Faculty are our best critics.

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

From one 'burg to another

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

Letter to a W&M Web Editor...

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

Looking for a few good students.

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

One Year Ago Today . . .

. . . 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

First Meeting of the re.web Editorial Board

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

Project >> Process

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

GUEST BLOGGER: I'm Eating Up This re.web Thing

I don't like coleslaw. Usually.

Nonetheless, the cabbage-based side dish played a supporting role in my new favorite dining experience, which happened at a small restaurant in Williamsburg called A Chef's Kitchen. There chef John Gonzales, author of two cookbooks for Colonial Wiliamsburg, prepares all the food in plain view of the patrons. He tells stories. He explains choices. He answers questions. It's the sensory equivalent of immersion into the Food Network, minus the obnoxiousness and the colorful sweaters.

Turns out that even coleslaw, which I would not miss if I never saw its mayonnaise version again, can be put together one carefully chosen ingredient at a time and creatively distinguished from the norm (in this case with extra kick from wasabi) in a manner that appeals to me. This particular coleslaw tasted so good that I wondered whether I genuinely liked it that much, or whether I merely admired the thoughtfulness that went into its preparation. Then I wondered how meaningful that difference is. Then I wondered whether my wife would finish all of hers, because I wanted more.

Fortunately for all of us, the re.web project employs some of the same techniques for transparency, minus tastes and smells (for now anyway). The hope, and so far the remarkable achievement, has been to instill respect for the process and acceptance of the outcomes, even when all the stakeholders don't agree with every decision along the way. And if you have any doubts about the transparency of re.web, check out some of the unfiltered, critical feedback in the comments section.

Implemented properly, William and Mary's new website and web governance will embrace a similar level of transparency. Only then can we confront the often artificial distinction between message and messenger. Only then can we open up the website as the organic cross-section of campus life that it needs to become, an artifact as revealing about our decision-making processes as it is about the decisions themselves, and all the more enticing as a result.

Otherwise how will all the prospective applicants, potential donors, reputation influencers and desirable hires who think they don't care for William and Mary learn to appreciate how wrong they are?

posted by Henry Broaddus, dean of admission and guest blogger

My Webdom for an FTE

Voltaire Santos Miran (mStoner senior partner, and recent visitor to the W&M campus) has posted some thoughts about staffing a "smart sustainable web solution" on the mStoner blog:

Nothing produces head nodding more quickly than a conversation about staffing. Or, more appropriately, understaffing for the web within colleges and universities...

Was an era (small era) that large institutions got by on one web editor and one technical person managing the entire public site.

Voltaire references "Shane Diffily’s terrific article about web staffing"—which is also a good starting point for the discussion.

We look forward to what Voltaire, Patrick DiMichele, Mark Sheehy and the rest of the mStoner team have to say to W&M on the subject in our forth-coming Strategy Report.


Posted by Andrew Bauserman

They Got Us Started

This post pays tribute to those who got us started!

In May 2006, Provost Geoff Feiss charged a web assessment committee to review the College's web presence and provide recommendations in the form of a white paper. Members of the W&M Web Assessment Committee were:
Courtney Carpenter, Information Technology (Chair)
Clay Clemens, Government Department
Susan T. Evans, Information Technology
Stewart Gamage, Public Affairs
Earl Granger, Enrollment
Lisa Grimes, Charles Center
Tim Jones, Public Affairs
Jack Martin, English Department
Steve Otto, Arts and Sciences

posted by Susan Evans