Webmaster Committee Meeting Minutes
December 10, 2002
Members Present: Jamie Bethel, John Chandler, Tom Harmon, Jay Kammerzell, Charlie Kerlee, Jill Lenz, Erin Napier, Mary Pridgen, Joe Strecker, Sallie Varner
Guests Present: Karen Wheeler, University Relations
Old Business
1) Discussion of SiteObjects, the new content management software demo'd by Thom Hadley at last month's meeting.
Sallie gave a brief overview of a meeting concerning SiteObjects. In attendance
were Thom Hadley, Larry Cobb, Joe Strecker, Janine Gentile, Jill Lenz, Jamie
Bethel and Sallie Varner. The big issues seem to be: 1) Will content management
software reduce the time and effort for
webmaster content providers, thereby freeing them up to do their core jobs and
will it make creating, revising and posting web pages easier by shielding the
content providers from HTML, file management and FTP? 2) If we decide that we
will use a content management program, is SiteObjects the best choice? With
the assumption that content management is the way to go, it was decided to give
SiteObjects a serious look because the price is good and it seems to have the
features we need. The 3.0 version is due out the middle of January. When it
is out, Joe Strecker and Janine Gentile will spend time looking at it, to see
if it works and provides the promised features, and determine whether it will
work with our operating system and servers. After they're done looking at it,
then the webmasters will have a chance to work with it. To prepare, we should
discuss possible uses of this new software, types of objects we use & could
use.
Group discussion centered on timeframe of inspecting the SiteObjects software; aspects that the programmers will be looking at and things that we can be considering as we prepare to work with the new software. Joe provided a good run-down of what the programmers will be looking at. He also gave an idea of the 3 broad areas involved in website maintenance -- site design, programming and content -- and how this type of software will and won't help to make those tasks easier and more efficient.
Later in the meeting, we also touched on possible objects that we might consider
using with this software such as a faculty/personnel template. Another idea
was to have an area on the home page for Karen Wheeler, our College's public
relations specialist, to directly enter current news
headlines with links to the full press release and a photo on the College home
page and the VTH home page. Currently, she supplies the info to the owner of
the page who must format the info for the web and post. If Karen had direct
access to portions of these pages and didn't have to worry about formatting
or posting as SiteObjects promises, it could streamline the process.
2) Making the CVMBS home page more attractive and user friendly by adding photos/graphics.
Sallie showed a possible version of the CVMBS homepage that included a photo from Karen Wheeler as a link to the top news story. It was approved for use as the CVMBS homepage.
3) Karen Wheeler from University Relations joined us to provide further information on a possible link to the Petline9 web page.
Karen opened with the information that 9 News may be discontinuing the Petline9 web site, so the whole issue may be moot. Many committee members thought that this is a valuable service, however, so discussion ensued on the possibility of continuing the same type of Question & Answer site from the VTH homepage. Karen will pursue this possibility with Marty Yates, as well as working with him on links for Pet Facts and Pet Tips on the VTH page.
New Business
1) View and report on Clinical Sciences revised home page -- Charlie Kerlee.
Everyone agreed that the updated Clinical Sciences home page looks good. We liked the rotating pictures Charlie has incorporated. Charlie said that, as a neophyte to web design, the process was easy using the templates. For the rotating photos, he and Jill copied and pasted the "Rotating Images on Reload/Refresh" Javascript code from Janine Gentile's Javascript presentation available at http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/webmaster/javascript/index.html. Charlie mentioned that generating the rotating photos this way was very easy. Some pages dating from 1999 were discovered during his update. He has printed these out and given them to the appropriate individuals for a rewrite/reorganization of the content. Using these, he will redesign and post these pages.
2) Mary's question for Network Services concerning viewing e-mails from the web page and how to deal with them.
Tom Harmon said that, with our current e-mail system, this will probably continue to be a problem. Precautions that we can take include: make sure that your virus program is current; use your own good judgement; don't open any attachment that is suspect, delete it and send an e-mail to the sender explaining your doubts and requesting further information.
Due to a lack of time, remaining agenda items were tabled until next month's
meeting. These include creating a consistent format, with regard to both look
and content, for faculty pages and a redesign for the College pages. Jill Lenz
agreed that future meetings should concentrate on the redesign and content management
software topics and will not present her report from the Assistive Technology
and Accessible Media in Higher Education "5th Annual Accessing Higher Ground
Conference" where she presented "From the Grassroots Level: Web Accessibility
Success Stories from Colorado State in early November. This presentation will
be repeated again at session #25 at the 2003 CSU Professional Development Institute
(PDI) on Wednesday, January 8 from 10-11:50 AM and for CSU Disability Awareness
Days in March 2003. PDI registration deadline is December 13; contact is Debby
Claussen at 491-1325. Webmaster Committee members are especially invited to
attend this PDI session since the second half hour is all about CVMBS Webmasters!
The full conference report is linked from the Webmaster Committee home page
and is available at
http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/webmaster/reports/02at.htm.
In addition, next month's meeting will include some brainstorming on objects that might be included when using content management software. Sallie asked that each of us put in a little thought on this topic before that meeting.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14 from 9:00-10:00 am in
W01 Anatomy/Zoology.
Submitted by Sallie Varner (with major assistance from Jill Lenz) 12/11/02
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