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

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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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, 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. 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!

posted by K. Andrew DeSoto, '09

GUEST BLOGGER: Building a Site with Tribe Voices

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 site I created (it honestly took minutes):

• http://wmpeople.wm.edu/naacp

posted by Justin Reid '09

Usability Testing Part 2 of 2: The Product

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

Read more about Tribe Voices.

posted by Joel Pattison

Usability Testing Part 1 of 2: The Process

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