Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - Needles Hall (NH) 3001 - 3:00 pm
Present:
Lara Babalola, Mary Lynn Benninger, Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Sarah Forgrave, Guillermo Fuentes, Eva Grabinski, Marlon Griffith, Lauren Harrison, Karen Jack, Pat Lafranier, Christine Liebig, Giles Malet (guest), Tammy Marcinko, Paul Miskovsky, Isaac Morland, Kris Olafson, Kevin Paxman, Terry Stewart (Chair), Kelley Teahen, Evan Truong, and Jonathan Woodcock
Absent:
Amy Aldus, Dave Annable, Marta Bailey, Don Duff-McCracken. Chris Francis, Chris Gray, Adam Hewgill, Janet Janes, John Kemp, and Wendy Philpott
1. Chair's remarks
Thanks to Marlon for sending the information regarding Firesheep and Mary Lynn for the messages about universities with new web designs.
Please pass along a list of web developers in your area as per the recent email from Terry Stewart.
Information Systems and Technology (IST) Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) course December 10 - Accessibility for Developers - guest speaker.
2. Approval of October 20, 2010 Minutes - approved as distributed
3. Open Data Initiative (Giles Malet)
Giles started this project based on discussions at the Student Technologies Advisory Committee (STAC) meetings. Outcomes of these discussions indicate that there are demands for open data, particularly for mobile applications campus wide. For example, parking was contacted and it was discovered that a team of engineering students was looking for parking data to use in a year-long project. Giles will collaborate with this group.
A mailing list (mailto:opendata@lists.uwaterloo.ca) and a website - http://opendata.uwaterloo.ca/ have been set up. Currently this project is experimental and only course details are available, however the team is looking to obtain more data.
The project team is not sure at this stage where this will lead but it appears that demand is increasing and the team is beginning to work with staff in the Registrar's Office, IST and students. Privacy and confidentiality issues are a large factor in moving forward.
4. Web redesign (Sarah Forgrave) phasing protocols
The search issue has been resolved. There will be a common header with one search function that will return both global and department specific data. Faculty and Department Word marks. The current word marks are not the correct ones indicated in the positioning guide. The working group asks that these not be used yet. Concerns are starting to come forward regarding the timing of the launch. The team reminded members that departments should be working on the information architecture and content while the templates are being developed. Full day sessions of the Bootcamps are being developed for those who are launching pilot sites in February 2011 and those who write content. These will continue to be offered and shorter, more focussed, versions are being considered. Usability and accessibility are being tested with seven user groups. The team will need help from WAC. This work will begin early in the new year.
5. Content Management System (CMS) update (Eva Grabinski)
Major work underway includes timelines, blogging capability, events-calendar, faculty kit, revision control system, Drupal 6 selected, user-interface design and project communications.
Pilot implementation Jonathan Woodcock is currently testing the blogging site. Engineering will be the first pilot site. Eva confirmed that this test will be top level only.
A content management kit is almost ready and will be circulated once complete.
6. Other business
WatITis Conference - December 7. There are a lot of web presentations scheduled. Registration closes the last week of November.
Stewardship of new University of Waterloo Website (Mary Lynn)
There will be a need to define a governance structure for stewardship of the new web which would need to include: effective use of content, management of metadata, management of web application development, management of security, monitoring of web content and compliance with the CMS. Mary Lynn will circulate the report she created for discussion at the next WAC meeting
7. Next meeting - January 19, 2011
*Meeting adjourned - 4:10 pm*
-- TerryStewart - 03 Dec 201