Budget Cuts and the Effect

This week I violated the house style guide several times. After months of negotiations and meetings, proposals and recaps I could finaly implement three more brandingblocks on the SBE homepage. The programm pages are now updated to the agreed terms of last weeks webco meeting and many minor tasks have been accomplished.

Most notable is that SBE staff members can submit events online under >MY SBE>ACTIVITY CALENDAR> which took a bit longer than expected but does look fine. And since more and more people put content into the new system you can now subscribe to News and Seminars via RSS.

An interesting discussion with ROA about their website ended with a document that lists the disadvantages of the Content Management System. It summarizes the concerns I meet with increasing sympathy and scepticism alike. In the discussion I recognized that no awarness is payed to simple but important questions. Who is your target audience? What is it that you want to communicate? For whom or which purpose do you have a website? These questions are simple but necessary. On the other side, I recieved a presentation with arguments for the transition to the new CMS system for everyone.

A major point of interest are personal profile pages and I recieved the first draft for such a proposal and was also at the first meeting regarding the general outlook and some minor technical problems. They look good and integrate METIS information as well as information from and about users themselves. At the end of that meeting the discussion revolved around privacy or how much of what information should be public? Isn't it boring to search for people by their names? Would it be more fun and interesting to search by interest or age, by past projects or current ones, or maybe by birthday or favourite colour? There are many options, but not every option is also a solution.

Another meeting this week revolved around NEWSKIOSK, an Application Service Provider (ASP), whos boss went on a sabbatical (like me) for a year. But he stayed in his house somewhere in the Netherlands. I can imagine better places but who am I to judge! The trial use of GoogleDocs for the IRO office failed after two months. Reason: They recieved training and can place links themselves on the website. Eureka!
After the begging for money tour was succesful I also look now for an assistent here.