This document provides an overview of the workshop on Institutional Web
Management held in 1998.
Workshop Topics
The following topics were be covered at the workshop.
Presentations
Presentations on the following topics were given. Note that all speakers have
been asked to ensure that there is sufficient time for questions.
- 'Dumbing Down' - making the UCE Website more accessible
This talk reviews the recent redesign of the UCE website which involved
simplifying the website in collaboration with a commercial web design company.
The talk will comment on the success of this process and provide pointers
to how UCE intend to develop the site, with commercial support over the next 18 months.
- Does Web Content Grow on Trees?
This talk describes the reorganisation
of the website at Goldsmith's College into three separate "trees" for
external information, internal communications and a teaching and learning web environment.
- Publishing And Devolving Maintenance of a Prospectus
This presentation will describe approachs to publishing the University prospectus in print and
online formats which are being taken at Bristol University.
- RAL Case Study
This presentation describes Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 's DataWeb service, which uses
Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology on a Windows NT server and a back-end
relational database system. The talk describes the advantages and pitfalls
of this approach.
- Information Management and the Institutional Website - Promoting and Supporting
Organisational Change
This talk suggests the need for a methodical approach to support (and survive)
the process of organisational change required in providing information on an
institutional website. It is based on a combination of direct experience of
running a University website and academic research into corporate information
management. Brief case studies will be discussed to illustrate the major themes.
- "He left the course 3 months ago?": Web-based front-ends to student
databases
This talk describes efforts to manage large student numbers by using
Web-based interfaces to databases. The systems developed aim to allow
teaching staff easy access to up-to-date student information such as
tutorial attendance and work done records, thus allowing academics
to spend less time on "paper-chasing". The presentation will discuss the
development-time and techniques employed in developing Web-based systems and
look at problems such as meeting user requirements.
- Events Online
This talk presents an events database that uses server-side XML to let the
events content publish itself. Events submitted via either a form or free text
are served to the browser in the College house-style - allowing the institution
to carry the publishing workload rather than the individual or their department.
- The Use of Online Databases to Manage Student Support and Learning
This talk will focus upon the use and development of World Wide Web
(WWW) interfaces to relational databases housing student information. It will
demonstrate the effective use of current and emerging internet technologies such as
HTML, CGI and DBMS and will look at the functions XML and SSL can play in
facilitating remote administration and secure access to on-line databases to support
students and tutors. The talk will highlight examples from a number of University and
National projects.
- Deploying New Web Technologies
This talk describes emerging web technologies and suggest models
for deployment.
- Web Accessibility
This talk will describe the work of the DISinHE Centre.
- Publish and be Damned? - Freedom, Responsibility and AUP
This talk discusses the pros and cons of publishing and acceptable use policies.
Parallel Sessions
The following parallel sessions were given. Note that these parallel sessions
lasted for 4 hours and provided plenty of opportunity for discussions.
- Web Design
- The aims of the session are to:
- Enable participants to discuss web design issues
- Identify a number of different approaches to web design
- Identify the pros and cons of using external designers
- Identify how to produce a design brief
- Metadata
- The aims of the session are:
- To identify why metadata is needed.
- To review current metadata standards.
- To discuss models for managing metadata.
- To agree on steps forwards.
- To have the opportunity to see examples of metadata applications and
metadata management software.
- Web Server Management
- The aims of this session are:
- To provide an opportunity for Web server administrators to discuss topics of interest.
- To describe and discuss models and tools for institutional web indexing.
- To describe and discuss web security issues.
- To describe and discuss caching models and tools.
- To discover how other institutions are managing their web servers.
- Web Tools
- The aims of this session are:
- To provide an opportunity for participants to try out a range of web
tools which may be new to them.
- To discuss issues related to the provision and support of various types of web tools.
- To advise the UCISA-SG Web Tools group.
- Management Issues
- The aims of this session are:
- To allow participants to discuss web-related management issues.
Speakers
We are fortunate to have a number of speakers for the UK Higher Education community
who are experienced in the provision of web services. Speakers who have confirmed
to date include:
- Brian Lantz, UCE
- Andrew Aird, Goldsmith's College
- Toria Marshall, Rutherford Appleton Laboratories
- Paul Browning, Bristol University
- Jon Wallis, Wolverhampton University
- Nick Gould, Manchester University
- Steve Emmott, King's College London
- Terry Brown, Newcastle University
- Andy Powell, UKOLN, University of Bath
- Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath
- Andrew Cormack, University of Wales, Cardiff
- Helen Varley Sargan, Cambridge University
- Paul Booth, DISinHE, Dundee University
- Colin Work, Southampton University
- Danny Birchall, Sussex University
- John Toomey, Balance Company
Workshop Summary