Web Advisory Committee meeting (February 20, 2013)

February 20, 2013–  Math & Computer (MC 5135) – 3:00 p.m. 

Present:

Daniel Allen, Heather Anderson, Kristy Budd, Natalie Cockburn, Janice Cooke, Emma Cullen (Guest), Michelle Douglas –Mills, Chris Francis, Chris Gray, Marlon Griffith, Pat Lafranier, Gary Lui (Guest), Tammy Marcinko, Collin McIntyre, Liam Morland, Kris Olafson, Rose Padacz, Mitchell Patterson (Guest) Terry Stewart (Chair), Andrea Sweet, Jeff Voskamp,

Regrets:

Guillermo Fuentes,  Alison Gelata, Eva Grabinski, Karen Jack, Vadim Kononov,  Donald Duff-McCracken, Megan Saunders, Susan Shifflett, Jonathan Woodcock.

Absent:

Amy Aldous, Dave Annable, Jay Athia, Marta Bailey, Cynthia Breen, Nigel Henriques, Jim Johnston, Amy Meredith,  Paul Miskovsky.

1. Chair’s Remarks

  • Welcome to guests Mitchell Patterson, Emma Cullen, and Gary Lui from Student Technology Services group.  They are the co-ops who worked on the web site.
  • Welcome to Rose Paducz and Suzanne Shifflett who will be attending WAC.
  • This is the last meeting for Natalie Cockburn who is leaving for the private sector.  Eva Grabinski is also leaving for the private sector. And Suzana Pinto has left also left UW for the public sector. Best wishes to each of them.
  • Congratulations to the WCMS team who are now past the 200 site mark in sites on the CMS.
  • Reminder that the fifth annual Accessibility Conference is in Guelph May 28-29, details at http://www.accessconf.ca/  Registration is $200+tax for two days.  You have until Friday if you’d like to submit a paper for consideration.
  • The PSEWeb Conference is in Vancouver this year on June 24-25.  A call for papers was sent to members via e-mail.
  • Drupalcon is in Portland this year on May 20-24.

2. Approval of Minutes.

​3. Busines​s Arising

Recently Andrea Sweet sent out a message trying to gauge interest in attending a training course on Adobe InDesign and accessible PDF’s.  This spawned some discussion from one member who felt that we should be moving away from PDF’s because they “violate the principle of separation of content, which is what makes them a nightmare for both usability and accessibility.”  Another member added that “isn’t always practical to implement everything.”  To which the original member replied that “not all versions of everything need to be accessible.  E.g., if you have an accessible HTML version of a PDF, then the PDF doesn’t need to be accessible”.

Question and Comments

Q.  We need to produce so many PDF’S; taking PDF’s and changing them into a web design would involve separating out content.  Does anyone do this?

A.  Liam has done this outside of work.  When you change content in the templating process this doesn’t change the format.

Q.  How long does it take?

A.  It takes longer to set up the initial workflow.  Once that is done, changes made to the source content are published in every format without any additional work.

Q.  Would it work with multiple PDF’s?

C.  The workflow can generate whatever file or files you need.

Q.  Would the CMS team be able to pull out information if there are different content types?

A.  Yes, they are able to export the data out.  This is a service that would allow a continuous service.

C.  Creating Accessibly PDF's from Adobe InDesign - The intent of this course is to enable those already using InDesign for print publications to create accessible PDF's. We have investigated this course for CPA/Creative Services – and are offering the extra spaces to other staff. This initiative is not intended to replace more complete solutions – such as the Publications tool/module, nor encourage using PDF's in place of HTML content. It is meant to offer those using InDesign for professional layout and graphics training to create accessible PDF versions for use online where appropriate. There are 18 spots available. Presently, the course pre-registration is full with a waiting list of 12.

C.  Centre for Extended Learning has sent their magazine to an outside source for changing the magazine to a PDF.

C.  Some departments have used external vendors to create accessible PDF's. In these cases, the PDF's are delivered to the vendor and made accessible. Each time the original file is updated, the PDF's need to be resubmitted. One of the vendors used is http://accessibilit.com/app.htm

C.  Maybe we need to come up with a third solution that uses both.

C.  Can’t see a way of using html appropriately.

C. html cannot adjust to different sizes.  If talking about creating a magazine design, this is happening after everything has been laid out.

C.  Maybe the Creative Services area could provide a solution; this could be a service that they offer.

C.  Andrea will ask Christine if she would like to speak to the WAC group.

C.  Flash Player is being abandoned, html is being recommended.  This is not currently a service provided on campus.

Q.  Is this on someone’s radar?

A.  No one was aware of anyone looking into it.

C.  Maybe it will be a service that we have to take off site.  It would be nice to bring this forward to Creative Services.

C.  This might provide a new position on campus.

4. Student Technology Services Update (Natalie Cockburn)

  • The Student Technology Services group has sent out an RFI for a mobile development platform.   Accessibility is part of the consideration, platforms are changing quickly and not at the right time.  This has all been specifically laid out in the RFI. 
  • A lot of the systems on campus are limited from a portal and mobile perspective.  It should not matter where you are assessing information from, it should be available from all devices.   Their group has been working on making sites mobile friendly. 
  • The Working Group is working on design elements.  The Data Group is identifying where information is coming from, what students are accessing most.
  • We will not be seeing any mobile ability soon.  The project is designing elements that will be accessible from all devices.
  • The Student Technology group has overhauled their website, created videos; updates are available here as well.  The group is encouraging everyone to look at the website.
  • Looking for feedback on the website https://uwaterloo.ca/student-technology/
  • Highlights from the website:
    • Looking at using Blog actively as working groups move ahead.
    • Starting points for a successful mobile and portal accessibility.
  • Through a survey the Student Technology team has found that students at the University do not feel they are involved in Technological decisions on campus.
  • Bill Baer is the project manager for the Student Technology Group, he will be able to assist with any questions you may have.  Questions regarding the portal can be directed to Kris Olafson.

5. Digital Initiatives Update (Andrea Sweet)

Jonathan Woodcock, Aaron Miller will do a presentation on web and social media analytics at the March meeting.

Kris Olafson, Pat Lafranier, Andrea Sweet, Christine Goucher, Heather Wey and Jonathan Woodcock met February 28th to discuss roll-out of the new University of Waterloo logo online-across both WCMS and non-WCMS websites.  An update will be provided at the March meeting.

Jonathan is looking for volunteers to serve as back-ups for various SEW courses.  All Course content has been developed (although volunteers can customize it however they would like).  Please contact Jonathan Woodcock if interested. Volunteers are specifically needed for:

  • Writing for the web
  • Effective web content planning

Questions and Comments:

Q.  Are analytics being tracked?

A.  Yes, analytics are being tracked on every site, accept for local sites.

C.  A request for Jonathan Woodcock to advise on current and best practice scenarios for tracking Google analytics.

Q.  Who would make that decision?

A.  The Chair agreed to put this on the March Agenda.

Q.  Who will come back with a report?

A.  Kris and Andrea will send out info before next meeting.

C.  Site managers should be made aware that Google Analytics is available.  It is a valuable tool that people are not taking advantage of.

C.  Could a SEW course on Google Analytics be developed?

6. Waterloo CMS Update (Pat Lafranier/Kris Olafson)

There are now over 200 live sites in the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS).

Thanks to each and every one of you who have joined the WCMS and worked so hard getting your website moved into the WCMS!  It has been our pleasure working with you. 

A big shout-out to our co-op students who have helped to migrate and test the websites for quality assurance and who offer support through e-mail and the Drop-in Labs - we couldn't have done it without them. 

Accessibility Legislation

The University of Waterloo is committed to meeting our obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).  Read all about the standard and what you need to do on the Web Resources site.

WCMS Drop-in labs


The WCMS Drop-in Lab is open Tuesdays & Thursdays – 9:00-4:00 (MC 2060). 

Who’s new to the WCMS…

Twelve more sites have launched in the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) since our last update on January 9.

To see a complete list of sites in the WCMS and sites in the progress of being migrated, check out the WCMS migration schedule on the Web Resources site at https://uwaterloo.ca/web-resources/wcms-migration.

Add your site to the WCMS migration schedule.

Join us for our Developer Drop-in Labs

If you are interested in providing feedback to the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) development team, please join us!  Held the 4th Wednesday of every month from 1-4:30 pm, MC 2060.

Version 1.6

Version 1.6 of the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) has been pushed out to all sites.

Some of the highlights are:

  • Changes to Events
    • Events with location latitude and longitude now display a map and a marker with the location. (You may need to reset your location for upcoming events to see this!)
    • Events now have a dedicated field to display any associated cost.
    • Added iCal files for individual events.
    • Multi-day events will now display until the event is over, instead of until the event starts.
  • All Twitter widgets need to be recreated!
    • We have updated the WCMS to use Twitter's new widget. This will require all Twitter widgets to be recreated. Twitter has stated that the older widgets will no longer function after March 5, 2013. (Note that new Twitter widgets have a maximum width of 520 pixels and will not fully expand across wide web pages.)  There are instructions available on the Web Resources site.
  • See the full list of 1.6 features and updates.

New SEW courses available!

New SEW courses are now available:

  • Creating Accessible Tables,
  • Twitter 101,
  • Search Engine Optimisation. 
  • For a complete list of courses, see the SEW course brochure

New Google Search Appliance ordered.

New Google search has been ordered.  It has more horse power, same model. It is more functional, delivers a better service.  The price came down considerably.  It has been release in Sandbox to a test environment in the working groups to speak to one another.

New one will be live; the old one will be upgraded.  Once the upgrade has been completed, both will be running at the same time.

Mybalsamiq - License for unlimited mock ups with 10 concurrent projects.  Unlimited users, social, can comment on design.  It would be similar to a social Visio.

Note:  Kris will present a demo at the next meeting.

Questions and Comments:

Q.  Is the ‘Search’ being used more?  Are there any numbers?

A.  Numbers will be brought to the next WAC meeting.

Q.  What are the most search entries?

A.  For January 2013:

  1. Admission – 34945
  2. Quest – 20116
  3. E-mail – 18934
  4. Learn – 15530
  5. Library – 5136
  6. Jobmine – 3580
  7. Daily bulletin – 3086
  8. Quest login – 3086
  9. WatCard – 2526
  10. Bookstore – 2443
  11. Calendar – 2356
  12. Human Resources – 2023
  13. Thanks for reading the minutes -2021
  14. Schedule of classes – 1687
  15. Important dates – 1559
  16. Jasinski, Joseph Patrick Paul – 1447
  17. Economic minor – 1447
  18. Network – 1258
  19. Tuition – 1195
  20. Map – 1168
  21. IST – 1152

Q.  Would it work for us?

A.  We could try to get it into a working URL.

Q.  Is it a forum?

A.  No, Just a place for concerns outside of WAC meetings, more functional in version 6.

Note:  Kris will present to us an example of the forum at the next WAC meeting.

C.  Google Analytics is discussed in the site manager’s course.

Q.  Have there been forums that we have looked at that can be shared with the other schools?

A.  With the Portal we contacted a few schools.  EDUCASE have websites for speaking about this.  We have always informally worked with other schools.

C.  Would Jeff give a presentation of the Portal, hardware and software behind CMS?

A.  Yes.

Q.  What happened to uwat.ca?

A.  It has been pushed back due to time restrictions.

C. The Chair will investigate and report back.

7. Next M​eeting 

  • 3:00-4:30p.m., March 20, 2013. NH 1101 (Note room change).

8. Meeting Adjourned at 4:30 p.m.