easier way to manage wild web

Web Content Management
–


easier way to manage wild web


Dong Chen, Lead Web Developer


Office of the Chief Information Officer

I.T.S / Web Development

Bowling Green State University

Thursday 04/20/06

Ohio Higher Education Computing Council, 2006

Background

About BG


Bowling Green State University (BGSU), located in
northwest Ohio, was founded in 1910. A state
-
assisted,
residential institution, BGSU has an enrollment of
approximately 20,000 students on two campuses and 840
full
-
time faculty members. More than 200 undergraduate
degrees are offered, along with master’s degree programs in
65 fields and doctoral programs in 16 areas

I.T. Infrastructure


Sun Solaris 9, Oracle 9i database, and Apache web server

Why Web Content Management?

Create a consistent look and feel for BGSU

Provide a mechanism for timely updating and
maintaining accurate information

Ease of use for technical and non
-
technical
expertise associated with managing and publishing
content

Reduce duplication of effort by providing an
automated system for sharing content

Provide flexible workflow for approval of changes
to content

Increase the ability for shared support




WCM Selection Process

Established core I.T. CMS reviewing group

List of
core WCM capabilities

Campus
-
wide Web steering committee

Vendor onsite demo

Established Web operations committee, co
-
chaired
by Office of Marketing & Communications, and
Office of the CIO


Web Content Management Market, 2005

WCM Core Capabilities

Highlights


Simplify content contribution, empower non
-
technical users

WYSIWYG editing

Locate Web content quickly and easily

Streamline approval process

Enforce standardization

Publish content across multiple sites

Reuse content and fine
-
tune page layout

Maintain connections among your content, less broken links

Better site maintenance

Section 508 Compliance and W3C WAI (Web Accessibility
Initiative)

Build On Open Standards (HTML, XML, CSS, Java)



WCM Implementation Process

Asked vendor provide onside training and BGSU
branded documentation

Setup WCM resource website
(
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/cio/webdev/page972.html
)

Campus
-
wide communication, ex.
(workshops,
consultation, training)

Balance politics and technical/staff ability

Implemented some highly visible websites first, ex.
(Office of the President, Division of the Executive VP, Office of the
CIO)

Additional staffing

Three
-
tired architecture (development, testing, production)

Steps for Using the CMS

Each area designates a content administrator. This person coordinates
the page's "look and feel" and will be the area's only contact person

The content administrator contacts the Web team to establish a presence
in the web content management system

The content administrator contacts Marketing to specify the area’s color
and template

The content administrator contacts TSC at 2
-
0999 to schedule CMS
training for everyone who will use the system

After completing the training, all trainees use the content management
system within a training environment for two weeks

After the two
-
week testing period, the content administrator contact the
Web team again to establish their community's workflow requirements

The area begins creating, producing, and managing Web pages using the
content management system




WCM Resources

BGSU Web Development


General CMS Info
-

http://www.bgsu.edu/webdev/


Graphics standards manual
-

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/mc/gsm/

BGSU case study
(
http://www.percussion.com/products/content
-
management/rhythmyx/literature/PDFs/BGSU_Case_Study.pdf
)

CMS Watch


(
http://www.cmswatch.com
)




Lessons Learned

Key Considerations
:


Analyze your own website to help determine what exactly is
needed

Look for CMS providers that offer WYSIWYG editing

Ask vendor to install the product onsite for testing before
any decisions made

Ask about support

Contact existing higher education customers for reference

Ask for an education discount

Look to the future, ex. (XML, Web Services, RSS, Portlet)

Engage your stakeholders early in the process

Communicate, communicate, communicate …

The End?

Q&A

Contact info:



Dong Chen


Lead Web Applications Developer


dchen@bgsu.edu


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