Web Services 'Web Tools' overviewGoalsThe Webmasters Coordinating Group in conjunction with CITES and the Office of Public Affairs has defined goals for this years CITES Brownbag Series. These goals include:
The need for goalsSince the release of the campus website in March 2003, a problem with navigation/communication at the campus level has been identified. Through email dialogues with our confused users we have found that two usergoups frequently get confused while trying to navigate our complex campus web community. These two groups are prospective students and parents. The CITES Brownbag Series 2003/04 will focus on implementing solutions to improve our navigation and communication at the campus level. This is the level at which our users see all of our individual websites as part of one campus web community.Recognizing the fact that we are all working on smaller budgets, the Office of Web Services will soon begin releasing it's suite of 'Web Tools'. These tools will be free for web administrators on campus and will implement solutions for the goals outlined above. The reasons these goals have been establish include:
Methods to accomplish goalsTwo methods have been identified to accomplish the CITES Brownbag Series goals. We will Introduce campus level communication strategies, and introduce campus level web solutions.The campus level communication strategies will focus on improving both communication with our web users and communication between departments offering information to those web users. These strategies will utilize new communication/information sharing 'Web Tools' from Web Services. The Office of Public Affairs is defining new strategies for improved marketing, branding, and navigating themes which will be promoted through the use of the 'Web Tools' and through future brownbags. The campus level web solutions will be the 'Web Tools' offered by Web Services. These tools will implement the communication strategies defined by the Office of Public Affairs. Tools will be hosted, supported, and managed by Web Services at no cost. Tools will be customizable to look and feel like any individual campus website. Methods to accomplish goals of CITES Brownbag Series include:
Benefits/RewardsBenefits and Rewards will be seen at many levels. At the department level we will see communication channels developed to put groups with common interest and problems in touch with each other. Web administrators will have free 'Web Tools' available to them to solve common problems on campus. At the campus web level users will benefit immediately from the 'Web Tools' that are adopted on campus. First, users will benefit from the information sharing aspect of the services not previously available. Users will be presented with data and information shared and presented for the first time between departments. Second, users will benefit from the 'Web Tools' because now they will start to see similarities and consistencies across many campus websites. Users will benefit from the navigating, marketing, and branding themes defined by OPA. Users will begin to get a sense that they are navigating through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus web community. At the information level, for the first time, departments will begin to share their data/information. Departments can consume this data and deliver/present it in methods not previously available. The benefits and rewards from accomplishing the above defined goals will be realized at the following levels:
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