Web Advisory Committee (WAC) Meeting Wednesday

Jan 18, 2012 – Needles Hall (NH) 3004 – 3:00 pm

Present:

Marta Bailey, Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Don Duff-McCracken, Chris Francis (Temporary Secretary), Eva Grabinski, Chris Gray, John Kemp, Pat Lafranier, Collin MacIntyre, Isaac Morland, Liam Morland, Wendy Philpott, Sam Schmidt, Terry Stewart (Chair), and Kris Olfason (Guest) and Heather Wey (Guest)

Absent:

Amy Aldous, Sharon Dahmer, Guillermo Fuentes, Marlon Griffith, John Kemp

1. Chair’s remarks

Thanks to Chris Francis for volunteering to take minutes
Welcome to Sam Schmidt who is sitting in for John Kemp
Nigel Henriques has joined from Office of Development and Alumni Affairs (ODAA).
Kris Olafson and Heather Wey will become regular WAC members.
Gerneric Top Level Domains (gTLD)
- Terry has been investigating top level domains with Melissa Conrad Information Systems and Technology (IST) and Alan George. Acquiring .uwaterloo would be possible, but the $185,000 upfront cost and $25,000 yearly cost (plus a fee for each name) is a deterring factor. While uwaterloo is trademarked, that isn't a guarantee we could successfully contest someone else purchasing the domain. The cost involved makes it unlikely for someone else to purchase it. The current decision is to not pursue purchasing .uwaterloo but to keep a close watch. If someone does try to buy .uwaterloo, there is a process in place to contest it.
Chief Information Officer Nominating Committee
- Alan George will be stepping down in June. The title for the position will be changed to Chief Information Officer from Associate Provost. It is a very large committee. WAC members were encouraged to speak to any of the Nominating Committee about the position. Feedback has the potential to add a question to the interview process or to re-evaluate the weighting of a question. WAC members Terry Stewart and Paul Miskovsky are on the committee. More information is available on the Chief Information Officer Nominating Committee.
- Does WAC want to make a formal written statement? It was decided that WAC members would forward their input to Terry, Paul or the WAC email list. If there is enough feedback and agreement, a statement might be formulated by WAC. Terry agreed to forward the list of questions that the Chief Information Officer Nominating Committee is asking University of Waterloo members to respond to.

2. Minutes of Dec 14, 2011 - approved

3. Communications and Public Affairs (CPA) update (Ellen Réthoré)

Ellen was invited to Web Advisory to contextualize digital initiatives team within CPA.
An updated org chart was passed out to WAC members.
Associate Director Public Affairs - Will work with groups on campus to ensure President's time is used strategically.
Associate Director Internal Communications- The position is posted with the job description available online. This position will build internal communications strategy in concert with Human Resources (HR), oversee the Daily Bulletin, faculty and staff gateway web pages and the president speeches.
Director, External Communications - Large changes with someone filling the role starting February 13th. Marketing and communications background were important to the role. Communications officers be under this role. Media relations officer will identify contacts and issues in foreign markets for President.
Director Digital Initiatives (DDI) will be filled by Eva Grabinski. Eva and her team will work out of COM but she will also have office in NH.
Each major role under DDI will bring in both expertise to CPA and serve in mentoring skills across campus.

IA & User Experience - Help revamp site based on stats.
Manager, Digital Communications & Content Strategy - Putting marketing rigor behind the strategy.
Web Designer - Complement the graphic designers that currently exist in Creative Services
Manager, Social Media & Community Engagement - Skillful at provoking conversations and building relationships.
Computing Consultant - Reports to both IST and CPA-Creative Services and will be located at COM.

4. Waterloo Home Page Design (Eva Grabinski)

Feedback was gathered from users. It was found that more content on homepage was wanted. Embedded scrollbars in office & service section need to be updated to work on mobile. Audience links are now more prominent. Colour use and branding will continue to be reviewed. New homepage design being taken to senior leadership for approval. Next step will be pathway page design. Still unknown on how design will filter down to sites like environment. Any questions and feedback should go to Eva.

5. Waterloo CMS Project Update

Training and Migration Update (Heather Wey)
- Drop-in labs are open with seats available listed online. Training and support team will be available there. Most Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) courses have been filled. For site manager SEW courses Feb 15 has 20 seats left. Migration schedule is on the web resources site. Direct any questions to RT system. Put WCMS in the subject line to have it quickly directed appropriately.
New Features (Kris Olafson)
- Features and version
  - See Kris Olafson's Powerpoint presentation (ppt) for list of features from meeting. Full list will be on web resources site. Last release was stamped as 1.2 and was released back in December. Release 1.3 has been slightly delayed but will be out to early adopters in the next week for feedback. It will include image galleries and archiving pages. Release 1.4 is being planned and will include web forms. Planned meeting with IST ISS team for review before release.
- New Features Process
  - Formal process for reviewing new functionality is in draft. It will go up on web resources. Feedback is welcomed. Current criteria are
    - Business Needs
    - Breadth of Implementation
    - Accessibility
    - The Appropriate Technology
    - User Needs
    - Development Time
  - Once out the door, ability for community feedback will be developed
- E-commerce
  - A question was raised if the WCMS will have a method for accepting payment. The current process is handled through Beanstream. Information is available from Finance. Easier implementation into the WCMS will be considered but nothing currently exists.
- Delegate Access Control
  - Current pre-packaged options had functionality shortcomings. More investigation is needed. Expect after 1.4 as custom work will be required.

6. Web Advisory Mandate Review (Terry Stewart)

The current mandate is old and was written with the "Common Look and Feel" in mind. Four out of the seven objectives deal with Common Look and Feel. Concerns were brought up about WAC dependence on the Web Steering Committee, especially since Web Steering is not very active. There is a commitment to reinvigorate group with larger group of people. The WAC mandate should state reporting relationships. Rarely do we get requests for advice from top down. There is concern that if we wait for a new Chief Information Officer it will take several months after he/she is found to bring the mandate back to Web Steering. This item was carried forward for next meeting because of time constraints. It was recommended that this item be first item as this is the second time it has been deferred.