Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Needles Hall (NH) 3004
Present:
Marta Bailey, David Bean, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Don Duff-McCracken, Jeff Dunnett (Guest) Sarah Forgrave, Eva Grabinski, Chris Gray, Marlon Griffith, Karen Jack, John Kemp, Pat Lafranier, Tammy Marcinko, Geoff McBoyle (Chair), Megan McDermott, Paul Miskovsky, Issac Morland, Kris Olafson, Kevin Paxman, Kelley Teahen, Evan Truong.
Absent:
Mary Lynn Benninger, Guillermo Fuentes, Tobi Day-Hamilton, Lauren Harrison Jaymis Goertz, Jim Johnston, Terry Stewart, Sean van Koughnett.
1. Chair's Remarks (Geoff McBoyle for Terry Stewart)
a. New members
i. Welcome to Marta Bailey who is representing the Graduate Student Office. ii. Welcome to Jeff Dunnett (Mathematics). Jeff is a guest attending to discuss E-Commerce with Marlon.
b. Past events:
i. "Social Media 101 Webinar" was held on September 2.
ii. "eduWeb Conference Report" at Information Systems and Technology's (IST's) Professional Development Seminar on September 11. Pat gave an abbreviated report of this session at August WAC meeting.
2.Minutes of August 19, 2009 approved
Thanks to Michelle Douglas-Mills for taking these minutes.
3.Branding initiative (Kelley Teahen)
Since the "leak" of the University of Waterloo logo, the task force has compiled a feedback form with a link from the Daily Bulletin.
Meg Beckel is also meeting with units that report to Executive Council to discuss the exercise and final iterations. It is hoped that these units will then be able to forward this information to those within their portfolios. As well, there will be opportunity for discussion at the next Town Hall meeting in October. The timing for the unveiling of the new logo is now being pushed to 2010 and will not be used for the publication due out in November.
Discussion: The question was asked why the website for feedback does not include a choice of "none of the above". Kelley explained that this exercise is not a vote for a winner or loser. This type of "vote" is not helpful for the direction the task force would like to go in. It is simply a breakdown of data that will be analyzed once the feedback site is closed on Sunday (September 20).
It appeared that there was no direct invitation to the staff or faculty and Kelley acknowledged that this may have been an oversight Action: Kelley will find out if a mass email to the ‘human resources (HR) lists; can be sent before Sunday's deadline.
4. Web redesign project (Megan McDermott)
Sarah Forgrave will be seconded to the position of Manager for Web Communications, during Megan's parental leave. This is Megan's last WAC meeting until she returns.
The new design team has been set up and the group will be looking for external help with the design. Concerns arose that outsourcing could potentially entail negative feedback, such as with the branding exercise. The team is attempting to contact all stakeholders within the University community. However, the team did not receive permission to send an email to students asking that they complete the survey; therefore, the team is relying currently on word of mouth, newsletters, etc. If any department or unit is planning to send an email to students, please plan to include the link - web.uwaterloo.ca and encourage the students to fill out the survey. It was suggested that the team could speak with Johnny Trinh in the Student Life Office or Faculty Student Societies to assist with this. Sarah agreed to keep WAC updated on the activities of the Redesign Project.
5. Waterloo Content Management system (CMS) (Eva Grabinski)
The CMS was formalized on September 4th and a link to the Project Charter was sent by Eva on September 9 (http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/istweb/projects.html). Eva will be attempting to establish a team of approximately 10 individuals. Work has started on developing a Project Management Plan.
We started building the team with WAC members and previous Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) project members. We have not determined if there will be secondments. There are a couple of positions that may call for secondments. The current issue is time within members' schedules. Open Text will be providing two training sessions: * *Project Manager* - October 22 and 23 - three to five people are expected to participate. To be held at OpenText Waterloo office. * *Project Builder* - November 9 or 16 - this is a five day course and Eva is encouraging as many people to attend as possible. To be held in Math and Computer (MC) building. Further information to follow.
6.E-Commerce (Marlon Griffith and Jeff Dunnett)
E-Commerce procedures and policies are proving to be challenging to some departments. They are especially onerous for small one-time events. Jeff has developed a separate program within his department. He was approached about the program as a possible "piggy back" for an event. Jeff and Marlon were suggesting the possibility of a central group on campus to assist and asked the WAC group for feedback. Kelley suggested contacting the Theatre Centre in Hagey Hall (HH) about handling event participation by phone since they are familiar and have the resources. It was agreed that each unit should determine what interest there is in e-commerce access for both permanent and temporary events and report back at the next meeting. This list of events and their departments would be sent to the E-Commerce Group (Roy Wagler, Jason Testart, etc.)and Jeff Dunnett (Math). Hopefully a meeting could be then set up for these individuals to determine if there is a simpler way to have e-commerce access e.g. through the HH Booking Office.
Action: Each unit should determine what interest there is in E-Commerce access for both permanent & temporary events for the next meeting. Please send these to Terry [stewart@healthy.uwaterloo.ca].
7. University of Waterloo Web Applications Standards for Full Browser Support (Marlon Griffith)
It was proposed that standards for web applications on campus be developed to guide the selection and/or development of web applications. This has become an issue particularly with the Graduate Admissions Project (GAP), where there are issues with cross-browser support. Eva commented that Accessibility standards will probably cover a lot of the standards to be considered. The proposal was viewed as an excellent idea but was suggested that WAC should wait until it was known if Computing Technology and Services Committee (CTSC) is going to deal with it. It was suggested that either WAC or CTSC or both must also consider web standards for web applications. *Action: Sharon will get the membership list of the CTSC and circulate.
8. DNS Resolution Policy Sub-Committee
Jim sent regrets for this meeting - this item is tabled to the next meeting.
9. Email Link on University Waterloo Home Page (Pat Lafranier)
Most admin users and a significant number of students have been moved to Connect. This is causing problems should they use the University home page email link to access email via myWaterloo. Connect users should use Outlook Web App (OWA) web interface and not myWaterloo. It was decided that an additional link to Connect will not be added to the University of Waterloo home page.
There are some suggestions including an additional field in "WatIAM" but this would require authenticating twice to access email. Isaac suggested the use of CAS would prevent having to authenticate twice.
Send suggestions to Pat. Pat will keep the committee informed.
10. Other business
Policy 8 (Information Security) is being reviewed. Geoff asked that all members read the draft of the policy and send any feedback to Jason Testart by the end of September. Action: Sharon (and Karen) to send link to committee.
Next Meeting - Wednesday, October 21 - 3:00-4:30 pm - NH 3004 or 3001
*Meeting adjourned - 4:15 pm*
-- TerryStewart - 23 Sep 2009