February 15, 2012– Needles Hall (NH) 3001 – 3:00 pm
Present:
Marta Bailey, Kirsty Budd, Chris Carginan (guest), Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Don Duff-McCracken, Chris Francis, Guillermo Fuentes, Brad Galway, Eva Grabinski, Chris Gray, Marlon Griffith, Nigel Henriques, John Kemp, Pat Lafranier, Collin MacIntyre, Paul Miskovsky, Isaac Morland, Liam Morland, Meg Saunders, Terry Stewart (Chair) and Jonathan Woodcock
Absent:
Amy Aldus, Sarah Forgrave, Tammy Marcinko, Wendy Philpott and Heather Wey
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Chair’s remarks
- The following new members have joined WAC: Virginia Young from Student Success Office (Kirsty Budd is subbing for Virginia today), Meg Saunders from Housing, and Brad Galway from MUR.
- Thanks to Marta for the information on the redesigned University of Toronto Mississauga site. The site is obviously a Drupal site.
- The Chair has received instruction from Alan George regarding global Top-Level Domains (gTLD's). University of Waterloo will not be pursing uwaterloo as a gTLD. We will be watching and will object if any one tries to acquire it but it is unlikely given the cost. If a challenge is required, any and all legal fees would be the responsibility of the University.
- Chief Information Officer Committee – no submissions have been received by Paul or Terry from members. Members can still submit their comments to Paul or Terry but there will be no formal submission from WAC.
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Upcoming Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD) sponsored seminars
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March 28 – “Regulatory update and importance of Web accessibility” and March 30 – “Tools, tips, resources and best practices – 1:00-2:30 pm in Math and computer building (MC) 2009.
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Minutes of January 18, 2012 - approved
- Thanks to Chris Francis for taking the minutes.
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Web Advisory Committee Mandate (Terry Stewart)
- A note from Alan George reiterates his belief that WAC is a key player in the institutional management/steering of the web presence and he is happy to convey this sentiment.
- Discussion:
- Some members of the WAC would like to see approval of the mandate before the new CIO is appointed (July 2012 time frame).
- Is WAC strictly advisory or should it make decisions?
- What gets deemed important enough to be sent to Web Steering?
- Are issues discussed at the WAC meetings decided by consensus or are these more for decision making?
- What is the mandate for Web Steering and will it be revitalized? It was generally felt that this would be a good idea.
- One possible scenario for the composition of Web Steering would be: CIO, VP-External, Manager-Information Systems and Technology (IST) Client Services, Director of Digital Initiatives and Chair of WAC.
- Has there been comparisons to other Advisory committees?
- The sub-committee (Terry, Janice, Don, Pat, Jonathan Woodcock, Chris Francis) will take these suggestions and re-work the mandate for formal approval at the next WAC meeting. If possible, a revised mandate will be circulated via e-mail before the next meeting.
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Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) update (Pat Lafranier and Kris Olafson)
- Developer position is moving forward; references are being checked. An announcement is expected soon.
- Training and support currently available for content maintainers and site managers as well as writing for the web
- Handouts have been updated and are available on the Sharepoint site.
- Twelve websites have been moved and 14 are in progress. This list is available at uwaterloo.ca/web-resources.
- Drop in labs are up and running all day Monday to Friday.
- Forms are ready for the next release in about two weeks but are still being tested. Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) with Liam is coming soon – looking to late March or early April 2012. Currently working on access security, taxonomy and RSS feeds for news and events, broken link checker, and ability to clone pages.
- A Features Server is being tested, which will be a place for feature requests and also contributions from other developers on campus.
- Discussion
- Regarding new modules. Is collaboration possible with Student Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), Student success Office (SSO), and Feds?
- University of Waterloo Drupal users group – should we consider forming a University of Waterloo Drupal users group?
- E-commerce – using Beanstream is required as part of Policy 8. Karen Hamilton will be circulating an email regarding the use of e-commerce. Can find this information on the left navigation on the Finance (FSO) website.
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Communications and Public Affairs (CPA) update (Eva Grabinski)
- Digital Initiatives Team Organizational Structure
- Director, Digital Initiatives
- Manager, Information Architecture & User Experience
- Manager, Digital Communications & Content Strategy
- Manager, Web Design
- Manager, Social Media & Community Engagement
- Computing Consultant (Joint IST-CPA)
- Coop Student
- Recruitment of Digital Initiatives Team Members
- IA-UX manager started February 14
- Web-content manager starting March 6
- Interviews for social-media manager on February 22 and 23
- Web-design manager hiring process underway
- Computing consultant started February 6
- Preliminary Overview of Roles and Responsibilities
- Update on roles and responsibilities for IA-UX and web-content managers
- New Homepage Status Update
- Web design concepts/flats finalized
- HTML/Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) mock-ups of homepage & audience pages getting underway
- Scheduling of launch date
- Pathway pages in Drupal – templates only specific to University of Waterloo homepage and not available to Faculties. Are other "thematic" pathway pages possible (e.g., Computing gateway page)?
- Finalized approval is in the President’s office – please direct comments to Eva.
- Working on editorial calendar with Communications Council.
- Digital Initiatives Team Organizational Structure
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Next meeting – Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 3:00 pm in NH 3004
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Meeting adjourned – 4:00 pm