Web Advisory Committee meeting (July 17, 2013)

July 17, 2013–  MC 2018 – 3:00 p.m. 

Present:

Daniel Allen, Heather Anderson, Kirsty Budd, Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Donald Duff-McCracken, Chris Francis, Alison Gelata, Chris Gray, Marlon Griffith, Jim Johnston, Pat Lafranier, Tammy Marcinko, Amy Meredith, Kris Olafson, Susan Shifflett, Terry Stewart (Chair), Andrea Sweet, Jeff Voskamp,  Jonathan Woodcock.

Regrets:

Amy Aldous, Dave Annable, Marta Bailey, Cynthia Breen, Lisa Brackenridge, Guillermo Fuentes, Karen Jack, Liam Morland, Collin McIntyre, Rose Padacz, Megan Saunders.

Absent:

Nigel Henriques, Paul Miskovsky. 

1. Chair’s Remarks

  • Web Steering has approved a plan to hire an Accessibility Coordinator to carry out the Report of Working Group on Accessibility’s recommendations; there is a possibility it will be a consultant perhaps on a half-time basis.
  • The Chair asked if there was a volunteer to give a review of the PSE Web from June at a future meeting.
  • It came to light recently that the archive for the Web Advisory mailman list was viewable to the public.  It was immediately made private.  There was a consensus that there is no need to archive e-mail sent to the list. Archiving has been turned off and past archives have been deleted. 
  • August meeting will be held as planned.

2. Approval of Minutes.

​3. Busines​s Arising

  • None.

4. Short URL's and URL Shortener Subcomittee Report (Jonathan Woodcock)

  • Jonathan presented the subcommittee's report: Website URL Redirects - Guidelines and Recommendations
  • It was noted that the sub-committee decided to combine both the URL shortener and short URL guidelines into one document
  • There is still some configuration and testing needed on the url shortener (uwat.ca)
  • The report was approved and will be forwarded to Web Steering.
  • Questions and Comments
    • Q. Can uwat.ca short url's be used for other than social media (e.g. print)?
    • A. The original thought was to restrict uwat.ca to social medial
    • C.  uwaterloo.ca should be used for branding whenever possible;
    • C. If it comes to splitting URL's between lines it would look silly (e.g., the Library has already faced this)
    • C. Would prefer people used uwat.ca rather than bit.ly or similar
    • Q. When should request a short form?
    • A. This generally gets discussed when new sites are created in the WCMS.

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

  • 266 sites now in the WCMS.
  • Due to budget restrictions IST’s resources are being cut for training and support.
  • Training feedback has been good for the SEW courses.
  • IT people who would prefer shorter versions of the WCMS courses can use the drop-in labs.  However, if they would like a credit on their record, they will need to attend the SEW course.
  • 1.7 Release – everything has been completed, this has been the biggest release yet.
  • The new Google Search Appliance has been put in place; upgrading the old appliance. 
  • Questions and Comments
    • Q. Is the WCMS team experiencing a backlog at this time?
    • A.  There are 38 sites in progress.  There have been departments changing names and new departments being developed.  IST might be able to come up with a number of sites waiting to be moved over to the WCMS.
    • Q.  How are your resources?
    • A.  Resources are down from where we were a year ago.
    • Q. Where will the WCMS team be after the implementation of the Organize for Success initiative in IST?
    • A. The WCMS is staying in Client Services.

6. Digital Initiatives Report (Jonathan Woodcock)

  • Visual identity.  Expect to have an update in August
  • Event tagging.  Hope to have information in August or September
  • Publications.  Are a high priority. 
  • A list of requests is being compile.  Web Advisory members will be asked to rank importance of the requests to provide feedback on what to approach next. 
  • Questions and Comments:
    • ​C.  If there is anything missing from the list please let Kris know.

7. Other Business

Q.  Has anyone been doing work in Accessible PDF?  Bugs have been found in all adobe acrobat products.

C.  Having trouble switching PDF over for accessibility.

C.  When moving over form for accessibility, finding that it is deleting things.  Please email Chris Francis for assistance.

C.  A request should be put out to the UW Web.  Others might be able to help.

C.  Software is not keeping up with accessibility.

C.  One approach that is being recommended is to keep emails requesting help from these companies on file, to prove that we have been trying to address accessibilty issues. 

8. Next M​eeting 

  • 3:00-4:30p.m., Aug 21, 2013. MC 2018 a/b

9. Meeting Adjourned at 3:45 p.m.