WEBMASTERS’ COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

W-01 Room, Anatomy/Zoology Building

 

Ms. Pridgen called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.

 

Members Present:  J. Gentile, T. Harmon, S. Hilligoss, B. Jones, J. Lenz, C. Moth, M. Pridgen, J. Riegel, M. Rutz, C. Schmer, P. Sollars, J. Strecker, and L. Tarnoff

 

Guest:  John Chandler

 

Old Business

 

Network Services is the final page out of compliance with the new standards for webpages.

 

Ms. Lenz has completed a cover for the CD containing College photographs and is working on creating a label.  The numbers for our photographs have the same numbers as the Cotton files.  The CD is available for checkout.  Reproductions of the CD will be made as needed.

 

Demonstration

 

Dr. Chandler gave a demonstration of the Opera Browser 4.02.  Both the evaluation and the full versions are available for download at www.opera.com.  The evaluation version provides thirty days of usage based on the actual days accessed.  Opera uses the same amount of resources in the CPU as Netscape, handles Java and Javascript, and is more true to HTML.   Opera functions similar to Netscape and Explorer and appears to work fine with WebCT.  Dr. Chandler suggests that it may be useful in validating pages and development of webpages when considering users with other browsers. 

 

New Business

 Validators

Ms. Lenz has offered to head a subcommittee to work on bringing the college webpages into compliance with Bobby, a validator which analyzes how user-friendly websites are for disabled visitors and also with W3C, a standards analyzer.  Dr. Chandler and Mr. Bethel have agreed to assist Ms. Lenz.  The chair entertained a motion to accept this committee.  Ms. Moth moved and Ms. Tarnoff seconded the motion.  The motion carried.  The committee will begin the task and report back to the committee on their progress and then show individuals how to run their pages through these two validators.

 

 Microbiology Pages

 

Ms. Lenz and Ms. Hilligoss are working on the Microbiology pages beginning with the graduate area to create a more interesting site for potential students.  They will be exploring the use of cascading style sheets and will report back with what they learn.  Ms. Gentile will be a resource as well as the CSU website since it uses cascading style sheets.  Mr. Harmon indicated there are a number of resources available on the Web also. 

 

 Intech Lab Presentation

 

Ms. Pridgen asked how many committee members would be interested in Ms. Lenz's presentation on the equipment in the Intech Laboratory.  Four people expressed an interest--Moth, Riegel, Sollars and Tarnoff.  They should email Ms. Lenz with two-hour blocks of time that work best for them.

 

 Photographs

 

There is a continuing need for up-to-date photographs to use on websites in the college.  Working through the Public Relations Department results in high-quality photographs, but it takes a lot of time to get people scheduled and to have the finished product.  Mr. Harmon volunteered to take the digital camera with him and take photographs when he visits various departments.  Ms. Lenz indicated that a digital camera is available for borrowing by webmasters who want to experiment taking photographs.  Ms. Pridgen will see whether she can fit photographing into her work schedule for people who have specific needs.  A committee could be set up to review photographs or they could be posted for the whole committee to review prior to posting.  Ms. Moth will check with Bill Cotton to see whether he has photograph subjects sign permission slips for the use of their photograph.  She will report back to the committee.  It was agreed that the committee members need to focus on building an archive of photographs for the website.

 

 Statistics

 

Mr. Strecker will be reviving the logs that Mr. Stewart used to keep which show the number of hits various spots on our website receive.  The first log since December 1999 is showing between ten and twenty times the activity of the December log.  If this remains true, web developers will have to give attention to limitations of the current server.  Though increased volume is our goal, it can cause difficulty if it exceeds the capability of the server.  Two items committee members wondered about--can we tell whether the hits are coming from outside the university and can we tell what type of browsers are being used.  Mr. Strecker will get back to the committee with that answer.  The website for viewing the logs is http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/intech/logs .

 

 New CSU Logo

 

Mr. Milligan is not ready to post the graphics for the new logo yet.

 

 Listserve Mailings

 

Committee members were asked whether they had received any listserve mailings informing them they could register their websites.  Our listserve should be private and not available to the outside world.  Ms. Hilligoss indicated that she had received the email through her lamar address.

 

 Survey Results

 

This item was postponed until the next meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m.  The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 14th at 9:00 a.m..  

 

Carol Moth 10/10/00