Web Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
1 - 2:30 p.m.
203 Hayes Hall

1.  Introduction of attending team members: Becca Ferguson, Bryan Benner, Jill Carr, Representing Dr. Josue Cruz (Mitch Miller & Linda Swaisgood), Fred Connor, Carol Engler, Nancy Footer, Dr. Milton Hakel, Dr. Lorraine Haricombe, Kim McBroom, Bruce Petryshak, Dr. James Smith, Gary Swegan, Deb Wells, and Amy West

2.  Overview of Web Steering Committee:

• Bruce Petryshak and Kim McBroom thanked all committee members for their participation.
• Becca Ferguson will chair the committee.
• Current web environment was discussed - The key goal is to achieve greater consistency and to reduce the "noise" currently experienced in our web presence. This is a good time to take advantage of our recent technology investments - BGSupernet, Digital Video and external advancements for end-users systems, i.e. advancements in browsers, software access and tools like Flash.
• Future web environment issues related to: information services, management, coordination, privacy, redundancy and security, distributed servers, as well as delivery of administrative information, learning and teaching, marketing tools and University information and communications.
• The Web Steering Committee's charge was discussed.
• Each committee member was assigned an area/areas to represent.
• The importance of electronic communication, particularly web communication was discussed. It was brought to the committee's attention that in the past two to three years, prospective students searching for exposure to universities on the web rose from 67% to more than 96%. Currently BGSU's Admissions' site has more than 28,000 hits per month.
  

3.  Overview of the Web Steering Committee's responsibilities

• BGSU's website will become one organized communication vehicle - the committee's main responsibility is to help facilitate this change and to set policies pertaining to web communications.
• Each academic or administrative area's web presence can be different (i.e. content & design) while maintaining enough similarity to properly represent BGSU.
• There is a need to come together as an organization and set in place some level of consistency to improve search-ability, navigation and future dynamic web environment.
• When a person travels from area/link to area/link, they need to know they are still in the BGSU website.
• An Operational Committee needs to be established to work directly on the website. This will become an ongoing project due to constant advancement of technology. A list of tentative members will be distributed soon. Deb Wells will chair this committee, and recommendations for membership are welcome.
• The former Web Advisory Group (WAG) was discussed and the committee determined that it might be useful to look at some suggestions given by WAG that were not adopted.
  

4.  Software Demonstration from Percussion

• Due to technical difficulties, by a third party (Web eX), the presentation could not be completed.
• Percussion is just one of several vendors being explored, analyzed and tested by ITS, under the leadership of Deb Wells, to provide a Content Management System (CMS) for the BGSU website. No decision has been made on software at this time.
  

5.  Important points regarding the new website

• With a new content management system, users will be able to program submissions and expiration dates into the website so that content will automatically be posted, updated or removed.
• Existing documents will be able to be migrated to the new system.
• Content can be entered from Microsoft documents, HTML, Dreamweaver, etc. directly into the website.
• This system will be in addition to Blackboard, NOT replacing it.
• The main idea is to separate the web code and design from actual content for ease and efficiency.
• The new system will assist external/internal audiences in finding appropriate information since it will concentrate on both static and dynamic use of content.
  

6.  Concerns that were expressed regarding the new website

• Faculty may feel that their academic freedom is being tampered with.
• Lorraine Haricombe stated concerns that the library currently uses many websites that the students count on and are familiar with.
• Bruce Petryshak used the example of departments being able to assist other departments in an emergency if the entire campus uses consistent sites.
• There is a need to let the people who have been working on the current website know that the work and extra hours they have put forth have been recognized and appreciated.
• It was also pointed out that this should not be the committee's major concern since these people are performing a job. It was suggested that some of those people could be recommended for the Operations Committee.
• Positive feedback was also noted. Some people have expressed appreciation for a new system since knowledge of the current system is extremely limited throughout the university.
  

7.  Closing by Becca Ferguson

• Meetings were scheduled for the remainder of the term. The meetings will be held at 9 a.m. on November 6, November 20, December 4, and December 18. Meetings will be held in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, room 318.
• Partial implementation by May 10, 2003, is a goal.
• The group was dispersed with three assignments:
  1. Provide feedback on the groups that people will be representing.
  2. Gather names for the operations committee.
  3. Investigate other websites (not necessarily university websites) and provide a list of likes and dislikes. ITS will provide a list of possible websites to utilize.
     

8.  Communication vehicle for the committee:

• A discussion list has been created for the committee to use for communication called web-steering@listproc.bgsu.edu. All team members have been subscribed and have the ability to post to this listproc.