Tomorrow we have a cluster training meeting. I was asked to prepare a short presentation about my work. So here it is:
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Monday, 26 March 2012
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
UM Wide Personal Profile Pages NOW AVAILABLE!
Who would have thought this. At yesterdays' webco meeting the official launch of the long anticipated personal profile pages was announced. Faculty and Staff members can login into MY UM and find at the bottom of the page a link to their personal profile. This profile page is contains lots of information and will be developed even further. Who is responsible for the information on profile pages? Everybody is responsible for her/his profile. Who can edit, add, delete information on profile pages? The person who is associated with the profile page and the webcoordinator. Who is obliged to have a personal profile page? Academic staff is obliged to maintain a profile.
Please be aware that this project is still in the BETA phase. This means that there will are some bugs that are not fixed. The personal profiles will show up in the UM wide intranet (MY UM) and on your department site once the profiles themselves are ready. For now please inform the members of your department and ask them to start working on their profiles. We see how many problems arise. I have a student assistant who might be able to help out if the problems are too time consuming. But I think we should wait and see what happens. Well, lets hope for the best, carnival is over, so the next big thing is the Masters Open Day on Saturday!
Have fun,
Please be aware that this project is still in the BETA phase. This means that there will are some bugs that are not fixed. The personal profiles will show up in the UM wide intranet (MY UM) and on your department site once the profiles themselves are ready. For now please inform the members of your department and ask them to start working on their profiles. We see how many problems arise. I have a student assistant who might be able to help out if the problems are too time consuming. But I think we should wait and see what happens. Well, lets hope for the best, carnival is over, so the next big thing is the Masters Open Day on Saturday!
Have fun,
Monday, 2 January 2012
2012 starts with Sharing Success
The exclusive social network for chosen ones opend in May this year. Until September selected bachelor students could meet up online upfront in a customized service from NING. The success was partly due to the flexibility of the software employed and user friendly interface. The so created online environment allowed for sharing of practically anything from questions about housing to party pictures. The aim was to increase the loyalty of these students after they where selected by the faculty. And the result:
More detailed information about the project see here.
Another project finished in the old year is this website. A hosted version of worpress and a template customized to the need of the Master program did the trick. The online admission form is realized in Wufoo and the pretty pictures are harnessed from photostocks secret chamber. The result is a convincing stand alone site featuring important information, contact details and online registration. Its indexed and Search Engine Optimized. The price: Ufff... Thats the magic! Let me know how much you think it costs and the winner will get a change to meet me for a coffee.
Are you ready?
IB2010: 63% of decentrally selected IB applicants became students at SBE2011: 77% of decentrally selected IB applicants became students at SBE(of decentrally selected IB applicants 72% were Sharing Success, and 85% of these became students)
EBE2010: 63% of decentrally selected EBB applicants became students at SBE2011: 70% of decentrally selected EBB applicants became students at SBE(of decentrally selected EBE applicants 76% were Sharing Success members, and 88% of these became students)
More detailed information about the project see here.
Another project finished in the old year is this website. A hosted version of worpress and a template customized to the need of the Master program did the trick. The online admission form is realized in Wufoo and the pretty pictures are harnessed from photostocks secret chamber. The result is a convincing stand alone site featuring important information, contact details and online registration. Its indexed and Search Engine Optimized. The price: Ufff... Thats the magic! Let me know how much you think it costs and the winner will get a change to meet me for a coffee.
Are you ready?
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Contact Form: nowonline
The SBE contact form is now online here. It's a bit more elaborate than the usual forms. This is why I used FormSite for its realization. Its pretty cool and allows for more flexibility than Wufoo. But its not so user handy than the latter and not so easy to style as one might want to. But for the rest it is great!
A year ago I was asked to put everywhere on the website email+phone for prospective students to ask questions. With the result that the admission department had to deal with a massive load of emails that contained questions which where not related to admissions in particular put covered basically everything. This caused some upset and in combination with the budgetary situation of the moment my task was to implement this solution.
The form distributes its content depending on the categories to different email recipients. In this way it hopes to reduce the influx of non-relevant emails to the admission office. Thus freeing them up to focus more on their job. It is basically a distribution solution that does not lower the workload, only distributes it up-front. It makes it easier for prospective students to ask questions by lowering the threshold to do so. Once send off, the question is processed in the same way then before. They arrive as emails in the inbox of a person who answers them by sending an email to the sender.
The problem with this solution is: 1. It does not allow to track a user request f.e. any ticketing system does. If a user send a request using this form, nobody can check if his request ever gets answered. 2. It does not lower the workload because the answers are send individually per email as before.
A solution used other service industries is a customer support system. Virtually every company has such a system implemented on their website. It includes a simple forum that allows users and the team of the sales support workers to communicate on a many to many platform. Questions posted in the Forum are answered and moderated so as to allow others with similar or same questions to look them up as conveniently as a google search. A webform that allows the company to track the requests and responses so as to monitor customer relationships. This is already implemented at ACO or ICTS where a simple email ticketing system provides such functionality. And of course customer relationship management is not solely a matter of email and webforms. Why not responding to requests via twitter, or facebook?....
And I did many other things as well today. But this was the highlight! ... Well, and I posted on facebook after my long abstinence.
A year ago I was asked to put everywhere on the website email+phone for prospective students to ask questions. With the result that the admission department had to deal with a massive load of emails that contained questions which where not related to admissions in particular put covered basically everything. This caused some upset and in combination with the budgetary situation of the moment my task was to implement this solution.
The form distributes its content depending on the categories to different email recipients. In this way it hopes to reduce the influx of non-relevant emails to the admission office. Thus freeing them up to focus more on their job. It is basically a distribution solution that does not lower the workload, only distributes it up-front. It makes it easier for prospective students to ask questions by lowering the threshold to do so. Once send off, the question is processed in the same way then before. They arrive as emails in the inbox of a person who answers them by sending an email to the sender.
The problem with this solution is: 1. It does not allow to track a user request f.e. any ticketing system does. If a user send a request using this form, nobody can check if his request ever gets answered. 2. It does not lower the workload because the answers are send individually per email as before.
A solution used other service industries is a customer support system. Virtually every company has such a system implemented on their website. It includes a simple forum that allows users and the team of the sales support workers to communicate on a many to many platform. Questions posted in the Forum are answered and moderated so as to allow others with similar or same questions to look them up as conveniently as a google search. A webform that allows the company to track the requests and responses so as to monitor customer relationships. This is already implemented at ACO or ICTS where a simple email ticketing system provides such functionality. And of course customer relationship management is not solely a matter of email and webforms. Why not responding to requests via twitter, or facebook?....
And I did many other things as well today. But this was the highlight! ... Well, and I posted on facebook after my long abstinence.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Simple trick solves IE9 problems with GX
Did your IT folk put a new machine on your desk? With windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 and a host of other presents you did not ask for? And, tell me now honestly, do you since then experience any problems while working with GX? Well... then I have some good news for you. Back to the future with one button strocke is the solution!
Just start your Internet Explorer and go to the GX login page. Press F12 on your keyboard and on the bottom of the browser a small window opens.
Click on the Browser Mode pull down menu and check the Internet Explorer 7 option.
What happens is that your website is now build as if you had Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 7. Now you will say, why do I want this... its 2011 and ... Well, just try it out and experience the improvement for yourself. Sometimes beeing on top of the wave is not desirable nor any better than a few generation behind the drumbeat. Share your experience with others by commenting!
Just start your Internet Explorer and go to the GX login page. Press F12 on your keyboard and on the bottom of the browser a small window opens.
Click on the Browser Mode pull down menu and check the Internet Explorer 7 option.
What happens is that your website is now build as if you had Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 7. Now you will say, why do I want this... its 2011 and ... Well, just try it out and experience the improvement for yourself. Sometimes beeing on top of the wave is not desirable nor any better than a few generation behind the drumbeat. Share your experience with others by commenting!Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Post Graduate Education Web Development
For half a year I satisfied them with an online form tool which found widespread support except from ICTS. Its been used everywhere and payed for by METEOR's current or past president's credit card.
After finalizing the department websites which after all did not win much support I started on the PGE sites, starting with Executive Master Programmes. The premis is simple: 1. Keep it simple. 2. Know the CMS
If you know the CMS than you can forget about number one. Since PGE is within SBE the most proactive circle I got immediately something out of them. In the form of a powerpoint:
Starting from this and with the content from the "old" sites I made magic happen. Real magic! Not the occult practices often showcased by fraudulent apologetics of this craft. One person recently asked me what am I doing at SBE:
“I’m making websites with magic,” I explain, and I’m asked, “Real magic?” By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. “No,” I answer: “Conjuring tricks, not real magic.” Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.
The main difference to the previouse project (Department websites) is that PGE's program is bilingual. This means that for every page a second version of the page was created as to avoid confusion and to make all programmes available independend of the visitor's language setting. The reason behind this supifying act is that the CMS does not allow to set links from take say a dutch version of a page to an english version of another page.
This is in fact no inconvenience but an example of Heideggers aphorism "If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail". A real inconvenience is the usability of GX. Using IE9.0 that chrashes everytime I try to hit the SAVE button is the main source for the delay in all operations (Besides the fact that one cannot work between 11 - 4 without avoiding frustration over the prehistoric tool itself). Firefox does not allow me to access the MediaRepository thus make it equally dull to work with stone and chisel.
After the first anxiety is overcome the rest works to satisfy everybody with no expectations whatsoever. In a first attempt to put everything online that is not nailed down to the ground the next approach is more down to earth. Every MBA programme has a short introduction, the most imporant information (start time, location, cost) and three major menu items (Contact me, download brochure, apply online). Some additional information is supplied in the brandingblock areas.
The management courses follow the same pattern and are characterized by a deep fragementation of knowledgesilos which would left every renaissance humanist question the purpose of education in todays transformative times. Coaching and Seminar sections are equally pimped and the HR Network added.
The frontpage is a product of Gliffy and does the trick needed to satisfy the expectations. The left hand navigation features the Social Media Channels, contact details and subscription to the newsletter of PGE. The newsletter subscription are handled like my washings. And the Social Media Channels are to be managed all from one spot called hootsuite. The news articles will be realized by GX and the events with Google calendar. The problem with Google Calendar is the limited design opportunities and GX has this annoying more news> at the bottom that automatically leads to the main news repository of the university. How to solve this latter problem is still a mystery as it was a year ago when conceiving the deparmental websites.
The next steps are rather mundane:
1. The text and all functionalities of the webforms need to be checked and fixed
2. Testimonials need to be added together with some fancies that have low priority like an animated programme title.
3. Google Analytic code needs to be added and reports automated
4. Meta-Tags needs to be thought of and added
5. URL's need to be remapped to the new pages before they can go live
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Personal Profile Pages
Today I had to insert this text:
And then I had to think about the personal profile pages on http://www.personeel.unimaas.nl/. When people come to me with a problem it is my natural response to find an answer. And most of the time I do find an answer. But not this time.
The problem is quiet simple. Every medewerker gets webspace - 20MB - to host their own personal website. And many people spend lots of time and effort on this. With the introduction of windows 7 the old tool - Microsoft Frontpage - does not do the job anymore and microsoft stopt any support back in 2007. After my first call to ICTS I was pointed to a PDF with the hilarious sentence stating that:
As of academic year 2011-2012 the possibilities and regulations regarding the master’s exchange programme will change substantially. Although it will still be possible to do a master’s exchange, students who participate in a master’s exchange selection in the academic year 2011/2012 - in order to get selected for an exchange semester in the academic year 2012-2013 - will be charged an administrative fee of €500 as soon as they are selected and confirm their study place abroad.
And then I had to think about the personal profile pages on http://www.personeel.unimaas.nl/. When people come to me with a problem it is my natural response to find an answer. And most of the time I do find an answer. But not this time.
The problem is quiet simple. Every medewerker gets webspace - 20MB - to host their own personal website. And many people spend lots of time and effort on this. With the introduction of windows 7 the old tool - Microsoft Frontpage - does not do the job anymore and microsoft stopt any support back in 2007. After my first call to ICTS I was pointed to a PDF with the hilarious sentence stating that:
Webfolders are not officially supported by ICTS, therefore we cannot answer any further questions about this software or manual.
With the ICTS logo on the top right corner of the document and a timestamp from 2007 I was left with a smile knowing that the webfolders are hosted at ICTS and inaccessable for everybody who uses Windows 7. When I was a high school student in 1997 I also had a webfolder and we have now 2011.
After my second call I was asked to download a free software called Share Point Designer 2010 from Microsoft. It arrived at my harddisk with 7MB/second. I say this because there where times when you waited some hours for the same amount. After the installation I was unable to connect to the webfolder und called ICTS again.
Naive as I am I asked if a FTP client would offer a solution. But FTP is to insecure to be applicable for the webfolders. There seems to be lots of cyber-criminal potential here at UM if personal webfolders are inaccessable via the FTP protocoll. So I had the glorious idea to use the problem as an excuse to download adobe dreamweaver and tried also this solution. WebDAV protocoll seems to work but does not retrieve files and display only an empty webfolder.
What is the solution? There is no solution except the Project Profielpagina's medewerkers UM which arrived from Manon and the definite deadline of February 2012. Remember the proposal of Tim Smit the consultant with the cheesie website himself. His proposed deadline for the same project was june 2011.
But at least I know what a colophone is!
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Online Evaluation Report - Part 1
The first part of the four part series of reports is now available. It focuses on recruitment and online communication. Any feedback is appreciated.
Online Communication Evaluation Report (OCER) on the School of Business and Economics (SBE)- Recruitment
Online Communication Evaluation Report (OCER) on the School of Business and Economics (SBE)- Recruitment
Thursday, 12 May 2011
week18 - summary
Since everybody thinks nothing changes here at SBE. Lets look at the rest of the world. An anticipated but never the less exciting new development is googles latest announcement of its chromebook. After the desaster of "the cloud" surrounding Sony's playstation and Amazons Data Center failures its kind of a creepy thought. But a nice video it is indeed:
This week was full of guests: Vaira Vike-Freiberga (former president of Latvia) and Jaap de Hoof Scheffer (former NATO Secretary General) visited SBE and students who where interested in what they had to say. The interview I conducted with the the former president of Latvia will come soon but I must warn you because it will be the censored version only. Like its used to be done in the former russian republic of Latvia.
Besides the usual small details I had a chat with one program director who envisioned a system to pay tribute to the shift in the business of education seen today; its the shift from a supply driven to a demand driven market. The idea is a webform where intersted parties are able to get a PDF when they provide personal information. This is than used to personalize future relations and costumize messages. Particular for smaller programs (those with 20 or less participants / year) it is a good idea!
A new training for the webmanager is initiated and will take place on the 17th of may and I am busy working on the online strategy for SBE. It is in a preliminary state but I share them with those who are interested in here.
Finaly I also found someone who pays for SBE's Flickr account: A big thanks goes to this person in the department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management!
Departmental websites are not really advancing. A lack of input is the main reason. While the framework is in place and all necessary content is already migrated nothing more is happening.
One Idea that seems to be send to people who respond with an approving eye is to use Ecofont to save Printer toner. This brings us to the idea of the Green office and a website where people can submit ideas to help saving money. But who has time for this?
This week was full of guests: Vaira Vike-Freiberga (former president of Latvia) and Jaap de Hoof Scheffer (former NATO Secretary General) visited SBE and students who where interested in what they had to say. The interview I conducted with the the former president of Latvia will come soon but I must warn you because it will be the censored version only. Like its used to be done in the former russian republic of Latvia.
Besides the usual small details I had a chat with one program director who envisioned a system to pay tribute to the shift in the business of education seen today; its the shift from a supply driven to a demand driven market. The idea is a webform where intersted parties are able to get a PDF when they provide personal information. This is than used to personalize future relations and costumize messages. Particular for smaller programs (those with 20 or less participants / year) it is a good idea!
A new training for the webmanager is initiated and will take place on the 17th of may and I am busy working on the online strategy for SBE. It is in a preliminary state but I share them with those who are interested in here.
Finaly I also found someone who pays for SBE's Flickr account: A big thanks goes to this person in the department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management!
Departmental websites are not really advancing. A lack of input is the main reason. While the framework is in place and all necessary content is already migrated nothing more is happening.
One Idea that seems to be send to people who respond with an approving eye is to use Ecofont to save Printer toner. This brings us to the idea of the Green office and a website where people can submit ideas to help saving money. But who has time for this?
Friday, 8 April 2011
Week 14 summery
Obama set his bet for the presidential election campaign 2012 and for those who believe the myth, the facts don't matter anyway. So lets enjoy the greatest show on earth while your eyes are getting ruined from your attempt to fcous-in on the small back-lighted LCD screens of your tiny plastic phones. Heiner send me a video that would make it in the top 20 of "university viral video adds":
Got more money and a request to implement something similar to this . Any comments? The deadline for this project is so soon that I seriously think to not do it. But what is the alternative?
The request to KBB - the guys who should investigate my workplace - was issued exactly one week ago with no result nor feedback. And this although I went to Richard Thal in person and he contacted them so that things speed up!
ROA meeting was delayed but own Illustrator, Photoshop and other software packages that not even ACO provides. The meeting with the Master student who will investigate the effects on social media campaings on customer loyalty and "return on investment" took place in the sun. It could not get more social than this!
Got more money and a request to implement something similar to this . Any comments? The deadline for this project is so soon that I seriously think to not do it. But what is the alternative?
The request to KBB - the guys who should investigate my workplace - was issued exactly one week ago with no result nor feedback. And this although I went to Richard Thal in person and he contacted them so that things speed up!
ROA meeting was delayed but own Illustrator, Photoshop and other software packages that not even ACO provides. The meeting with the Master student who will investigate the effects on social media campaings on customer loyalty and "return on investment" took place in the sun. It could not get more social than this!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
GX - How to make FHML's Quick Links in GX
Blogs replace Email - Private transcends Public - And if not for the sound sex of it. This element: Quick links
Looks in GX like this:
The easieset way to do this is you go in the menu to INSERT>LIST
You place the element underneath the two SEPARATORS you need to divide the Content area up
You set the Presnentation to Brandingblock
You give it a Title
And than you Add the text and create links to the destinantions
Voila
The easieset way to do this is you go in the menu to INSERT>LIST
You place the element underneath the two SEPARATORS you need to divide the Content area up
You set the Presnentation to Brandingblock
You give it a Title
And than you Add the text and create links to the destinantions
Voila
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Third department website launch
After Accounting and Information Management and Economics its time for the department of Finance to scream "Hello World". This websites are not so much intended to attract potential students as they are to attract business and academia. There where little suprises along the 303 document with the exception of the timing. Personally I expected to finish the department websites in December. Now, end of march, I must admitt that I was to confident. The daily duties consume more time and unforseen requests take up the rest.
The last two departments are in the pipe and should be online by the end of april. Once this is out of the way the two institutes ROA and UNU-MERIT recieve more attention. As does the Online Media Strategy currently under way together with Veerle, Heiner and Atticus. The upcoming webmanager training is smooth and fun. Another job that is on the way are websites for the students associations affiliated with SBE.
Besides changes in the Admission pages of all Master programs I have also changed the Research Master's one level lower than before. This caused some emails over competencies and resulted in nothing but warm air. The ICC@M - International Case Competition in Maastricht - got also their own website but sticked to the colour scheme of UM. And ACO prepared a server for future websites hosted @SBE.
And I finaly found the problem for which the Iphone is the solution: The Uroboros
The last two departments are in the pipe and should be online by the end of april. Once this is out of the way the two institutes ROA and UNU-MERIT recieve more attention. As does the Online Media Strategy currently under way together with Veerle, Heiner and Atticus. The upcoming webmanager training is smooth and fun. Another job that is on the way are websites for the students associations affiliated with SBE.
Besides changes in the Admission pages of all Master programs I have also changed the Research Master's one level lower than before. This caused some emails over competencies and resulted in nothing but warm air. The ICC@M - International Case Competition in Maastricht - got also their own website but sticked to the colour scheme of UM. And ACO prepared a server for future websites hosted @SBE.
And I finaly found the problem for which the Iphone is the solution: The Uroboros
Thursday, 24 February 2011
week - 08 - A summary
Pages are beeing replaced by streams. Words by pictures and videos. And information is becoming a cliché, slowly but gradulay. Welcome to the post-information age! A few words on whats hip and happening at the first UM Facebook group meeting yesterday. Around 40 people, most of them female and under 30 took part in what became my personal "meeting of the week". Thoughtful organizers and plates full of delicious cakes and snacks as well as drinks made everybody feel more "social" than during most meetings.
The first attempts to tap into the fabric of conversations of prospective students in order to engage with them on a more personal level where successful.The lessons learned where: # regular posts keep people's eyeballs busy # images and videos trumph text # the carrot that keeps the donkey going stays the same: prices and questionairs. An outstanding example is Maarten's facebook page of the faculty of law. The static HTML page includes an video with a message from the dean, quick links to the master and bachelor programs and students weblogs.
Also this week I was sitting together with people from KAAS and discussed solutions for their website as well as the "Creative Writing Course" by Lucia.
What's the buzz?
The Equis accreditation comitee visited the School whos international as well as national reputation is quiet impressive. My contribution was to dress up a bit our twitter and youtube channel. Facebook is part of the deal and beeing taken care of by Veerle and Heiner. I also launched the first department website: Economics and received already one email that included a request for change. The events and activities section was also renewed featuring now all seminars, conferences and the SBE calendar.
For PhD students and all who are interested I stumbled upon two links: #1 is the electronic disseration database which offers fresh RSS feeds of published theses here #2 and an illustrated guide to a PhD here.
Since Economics is our Business it is worth sharing this one
Prezi is a non-linear presentation tool used by everybody these days who feel limited by the way powerpoint has fooled us into believing that sequentiality is the holy grail of "the future of education". This is not to say that Prezi is uncool, but it makes every clear headed observer of the malstroem suspicious over its "newness". Dreaming of the Malstroem, Infonomics published a new video to explain to the world what it is! Kinematic Typography at its best and the video has already 90 views (3 days old). Here it is exclusively for you:
Last but not least there is the "revolution 2.0" in the former Magreb and Arab countries televised live on Aljazeera. For those who are not interested in social media might not notice this versioning of the word "Revolution". And for those who hate dictators and brutal regimes the words of Sergei Markof, a senior legislator from the ruling United Russia Party, might provide the necessary realism to put the Revolution 2.0 into the wider historical reality. In an article of yesterdays Wall Street Journal he spoke of the mainstream opinion held by the ruling class of Russia. "We in Russia have seen revolutions, and they often start out like the February one and end like the one in October".
The first attempts to tap into the fabric of conversations of prospective students in order to engage with them on a more personal level where successful.The lessons learned where: # regular posts keep people's eyeballs busy # images and videos trumph text # the carrot that keeps the donkey going stays the same: prices and questionairs. An outstanding example is Maarten's facebook page of the faculty of law. The static HTML page includes an video with a message from the dean, quick links to the master and bachelor programs and students weblogs.
Also this week I was sitting together with people from KAAS and discussed solutions for their website as well as the "Creative Writing Course" by Lucia.
What's the buzz?
The Equis accreditation comitee visited the School whos international as well as national reputation is quiet impressive. My contribution was to dress up a bit our twitter and youtube channel. Facebook is part of the deal and beeing taken care of by Veerle and Heiner. I also launched the first department website: Economics and received already one email that included a request for change. The events and activities section was also renewed featuring now all seminars, conferences and the SBE calendar.
For PhD students and all who are interested I stumbled upon two links: #1 is the electronic disseration database which offers fresh RSS feeds of published theses here #2 and an illustrated guide to a PhD here.
Since Economics is our Business it is worth sharing this one
Prezi is a non-linear presentation tool used by everybody these days who feel limited by the way powerpoint has fooled us into believing that sequentiality is the holy grail of "the future of education". This is not to say that Prezi is uncool, but it makes every clear headed observer of the malstroem suspicious over its "newness". Dreaming of the Malstroem, Infonomics published a new video to explain to the world what it is! Kinematic Typography at its best and the video has already 90 views (3 days old). Here it is exclusively for you:
Last but not least there is the "revolution 2.0" in the former Magreb and Arab countries televised live on Aljazeera. For those who are not interested in social media might not notice this versioning of the word "Revolution". And for those who hate dictators and brutal regimes the words of Sergei Markof, a senior legislator from the ruling United Russia Party, might provide the necessary realism to put the Revolution 2.0 into the wider historical reality. In an article of yesterdays Wall Street Journal he spoke of the mainstream opinion held by the ruling class of Russia. "We in Russia have seen revolutions, and they often start out like the February one and end like the one in October".
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Writing for the Web - Course Material
This time No time Just an update:
- Language, Dates and other Guidelines(UK)
- Spelling and Writing Guidelines (NL)
- Style Guide for editors at UM
- Language, Dates and other Guidelines(UK)
- Spelling and Writing Guidelines (NL)
- Style Guide for editors at UM
Monday, 14 February 2011
A standard Problem in GX
A standard problem is a problem that yield no surprise. It's just there and not much can be done about it. The annoying thing is that there are so many standard problems that one gets easily confused if the problem is standard or serious. Because a serious problem demands a "Request for Change" and takes long to be solved. But lets start with the expectations. I expected to see something like this:
Altough I choose the correct presentation mode:
Why asks the engineer is the element rendered in the way it is and not how he expects it? That’s a standard problem. Any solution?
This is an update to this problem I emailed to ICTS on 22.11.2011 as GX problem #6:
This is an update to this problem I emailed to ICTS on 22.11.2011 as GX problem #6:
If you add a Media List item into the page after the first Separator you end up with what you see in the two screenshots.On the backend I added three news items to the media List and on the Frontend it looks quiet distorted. Now I don’t know What it should do if I put the presentation mode onto BRANDINGBLOCK but I am almost certain that the result is not what
I want to see. I hope this is ok as a description. On my blog post I provide screenshots of the same problem in more detail.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Not so serious GX error
One not so serious error was pointed out to my by Johanna here:
Besides this I spend on Monday some time on a RfC. Although it took me more hours to understand the proceedure than to produce the document itself. The basic problem is the size of the UM website. Thousands of pages with information that needs to be up to date and correct. While two eyes are certainly not enough to oversee the digital landscape many more would certainly help. But how to facilitate a conversation between people who browse through UM's websites and those people managing it?
In principle the solution is an integrated expertsystem. Integrated means only that it is contained within the GX content management system and not a third party app that is either embedded or runs on a seperate server somewhere in the cloud. Expertsystem might also need some qualifications here but it is fairly accurate to call it that.
What does the system do?
In a first step, it simply shows up as a link at the bottom of every page of the UM website and says something like "Hey, found a bug?"
In principle the solution is an integrated expertsystem. Integrated means only that it is contained within the GX content management system and not a third party app that is either embedded or runs on a seperate server somewhere in the cloud. Expertsystem might also need some qualifications here but it is fairly accurate to call it that.
What does the system do?
In a first step, it simply shows up as a link at the bottom of every page of the UM website and says something like "Hey, found a bug?"
If a visitor clicks on this link a window opens:
Nothing terribly complex happens then. The visitor is asked to specify the bug, describe it and indicate the size (or priority) of the bug observed. This information is recorded and distributed to the person responsible for the website.
This system offers also staff members to easier notify the webeditors or coordinators about changes. The workflow here is that people copy and paste half of the webpage they want to make changes in an email. Copy also the URL and an explenation or description of the changes.
Although it is in princible simple some remarks have to be discussed. Such as, user and system management, visibility of the UI on the web and the workflow proceedure. Here is the link to the RfC document.
Comments or remarks are very appreciated!
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Budget Cuts and the Effect
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.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
this weeks summary
information is not knowledge
knowledge is not wisdom
wisdom is not truth
truth is not beauty
beauty is not love
love is not music
music is everything
Frank Zappa's response to T.S Eliots reference to Poe's sailor reminds me of what I go through every day of the week as web coordinator of SBE. Altough refreshing, much of my week had to do with real persons. But I got some things finished. The Introduction Day website is up and running and so are changes made to the SBE intranet. Some minor changes here and there but no time for the departments with the exception of two new webeditors trained and ready to conquer yet undiscovered online worlds. ASP is not everyones taste and is hard to maintain. While ACO wants to get rid of Frontpage and BPRC is not offering a alternative at the moment. Marthas request for change was done unconventionaly and implemented immediately. And voila.... there is todays job done with yesterdays tools.
Another request for change protocoll was discovered at the meeting with all web coordinators. And guess who has to read and apply it? The old issue of a feedback mechanism for the entire UM website. Basically its a link in the footer of each page that says something like "found a bug? Tell us". After clicking on it the attentive visitor tells what problem he found or what is unclear to him. This information is send via email to the person responsible for this part of the UM website including the page iD and timecode. That's basically it. Would it help me as webcoordinator? Well, yes I think so. But here we go. Other questions on the agenda which will be discussed in smaller working groups concern the topics "dynamic navigation" and "the programme pages". Also a university wide intranet option was discussed but at the end I will say more to that.
You don't sell your product, you sell yourself. And when it comes to UM's products, then it's the programmes we are talking about. MSc, BSc, PhD, MBA, and executive programmes (post graduate education) are the major categories around which an organizational setup is infiltrated by the latest technology. This was also discussed with one programme director who wants to see her programme page different than it is now. A link to LinkedIN, a weblog maintained by the department and some thoughts about how to use them to connect to students and other interested parties. Nothing concret but a start.
I also revieved a compliment for an image I used for METEOR and BUSINESS RELATION. Annemarie likes it very much. I hope she will tell Meredith about it. Her requests for change examplified the differences in perception. While all her remarks concerned the text or the structure - to some extend justified by common sense (meaning by myself) - while nothing whatsoever was wrong with the image. The image is intended to play the "background music" while the text is what food is for the digestion system. While the stomache tells nothing about the taste of whatever one puts down his throat, so was Annemaries awareness unaware of the sublime effect of the image. Because it was the image that she found "cool" not the text.
The intranet debate is far from beeing over. In fact, it just started. At SBE there are websites available to special user groups. And they do the job. The downside is that there are many people who have only read access and few who have write access. So there is an asymetry of supply and demand which is artificial meaning its constraint by the environment, not by the emergent property contained in it. The next step would be a community solution examplified by NING or similar Social Networking Platforms which allow everybody to be consumer and producer at the same time. Having written this a host of questions fall like rain from the heavens as it does every day here in hell. In fact it must be a watery place. Look at Gilgamesh: Hell was a watery place. In the hebrew bible (the old testament) it was Sheol where later the Greek shades wander in a dark and misty underworld. Like Narcissus who fel in love with his image in the water. For him, the watery mirror was death. And it is interesting to note that one of the most popular Iphone apps which turns your device into a mirror.
Great ha...
by the way, I also meet the woman who is responsible for the Creative Writing course, she is very nice and everybody should do it...and I will do too.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Web 2.0 Update and Event Coverages
Last week I was unable to find the Maastricht Unversity Facebook Protokoll and today it found me again. So here it is: MU Facebook Protokoll
Comments appreciated. The recordings of the RENT conference are online since two weeks. Last week I got to know it and created this page. It links to the three recordings, two keynotes and one panel keynote session.
Comments appreciated. The recordings of the RENT conference are online since two weeks. Last week I got to know it and created this page. It links to the three recordings, two keynotes and one panel keynote session.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Web 2.0 at UniMaas... and the development of what so ever 2.0
Starting with todays cartoon on the last page of the Observant I am compelled to relate it to a particular dilemma regarding MU's use of social media. The cartoon depicts a character who spends his evening updating his inventory of social media channels ending up with no time to study. The apparent grievance or joke touches a point worth considering here. What gives rise to the grievance is not the time consumed by the the cartoon's character but the apparent dissonance between what he says he's doing and what he actually does. Namely nothing! His homework is not finished and he did not study. What should give us a thrill is the fact that the UM website is as far from being done as the character's homework at the end of the cartoon. But instead of looking at the causes of this particular joke only its effects show off in peoples faces.
We all know that keeping an additional communication channel nice and pretty is time intense. And it is important to be on facebook, on twitter, on foresquare, on what so ever 2.0. Of course these tools are for free and therefore are used by everybody. That is the democratization of the net and the main reason behind UM's aspirations to be there is to claim part of this space in order to get the attention of prospective and current students. Primarily for the purpose of recruiting them for one of our programmes. Having said this there is no empirical evidence that it has any effect on recruting other than guesswork to my knowledge. But its like TV, newspaper, radio a legitimate channel to reach out for eyeballs. And there is nothing to support the antithesis either. So we can say, lets try and experiment with this.
But the main problem remains, namely that the primary communication channel of MU is in comparison with other University websites underdeveloped. So whatever hopes are attached to this technologies they are more like phantom pain in their appearance. Like people who lost an arm point to their missing limp as their perceived source of pain, people engaging in a dialogue about web2.0 technologies point to facebook as the sources of pain that needs a cure. This curing of non existing limps is impossible but a welcoming distraction from the homework. And it is exactly the distraction from his homework and from his study that causes us to feel pity for the Cartoon character while at the same time reminds us of our own situation.
A small make-up of SBE's facebook page and some small fixes here and there on the website was among the jobs that kept me from updating the blog. This week a wordpress MU account was launched by the Student Service Center offering students their own blogging environment. Interesting enough it is hosted in the states and initiated by students themselves. The Postgraduate Education Department, if one wants to call it like this, also launched their blog using a hosted solution offered by the same CRM than the Student Service Center. Another one of those novelties I used recently was Eventbrite for the SBE Christmas Party 2010. It's a free service offering you with more or less ease to let people register for events. I also managed to get hold on a webserver "webserver 18" as Walter calls it that will be used in the near future.
Another time consuming activity is the begging for money one. But it relates to a very important point I stressed already over and over again. There are universities that have a web team. And this is reflected in the website of these universities. But here I am my own team. And to extend it I want an student assistant. So if you read these lines, and you are a motivated, structured student at Maastricht University, with the aspirations to work for money one day a week for a year at a very challenging environment just drop me a line. Right here! Together with Julijenne I have 4 departments already in my pocket to pay for you. And the rest follows.
Some meetings where also on my agenda and together with all the above mentioned activities cost about 1/3 of my time. That is definitely too much but I am working on it. Among the meetings where those with people from METEOR, MSCM, AIM, ICTS and Cross Knowledge. Now you might ask, yourself dear reader what this is. Its a private company offering education for highly skilled and flexible knowledge worker. And if this does not sound convincing I can assure you that it is. Its an all in one package including infrastructure (meaning website, learning environment, customer relationship management software), Content (audiovisual educational content designed for distance learning activities in I think 5 different languages) and expertise. Mr. Pieters visited me early and in the exciting discussion I learned a lot about the "state of art" in selling education. The wave upon which CrossKnowledge rides high is the trend from formal to informal education. No flaws, no discontinuity and supported with a broader vision that I can relate to. In fact, it was this meeting that gave me the most joy in the past two weeks.
The big part now for the end. The department websites occupy my the second 1/3 of my time. A third training session just got confirmed today for the 16th of December. I happy with this because it means that all people are trained and have access to their parts of the website. The content is coming in slowly and I better spend more time on writing it myself. The personal pages topic is one which will not be solved soon. In the first step only the important information such as Name, Title, Availability, Room Number, Telephone, Email, and a link to their existing profile pages is oversee able. What I got from one of the meetings was that people of FIN are really happy with their System (ASP) and can be used for all of SBE.
The other points regarding the department's structure are straight forward. A description about their programs (MSc, BSc, Executive, MBA) and their research activities should be doable, I thought. And some sentences about their department's aspirations or mission statement would be already more than other universities' departments have to offer. We are getting there. ...HEELLLPPP!!!
In tandem with the department websites I also redo the METEOR site and draw on my whiteboard the outlines of the whole SBE website structure. Starting with a programme page that displays all programs that we offer is an important improvement that needs to be in place before the next semester starts. A service page, displaying all the services is indeed as necessary. And together with the departmental websites it captures the essence of what SBE does.
Any Feedback?
We all know that keeping an additional communication channel nice and pretty is time intense. And it is important to be on facebook, on twitter, on foresquare, on what so ever 2.0. Of course these tools are for free and therefore are used by everybody. That is the democratization of the net and the main reason behind UM's aspirations to be there is to claim part of this space in order to get the attention of prospective and current students. Primarily for the purpose of recruiting them for one of our programmes. Having said this there is no empirical evidence that it has any effect on recruting other than guesswork to my knowledge. But its like TV, newspaper, radio a legitimate channel to reach out for eyeballs. And there is nothing to support the antithesis either. So we can say, lets try and experiment with this.
But the main problem remains, namely that the primary communication channel of MU is in comparison with other University websites underdeveloped. So whatever hopes are attached to this technologies they are more like phantom pain in their appearance. Like people who lost an arm point to their missing limp as their perceived source of pain, people engaging in a dialogue about web2.0 technologies point to facebook as the sources of pain that needs a cure. This curing of non existing limps is impossible but a welcoming distraction from the homework. And it is exactly the distraction from his homework and from his study that causes us to feel pity for the Cartoon character while at the same time reminds us of our own situation.
A small make-up of SBE's facebook page and some small fixes here and there on the website was among the jobs that kept me from updating the blog. This week a wordpress MU account was launched by the Student Service Center offering students their own blogging environment. Interesting enough it is hosted in the states and initiated by students themselves. The Postgraduate Education Department, if one wants to call it like this, also launched their blog using a hosted solution offered by the same CRM than the Student Service Center. Another one of those novelties I used recently was Eventbrite for the SBE Christmas Party 2010. It's a free service offering you with more or less ease to let people register for events. I also managed to get hold on a webserver "webserver 18" as Walter calls it that will be used in the near future.
Another time consuming activity is the begging for money one. But it relates to a very important point I stressed already over and over again. There are universities that have a web team. And this is reflected in the website of these universities. But here I am my own team. And to extend it I want an student assistant. So if you read these lines, and you are a motivated, structured student at Maastricht University, with the aspirations to work for money one day a week for a year at a very challenging environment just drop me a line. Right here! Together with Julijenne I have 4 departments already in my pocket to pay for you. And the rest follows.
Some meetings where also on my agenda and together with all the above mentioned activities cost about 1/3 of my time. That is definitely too much but I am working on it. Among the meetings where those with people from METEOR, MSCM, AIM, ICTS and Cross Knowledge. Now you might ask, yourself dear reader what this is. Its a private company offering education for highly skilled and flexible knowledge worker. And if this does not sound convincing I can assure you that it is. Its an all in one package including infrastructure (meaning website, learning environment, customer relationship management software), Content (audiovisual educational content designed for distance learning activities in I think 5 different languages) and expertise. Mr. Pieters visited me early and in the exciting discussion I learned a lot about the "state of art" in selling education. The wave upon which CrossKnowledge rides high is the trend from formal to informal education. No flaws, no discontinuity and supported with a broader vision that I can relate to. In fact, it was this meeting that gave me the most joy in the past two weeks.
The big part now for the end. The department websites occupy my the second 1/3 of my time. A third training session just got confirmed today for the 16th of December. I happy with this because it means that all people are trained and have access to their parts of the website. The content is coming in slowly and I better spend more time on writing it myself. The personal pages topic is one which will not be solved soon. In the first step only the important information such as Name, Title, Availability, Room Number, Telephone, Email, and a link to their existing profile pages is oversee able. What I got from one of the meetings was that people of FIN are really happy with their System (ASP) and can be used for all of SBE.
The other points regarding the department's structure are straight forward. A description about their programs (MSc, BSc, Executive, MBA) and their research activities should be doable, I thought. And some sentences about their department's aspirations or mission statement would be already more than other universities' departments have to offer. We are getting there. ...HEELLLPPP!!!
In tandem with the department websites I also redo the METEOR site and draw on my whiteboard the outlines of the whole SBE website structure. Starting with a programme page that displays all programs that we offer is an important improvement that needs to be in place before the next semester starts. A service page, displaying all the services is indeed as necessary. And together with the departmental websites it captures the essence of what SBE does.
Any Feedback?
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