This morning, I sent out an invitation to 100 people -- a cross-section of students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni -- inviting them to join a new Virginia Tech web advisory panel.

You may recall that in our website redesign survey this fall, we asked respondents to indicate whether they’d be willing to participate in further research. This is our "coalition of the willing," so to speak. Think of this panel as a sounding board for our development work, helping to strengthen our user-centered philosophy.

As we continue to develop Virginia Tech’s web presence, we'll tap into the advisory panel via e-mail to get feedback on our ideas. From time to time, we also may conduct online “flash surveys” on myriad topics. We can address the panel as a whole when needed, or address a subsection if there’s an audience-specific question we need answered.

From my experience, this is a quick, effective, and inexpensive way to get feedback from an audience. I'd love to hear ideas for how we might further tap into the advisory panel.

If you’ve found this blog, you’re likely well aware of the enterprise web CMS project underway at Virginia Tech. The university will be issuing an RFP (request for proposal) very soon, but work toward a CMS began more than a year ago.

Here’s a recap of how we got here. (I apologize up front for this being a long entry.)

In Fall 2005, Virginia Tech – led by University Relations and in partnership with Information Technology – began an enterprise web redevelopment project which included in its scope the implementation of an enterprise CMS.

Early in Spring 2006, the Web Redevelopment Steering Committee and other knowledgeable parties pulled together a CMS Team comprised of representatives from around the university. The team was tasked with identifying requirements for a CMS, particularly from a user’s perspective. CMS team members conducted a number of interviews with various parties, including:

From within Virginia Tech:

• Representatives from the offices of Undergraduate Admissions, Bursar, Financial Aid, Registrar, and Development
• The Library Services webmaster
• A designer from IDDL
• Webmaster from the English Department
• Webmaster from Multicultural Affairs

• Duke University
• University of the Pacific
• University of Alabama, Birmingham
• Columbia University

Based on findings from those interviews and other research, the team composed a high-level requirements document which stated and prioritized the key needs for a CMS. This document was presented to the Steering Committee and the Web Redesign Advisory Committee (comprised of representatives from every college and major administrative unit). After reviewing their feedback and making some changes to requirements, the initial task of the CMS Team was concluded.

A two-month break in activity followed, to allow University Relations and IT to shift 100% of its focus on the university’s web redesign launch in July.

In August, an expanded CMS Team came back together to identify and evaluate possible CMS solutions for the university. The effort merged with that of the Agriculture, Human and Natural Resources Information Technology unit (AHNR-IT), which last year had begun its own search for a CMS solution to support its many clients, including the 100+ offices of the Cooperative Extension. 

For more than two months, the CMS Team evaluated several solutions, both proprietary and open-source. After dismissing open-source options for myriad reasons (primarily related to the time and human capital required to build and maintain an open-source CMS), and paring the proprietary options based on the requirements developed last spring, we worked with test instances of a handful of CMS products (which will go unnamed for obvious reasons).

The CMS Team conducted a series of tests (including end-user tests) in September and October, with the hope that one of the CMS's would clearly distinguish itself as the ideal choice for Virginia Tech based on our requirements, and justify a sole-source acquisition. Results of our testing, however, led the CMS Team to recommend an RFP. 

The product testing process was not wasted. It gave us a much better sense of what the university needs, and has allowed us to prepare an RFP with very specific requirements that should yield the best possible product for Virginia Tech.

We have discovered one certainty: No CMS will be a silver bullet. Rather, our objective is to choose a product that will satisfy the university's biggest needs, prove very easy to learn and use (and therefore meet with wide acceptance within the university community), and demonstrate the ability to grow with us for many years to come.

Stay tuned for the RFP release, which will be posted in the near future.

Today we received the evaluations from last week's Web Development Symposium (held Nov. 9, 2006), and judging from the responses, a solid majority found the event to be extremely worthwhile. By my calculations, 81% gave the session an overall rating of 4 or 5, on a scale of 1-5 where 5 = "excellent." We are very thankful for the enthusiastic response.

A common thread through the 94 evaluations was a desire for more information and training around use of the university's web templates. We will be addressing that need during the spring semester by offering, through FDI, a course entitled "Dreamweaver 8 (Part Four): Working with the University's Website Templates." Our web developer, Elaine Oliver, will teach the course, which will be offered three times. Those interested in further training, please watch the FDI website for that course posting.

Planning ahead, we've already decided based on the success of last week's event to have a second Web Development Symposium next spring, with a focus on the enterprise CMS project. We're not ready to announce a date, but we're looking at late May or early June, which should give us time to have the CMS operational.

Again, thank you to those who attended the symposium. VBS is in the process of producing an online package -- video synched with the presentation slides. I'll send out notification as soon as that's available.

The University Relations Web Communications team operates with a simple motto:

Virginia Tech's Web presence will never be complete... We are in a state of perpetual beta.

To help you follow our ongoing efforts, Web Communications has created this blog to share news, discuss developments, and generally keep the university community informed of our activities. We'll post frequently on topics such as the selection of a new Web content management system (CMS), use of the university's standard templates and graphic elements, and writing for the Web. And quite often, we'll be asking the blog community for its opinions and advice on key issues.

Think of this blog as your lifeline to Web Communications, offering a chance not only to keep up-to-date, but also and to ask questions and offer comments along the way.

Our veteran webmaster, Bruce Harper, and web developer extraordinaire, Elaine Oliver, also will be regular contributors.

We look forward to some great discussions.