Landmark.

A geology professor helped one of his undergrads fulfill a lifelong dream of solving the mystery of a sunken submarine. Using a cutting-edge lab at the nearby Applied Research Center, the students tested samples to send back to researchers in Charleston.

A professor enlisted undergraduate and graduate research assistants to help conduct a study on how the brain processes optical illusions. When the results of their research appeared in the scholarly journal Psychological Science, the students were listed as co-authors.

In my view, the storytelling in the new About section will be make our web site more personal and more engaging.

posted by Susan Evans

Commence Negotiations

2008-03-12T20:55:00.002-04:00

Do we have a CMS yet?

We're getting there! Read on...

The sound of Silence

Did you notice re.web has been silent on the issue of CMS selection since posting "Have we met?" shortly after the January 24 demonstrations of Cascade and RedDot by our friends at Global Image.

If you haven't already, you might want to read that post. In it we summarize feedback from those of you who attended; and in the 14 associated comments, we explain several of the differences in the way Cascade and RedDot implement specific key features.

Digging Deeper

We already had a demo. What else do we want to know?

Everything! We have been reviewing both Cascade and RedDot extensively, researching numerous questions, reading through knowledge base articles and user forum posts, and talking to CMS administrators at universities using each product.

I can't summarize every question we've thought up. But fortunately, our colleagues at Virginia Tech published an outstanding RFP as part of their Web CMS selection last year. You can get a sense of the level of detail of our questions by looking over sections A-L. (Thanks VT!)

Realizing that this RFP hit the streets months before the tragedy last April, and the subsequent demands on Web communication at VT, the questions in the RFP are prescient—and I'm sure the folks who wrote it were commended as the CMS negotiations progressed into April and May.

So, do we have a CMS yet?

As of today, we are opening negotiations with Hannon Hill for the purchase of the Cascade Server Web CMS.

As Susan said earlier: "Good choices are made from good options"—and both Cascade and RedDot are strong contenders in the Web CMS marketplace.

Here are a few points of interest regarding Cascade:

Cascade is currently in use at universities such as Duke, Cornell, Brandeis, and even down the road at the University of Richmond.

Cascade is on a Virginia Association of State Colleges and University Purchasing Professionals (VASCUPP) contract, which means another participating Virginia university awarded a contract based on an RFP from which all VASCUPP schools may buy. We will now attempt to customize a package of software, support, and training to meet our specific needs.

The re.web team believes that Cascade is a good fit for William and Mary. We particularly like the Asset Factories.

Asset Factories allow our implementation team to define types of content such as standard pages, News, Events, or Press Releases which will allow the user to fill in a few fields and have the CMS create the page in the correct location, link it to the appropriate template, and move it into the correct workflow. Asset Factories can also be associated with images and other types of files and media to simplify content creation.

If you click through above, you can also check out the WYSIWYG Editor, Inline Spell Checker, Image Editor, and many other features (some of which are for us programmer types). The Advanced section of the Knowledge Base gives you a hint of the power behind the scenes in Cascade, via XML/XSLT, Web Services (included SOAP/WSDL APIs), plug-ins, and the Cascade Advanced Server Toolkit (CAST).

Another thing we really like: It's all there for anyone to see— video demos, the Cascade Server Users' Forum, the Knowledge Base, and much more.

As one of my daughter's favorite characters would say . . .

Plus also, if you look at the Hannon Hill Products page you will notice that Cascade isn't competing for attention from Hannon Hill. Nor is it complicated to figure out which modules or add-ons we should buy—they are all included in the base product.

posted by Andrew Bauserman

re.web on the Arts and Sciences Agenda

2008-03-11T19:54:00.011-04:00

I had the pleasure of making a presentation at the Arts and Sciences Faculty Meeting this afternoon. My comments about re.web fell into one of three categories: background, progress, and next steps. Despite the Periodic Table of Elements on the wall in Millington 150 (those always bring back bad memories), I enjoyed the opportunity and the Q&A that followed.

March 11, 2008 Arts and Sciences Faculty Meeting
download the PowerPoint Presentation
download the handout

posted by Susan Evans

W&M on the CASE

2008-03-10T12:55:00.006-04:00

A week from today, I'll be traveling to Princeton, New Jersey to serve as a judge for one of the forty categories of CASE Circle of Excellence Awards. CASE is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and annually, their Circle of Excellence Awards recognize "a wide range of innovative and effective programs and projects."

As you might expect, I'll be judging for the Web Sites category and will be joined by 14 other web communication professionals from across the country. What have been described as "two very full days of judging" will be spent on the campus of Princeton University.

More about the evaluation procedure, the web sites we review, and the train ride to Princeton Junction next week.

posted by Susan Evans

copyWrite - a new weekly feature of this blog

2008-03-07T13:50:00.010-05:00

copyWrite is a new weekly feature of the re.web blog. Each Friday, we'll show you a snippet (is that a technical term?) of some of the web copy that we're producing and perfecting for the new W&M web site.

Although a picture's worth a thousand words, we still need some - words that is. As you know, eight links will appear on the main navigation for the new www.wm.edu. One of the eight links will bring you to a section called Campus Life.

To provide a frame of reference here's the copy from the current W&M Campus Life page:

Campus Life
Making the Connection

America's second-oldest college is also the best small public university in the nation. To find out more about William and Mary's heritage, reputation and notable achievements, explore the links below.

Now, here are a couple of paragraphs aimed for the new Campus Life section - in draft format, of course! We'll edit, edit again, and then again between now and late summer. Here goes:

Campus Life - Draft Copy
Being busy just got a lot more fun

If William & Mary students look busy, that’s because we are. Busy making lifelong friends. Busy making exciting music and theater. Busy making a difference in the world. With more than 400 campus clubs and organizations to choose from, staying active and engaged at W&M isn’t an afterthought; it’s a way of life.

Forgive us if we get a little intense about our interests. We were born that way. That’s why we have well over a hundred special interest clubs inspired by political engagement, religious faith, ethnic and cultural pride, environmental protection, and endless geekery from quiz bowl to ping pong to heavy metal.

posted by Susan Evans