University Web Pros: What’s Your Dream Project?
Published 19 May 2005
Students have graduated and summer is upon us, so I thought it was a good time to take the imagination out for a spin.
Here’s the scenario: For the course of one project, the University web site fairy godmother has granted you full control. You can manage the project any way you see fit, and staffing, money, politics, institutional inertia, technical resources, and any other common barriers are not an issue. The only stipulation is that the project must be for the University web site.
What is the project that you would do? What is your dream project, that you think would greatly improve your University web site, but you can’t get off the ground due to some of the above barriers? What is the one project that you would love to do?
I’ll add mine to the comments later in the day, but I don’t want to bias the direction of the conversation. You can leave your answer here, or write it on your own site and leave a reference to it in the comments.
Have fun!
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Commentary
MJ writes
May 20 at 12:09 AM #
For the entire university? A campus-wide CMS, with a consistent look and feel for EVERY department within the university.
For the department whose web sites I actually manage? A redesign of the School’s web site, with a CMS. And a knowledge base for my department’s web site, so that users can get information quickly without having to send in a support request.
This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far. :-)
goodwitch writes
May 20 at 01:41 AM #
I’ve got a dream project…that relates to musicplasma (go check out http://www.musicplasma.com). I want to create an artplasma.com, and this counts as a University project since I’ve got museums!
Ben Kimball writes
May 20 at 02:44 AM #
The university has a vast and broad range of clients. No one single design can hope to encompass them all. Consistency of look and feel is vastly overrated. Take a step back: the web as a whole lacks a consistent look and feel, yet I suspect you don’t have much trouble using it, if each individual site pays attention to basic user interface design principles. The same goes for our University.
My dream project? At first I had the old “tear it all down and start from scratch” idea, because it’s a very tempting thing to do. But on reflection I think it’s the wrong choice. Instead I’d like to train all of our faculty and staff to think about how to use this technology more effectively. We have the resources and skills to build much better tools and applications, but there’s no demand for them.
Susan writes
May 20 at 03:12 AM #
A full-blown faculty database that could easily be tapped into by anyone who needs all or part of the data.
Andrea writes
May 20 at 08:35 PM #
Mine is to set up an accessible, standards-based portal for our on-campus folks, and change our front door into a page finely tuned for prospectives and their parents, alumni, and donors. We’re a bit behind the times in this respect, and I think our site is being held back by trying to serve everone with the exact same site.
Another dream is to set up a backend framework where all our information is easily published in xml, and can be transformed into all the other formats we need—pdfs for the catalog, etc. We have so much information in so many different formats that we end up not even knowing what we have, and end up republishing the same information over and over…
Amy writes
May 20 at 09:29 PM #
Either of these would be near the top of my dream web project list:
1) A web-based survey tool that anyone at the University can use; something similar to SurveyMonkey.com.
2) An easy way for users to incorporate simple databases into their web sites, without having to become database experts. The University of Michigan is attempting this with their UM.SiteMaker tool.
Jonathan Maybaum wrote a good article about UM.SiteMaker in the Oct/Nov 2004 issue of Innovate.
Chip writes
May 23 at 10:01 PM #
What happens when you ask this question to a self-proclaimed sports fanatic with a developer/manager job?
I actually would like to develop a fully online system to manage our intramural sports. From scheduling, team management and player registration, computer rankings, tournament seeding, and bracket building, to everything else.
Probably never going to make it to the top of the list!
Phillip writes
May 24 at 09:01 PM #
Look, over there…it’s a giant! A fully functional “UT Expert” database!
No master, it’s just a windmill!
No, no, I tell you we’ve found it! Finally, a place where anyone-<del>particularly people in the media</del>-can search for and find the UT-Austin faculty experts in any field!
Looks like a windmill to me…
That’s because you have no imagination! It is a giant, I tell you. Think of it! A place where the hidden treasures of the University-<del>expert information</del>-can be revealed and put to use! No more shall we labor in darkness. I must build it!
But master, you have no money, no staff, no ‘project specifications’. The windmill will tear you up!
Indeed, if you think it is a windmill, it might, but to me, it is a giant! Now, who will help me slay the giant?
Karine from College Web Editor writes
May 26 at 02:48 AM #
I guess that I would really like to be able to work on a comprehensive 3-year strategic plan for the college website.
In my dream, everybody on campus will see the website as the only important tool for the college (eh, it’s a dream – why not go crazy?) I will have unlimited access and budget (mainly time) to meet with my President and VPs, interview all our website stakeholders, survey our main target audiences and perform extensive benchmarking to come up with a great strategic plan defining clear result-driven goals for the next 3 years.
goodwitch writes
May 26 at 06:49 PM #
I want “push button publishing” for all the university community. We are rolling out an enterprise wide CMS (so I’m having to make this dream come true)...but I still think something is missing…
What is missing? Personal blogspace for all our university community. Simple, automatic, one button publishing. No server decisions, no installation or upgrade hassles..central IT will take care of that for you.
You just need to think and then speak “out loud” on your blog…listen to others and let the creative juices flow.
I call it uBlog. I’m writing a recommendation for it right now!
P.S. Phillip – I love your windmill!
Elaine Nelson writes
May 26 at 09:36 PM #
1) fix our staff directory so everybody has the “right” department listed.
2) finally change or upgrade our events calendar. (mmmm, spaghetti! and I wrote it….)
Andrea writes
Jun 4 at 10:15 AM #
Thanks everyone for your great comments! It’s fun to dream isn’t it… Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out how to make it all happen someday. Anyone have any great ideas about this?