University Web Services Infrastructures

A review of how some universities manage their web services organizations.

About three years ago I did a presentation at EduCause about the organization of Web Services and Web Development departments at a variety of universities. Though the examples in the PowerPoint from that presentation may be a bit dated (read: some of the links no longer work), the points and issues I raised in the presentation are still valid.

Here's a link to that original PowerPoint.

The top issues campuses are facing with regard to their web presence:

• Identity, Branding & Consistency
  
  • #1 issue at virtually every campus I spoke with
    
  • Greater even than content management
    
  • 87% said visual consistency very important
    
• Decentralized Web Presence
  
  • Even the best campus would rate “poor to hopeless” compared to the worst
    e-commerce site
    
  • SLO
    
    • Two-year redesign process only affected top two levels of pages
      
    • Can only “recommend” use of new template to departments
      
  • CSUDH uses “stick” approach
    
    • Buy-in from the very top
      
    • “Conform with new template by Dec 15th or have your link pulled from
      the site”
      
• Content Management & Other Systems
  • The most consistent campus sites all use an enterprise-level CMS

Based on what I saw being done at other universities, I developed a basic infrastructure outline that could be implemented at most universities, including CSU, Chico:

• Permanent advisory/planning committee
  
  • Advises on priorities, future direction, messages and policies
    
  • More strategic in focus than day-to-day
    
  • Typically no specific design authority; may set university branding standards
    
• Administration
  
  • Coordinates between departments
    
  • Runs servers
    
  • Often enforces standards, sets technical standards
    
  • Provides staffing & expertise
    
• Implementation team
  
  • Designs and implements websites and services
    
  • Provides technical expertise
  • Enforces standards on sites it implements
    
  • Designers, programmers, developers, information architects, project managers
    
• “Web Users” group
  • A way for departmental webmasters to keep up with standards
    
  • Provides an avenue of communication between editors and Implementation Team, Administration and Advisory Committee
    
  • Support group for web editors
    
  • Provide training, troubleshooting