Everything is coming together. Slowly, steadily, it’s all about to come crashing together in an energy producing, gamma ray blasting, supernova explosion. Twenty years ago when the first colleges and universities started getting in to the web (and ten to fifteen years ago when it became more commonplace) the web was a very decentralized and amorphous thing. Rarely was there central control because there was no central to do the controlling to begin with yet. Part of our issue with centralized control now is that frequently colleges and departments started sites entirely on their own to begin with, and now don’t want to give up that freedom (whether or not they are doing good things with that freedom). That’s a problem many of us are dealing with, generally with varied success. Usually the move to an increasingly centralized control can be made or broken on the backs of high level buy in. That is crucial, especially with what I’m talking about, something that can span departments, colleges, and the university on the whole.

The issue I’m seeing is way bigger than that. It goes beyond who should be allowed to put content on the Art department’s web site. Look at your web presence – the whole thing. You likely have a web site that is all front facing and public, right? What about an intranet? Student portal? E-commerce platform? Student information system? Alumni portal? Athletics, fundraising, help desk, housing, event ticketing, blog system… The web isn’t just about a stack of HTML files anymore. This is the problem. Of all of these systems present on campus, how many different people are involved in running them, and how many of those are working together (better question: how many are working against each other)? How many are even under the same authority? I’ll happily throw down a stack of money that says you can’t even name everyone responsible for the whole of your web site. Peter Nissen of JBoye.com talks about some of the reasons decentralized control doesn’t work.

Despite all of this, we still have a core client to address. They might be in different audiences, but they are all web users, and they have common expectations. Is there someone responsible for looking at a housing management system that can say “Hey guys, this system has some serious usability and integration problems, and I don’t think it’s going to be a good fit in the overall web presence.”? I can answer that for you: you don’t. You should. I’m sure there are a couple exceptions out there that have gotten over this hump (and PLEASE share your experience in the comments, I’d love to see what you have to say). We see similar issues with content. Kristina Halvorson, in her book Content Strategy for the Web, looks at the web like a news show, newspaper, or magazine. All have to have multiple content types and sources, all reach an end user, and all need to have a central point of oversight to make sure it’s right. Where’s our editor-in-chief?

The Singularity in this case is user expectation with respect to our systems. Your web visitors don’t care that you have a dozen different systems and applications running to make their web experience happen. All they know is that if it sucks, then you must be failing. They get angry, they get frustrated. They want a simple, seamless experience. If you’re familiar with the MVC style of programming, users want a single, standard view, not dozens. And to put it simply, the systems are starting to get good enough that our excuses for not working towards that goal are getting very thin. It might be hard, it might take time, but that’s our job. We aren’t here to just set something up, slap the school colors on it, and walk away. If you aren’t striving to do better than that, then you are probably falling prey to the very issues I’m talking about.

Imagine if you will a cruise ship. Cruise ships have tons of components that make your vacation happen. Some you have direct contact with, some not. Engineers, cooks, stewards, bridge crew, medical, security, performers, and so on. Imagine if all of these people tried to make your cruise happen without any central management. It’d be a mess, a complete disaster. Every cruise ship has a captain. The captain might not know the fine nuance of the water reclamation system, but he can at least make sure their team coordinates with the right people when there’s trouble or when a common goal must be achieved. He can’t do the job of all 2,000 employees on the ship, but he is a successful planner. He dictates, directs, and designates well. He’s a 3D sort of guy (get it? 3D? Because he dictates, des… oh nevermind).

That’s what we need. Our web sites need a captain. That captain doesn’t have to be a Python guru, or a master of Flash, or a jQuery ninja. But, he should know the heading and be able to make sure efforts are properly and efficiently coordinated. Their knowledge should be broad, but not always deep. That’s why you hire the experts in the respective fields for your specific tasks. Our problems aren’t going to get simpler moving ahead. It used to be a web site was a handful of GIF animations and a dozen HTML pages. Now we have CMSs, tens of thousands of pages, multiple servers, and all that just to maintain our front facing presence. In the coming years, these systems will have more crosstalk, not less. Expectations will increase, not decline. And the complexity of our sites will balloon.

Centralized control might not be a popular idea to a lot of people, but it will become a necessity for success, regardless of how big your university is. That’s my prediction. The alternative risks a mess of code, duplicated efforts, and upset development teams. Without someone at the helm, to use a phrase from Twitter this morning, running your site will be like pushing a wheelbarrow of squirrels. That’s my rant for today. Our needs are going to come together, as users and providers, and we’re all going to be looking for something central to tell us what to do. We’re already near the event horizon of this problem. It will be up to us how we’ll handle crossing the threshold.

Illustration by NASA/Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital Inc.

Related posts:

1. Reining in the outliers for a university-wide cohesive Web presence
2. Reining in the outliers for a university-wide cohesive social media presence
3. [Results] State of the University Web Department survey

1. Job Security

Despite budget cuts around the country, we are still in one of the most stable parts of the industry available. If you’re an army of one, even more so. It’s not because you’re irreplaceable, it’s just that no one wants to hassle with replacing you right now. Most states tend to also have laws or unions that make it additionally hard to get rid of you after X amount of time. So, count your blessings, stay on your game, and you’re almost guaranteed to be here next year. Having that steady paycheck and the other benefits that come with the job can be worth more than the mere dollar number on your pay stub.

2. Flexibility

Maybe my situation is unique, but around these parts they basically shovel vacation and sick time on us. They can’t pay us like our private counterparts, true, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t compensated in other ways. And that not withstanding, I know if I picked up the phone and said my kid was sick (hypothetically, since I don’t have a kid), or I was sick, or pipes burst in my house and I have to wait on a plumber, I wouldn’t get an ounce of grief about it. In some cases I could even say I’ll VPN in and get someone to forward my office phone to my cell. There just aren’t many jobs that give me that latitude. And maybe it’s just as simple as “I’ll be in at 8:15 this morning because I’m running late.” I’ve had jobs in the past where something as simple as that was a major issue. Sometimes not sweating ten minutes here and there can be a big stress reliever.

3. Leadership Opportunities

Besides the chance for actual leadership classes and such, the number of committees and meetings we are exposed to come with a positive side effect. In the event you do plan to get out of higher ed, you have basically an endless stream of chances to get into leadership positions which you can reflect on a résumé. They might not be glorious or significant, but it still looks good. Use that as a chance to influence the things that bother you. Change the system a little here and there. I’d rather people be annoyed because I’m more ambitious than them, rather than have people think I’m lazy or complacent. A common complaint I hear is that someone’s coworkers are basically just trying to coast to retirement, and any initiative is met with resistance. Use leadership opportunities to change and improve the system for yourself and those after you.

4. Industry Resources

This might not be true everywhere, but many schools have various contracts that allow us to get into the latest, greatest versions of different pieces of software whenever there is an upgrade. When we bought Adobe CS3 a couple years ago, it came with a built in, free upgrade to the next version as soon as it came out. So we effectively got both CS3 and CS4 for less that the retail cost of one part of the entire suite. When CS5 comes out, we can get that at a discounted rate. Likewise, if you play the “game” right, it’s pretty easy to keep yourself awash in things like multiple monitors (I can’t debug without them!), Wacom tablets (you try graphic design with a mouse!), cameras (you want web video made with a pad and paper?), etc. In a lot of cases, we’re some of the best equipped web developers out there.

5. Professional Development

Okay, this one is a little iffy lately. In the past, things like conferences, manager training, certifications, etc have all been at our feet. Lately, not as much. But there will come a time where the tide shifts back on this. And even still, most of us at least have some kind of development options. Even if it means reaching out to someone like .eduGuru with an idea for an article you’d like to write for the community or something along those lines. There’s a lot you can do that doesn’t cost money that you can accomplish to improve your standing, skills, and position (see leadership opportunities above). In most cases, if you go to your boss and say “I’d really like to do X to help me with Y,” they’re very likely to hold the door open for you and give you the room to accomplish it, money notwithstanding.

6. Challenges

I like to think about the things that face us in higher ed as challenges to be overcome. Short or moving deadlines, scope creep, audience targeting, budget silos, you name it. These aren’t barriers, they are hurdles, and the trick is to get good at overcoming them. You do that, and you can make it in web development anywhere, because everyone has these problems to one extent or another, and if it isn’t those problems, it’ll be something else. You need those critical thinking and problem solving skills. I have a job to do, and if there’s something in the way of that, then we need to deal with it. If you do it right, in the process you can set it up so next time it’s much easier to handle. So bring it.

7. You

You are the reason I am here, writing at .eduGuru, and enjoying my day to day work life. You make the UWebD social network fun. You make me laugh on Twitter. You are there to help me when I need a second set of eyes on some code. The higher ed web developer community is one of the most open, friendly, active, helpful professional networks that I have ever seen. I can count on untold numbers of you to walk up and say hi to me at conferences, or email me with questions, or take part in surveys and research. I may be an army of one in the office, but I rarely feel alone.

Bottom line is that I think that while we do complain about a lot of things in higher ed, I don’t think a lot of those issues are necessarily unique to higher ed. We just feel like they are, because the environment we work in is far from tuned in to how agile the web is, and we all reinforce each other since we identify with each other’s pain so well. We end up feeling like we’re riding an elephant in a NASCAR race, but we fail to notice all the other racers are on pacaderms too.

photo credit: cobalt123

Related posts:

1. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Toughest Gig in All the Web
2. Web Leadership’s Role in Higher Ed
3. “Repent! Collaborator,” Said the Higher Ed Beancounterman

I’ve written previously that higher ed has a huge challenge facing them when it comes to hiring talent because they must compete with the private sector over them.  It’s a challenge because it’s difficult to get the best if you can’t even attract the best.  But, when you can attract the best, you must also retain them.  States all across the country are scrambling to cover shortfalls, and in most cases education is one of the top three money vacuums on their lists.  I don’t care about blame.  Blaming people won’t fix our problems.  I care about repercussions and fixing.  See, there are two problems with the current approach.  The first is in most cases, if a state cuts funding for higher education below 2006 levels, they have to apply for a special waiver or risk losing Federal stimulus money.  The second is that if they cut too much money, they risk damaging the system beyond repair.  What can our system bear?  That’s a question no one can answer, and we’re testing with elementary guess-and-check processes.  It’s Russian Roulette with line item veto.

There’s your rub.  If you are a smart, talented, motivated web developer, and you’re watching the system come down around your head, are you going to just sit there and watch it happen?  Web is an interesting field.  In a time of recession, it’s one area that people still throw money at.  This is because of several reasons like cost shifting and trying new money making opportunities.  As people are laid off, they might be inclined to build a small startup of some kind, and mom-and-pop-shops may try to improve the visibility of their business in the region or expand to bigger markets.  One thing is for sure, it’s never a bad idea to have a few freelance clients on the backburner, and it’s very easy to do, if you know your trade.  A smart person will always keep an ear to the wall in times like this, if only for those “just in case” moments.  That doesn’t mean you want to leave or are trying to, but if you’re flying you’re always supposed to note where the exits are in case of emergency.  Your paycheck should be no different.  The first time a local company puts $70,000 on the table for a well-qualified, talented web developer, do you really think you can ignore it?

Governments will always bounce back from a recession slower than the private sector, and any administrator worth their salt will tell you it is infinitely easier to take money away from education than it is to get it back.  Given the erosion of ground taking place, the question I pose back to you is to see if you think higher ed is in danger of losing some of it’s best and brightest minds in web development to the private sector in the mean time, and if that happens, how do we recover?  I not only think we will lose some, but I would argue we already are, leaving the question to be more along the lines of just how many will fall.  Teams are getting smaller, conferences are being cut, funding is slashed; how much more before you start giving thought to the opportunities that might lie in the clutches of the for-profit industry?  Many people will cite the job security and benefits as a key reason for working under a state umbrella, but when that safety net is more secure with a company, or even when it is self-provided, where will that leave our colleges?

I know I talk about this a lot, but I love my job and the opportunities it has, and I’m becoming increasingly afraid for its future.  There are mountains you can read on the philosophy of the place education has in a powerful, modern, functional society, and in my opinion most of it is on the money.  When education is a target instead of a tool, I think you’re within sight of giving up.  I would love to see some drastically different approaches.  For one, states need to find another fund-cutting target.  Anything.  If you’re going to scuttle higher ed, then just get it over with, otherwise take it seriously.  It’s cat and mouse funding the way states are currently behaving.  Games waste our time and energy and are an enormous distraction.  I’d also love to see new approaches to web development.  Why can’t we start maintaining college sites as part of the education process, via an intensive and multilevel learning program for students?  It’d be hard to establish, and it would take resources, but imagine the long term payoff it creates in ideas, opportunities, and products (i.e. an abundance of hopefully well trained and flexible web developers).

What do you think?  Am I totally off in left field here or are you seeing the same trends?

photo credit: a shadow of my future self

Related posts:

1. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Best Gig in All the Web
2. “Repent! Collaborator,” Said the Higher Ed Beancounterman
3. Equal Pay for Equal Work

[UPDATE: 09.09.24 11:28AM] Thanks to Andrew in the comments for pointing out something I missed: If you would like to read this book, Lessig has made it available, for free, under a Creative Commons license for anyone to download at the book’s web site.

Lessig is, to put it lightly, a talented academic and lawyer.  If you’ve never heard of him, I can’t recommend enough that you go listen his TED lecture on user generated content.  Oh, he’s also on the board of directors for a little system called Creative Commons, you might have heard of it.  He picks up his legal understanding of copyright law and swings it around deftly like Babe Ruth and his famous hickory.  He even shows substantial humility by writing of his own big failure on the topic before the Supreme Court.  The best part is that he’s not writing from the perspective of a politico pushing an agenda, he’s writing as a lawyer and academic evaluating the law and the damage it has on a society.

As educational professionals, we tend to ride very close to the edge when it comes to the development of web and creative content, especially in terms of fair use, and the issue is increasingly confused by professors who come to us asking us to do things with content or post things they have done with content that is in a substantially gray area of the law.  Education leans heavily on the idea of fair use, but increasingly the freedom of that idea is being challenged and eroded at every opportunity by those with the power and money to do so.  Thus, the problem isn’t that there is a gray area, it’s that the gray area itself is increasingly a realm of lawyers, where you either have to hire one to assure your rights, or one to defend them.  In either case you end up with costs and work that often times outweigh the value of the content being created.

But, I don’t want to spiral into my personal opinion on the matter.  Obviously, I agree with Lessig at pretty much every turn.  But, the man is smart and precise.  The book dives into the history of copyright law and it’s evolution into the monster that is now fighting a messy battle with internet technologies on our doorsteps.  All of this is done with the lay person in mind, and even without an understanding of the law, anyone could pick this book up and understand the threat being posed to our creative culture.  Indeed, by the end, you’re likely to find yourself sitting in your chair thinking, “How can Congress be so dumb?”  Well, as it turns out, it’s quite easy, and he explains why.  By the end, you don’t feel even remotely like you were just lectured ad nauseam by a lawyer.  He lays out scenarios, explains how common and primary law has handled it in the past, and why the drastic change in honoring that past is costing us a great deal in the long run.

This is not a book about education or law, this is a book designed to educate.  Because of our proximity to such issues, I think it is critical that we all educate ourselves on the changes that are taking place, and the impact it is going to have on us as we move forward and try to support schools, professors, and students in their pursuit of an open learning environment.  I’m not sure that there is any place better to start that education than with Free Culture.  Despite being five years old now (a long time when dealing with anything related to technology), the book is still extremely pertinent to our world today, and indeed, there are a number of times that I caught myself thinking about some of the newer instances of intellectual property challenges taking place today in the context Lessig provides.

An absolute must read for everyone, period.

Have you read Free Culture?  Share your thoughts with everyone below.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Inbound Marketing the Book
2. Book Review: Web Analytics An Hour A Day by Avinash Kaushik
3. Book Review: World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott

I credit the Washington Monthly for the first article I’ve seen on the company (institute? school?  BTW, that article is long, but I recommend reading the whole thing.).  The idea of online schools and degrees is, of course, nothing new.  After all, Kaplan and the University of Phoenix have been parlaying the online degree game for years with success.  Others are entering the game every year, some more legitimate than others.  The goal is first, make money, and two, provide an alternative form of education that better fits the technology and tools we have available to us today (then three, make more money).  They focus on their goal from the ground up, as opposed to us, who play catch up from our brick and mortar offices.  Often times, in web offices we’re asked to help slap together a system a school buys, or provide support or integration.  Naturally, we have MOUNTAINS of resources to do this with (or not), so the ultimate effectiveness of online programs at traditional institutions can vary quite widely.  From the article:

“…[Burck] Smith envisions a world where [students] can seamlessly assemble credits and degrees from multiple online providers, each specializing in certain subjects and—most importantly—fiercely competing on price.”

I’ve been rather vocal in some circles that the traditional brick and mortar education system is in danger, not just from online schools, but trade schools, and industries where specialized certifications mean more than any degree we can offer (classic example is a BS in Computer Sciences vs. a CCIE for someone interested in networking).  Imagine being able to assemble your core classes (and someday beyond) from the institutes that can best serve you, right from your home and for the best cost available.  This new model is one of the bigger changes I’ve seen, and it’s the kind that really stopped me in my tracks and forced me to start doing more research on them.  It’s the exact kind of groundwork that is laying the path for others, and spells a major paradigm shift in what it means to have “higher education.”  The article aptly describes the fact that colleges are in as much financial trouble as many other industries, and it’s coupled with the problem that change within institutions occurs much more slowly than the technology that we need to use and teach about.  To make matters worse, a company like StraighterLine.com is stepping in offering cheap, cost effective classes, while the online course universities offer are typically the same cost as normal classes, and sometimes cost more with the added fees that may be associated.  Then add in annual tuition hikes that have no end in sight.  Simply put, higher ed is thinking backwards and not addressing the true problem – an antiquated business model.  They continue with a rather poignant line:

“Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of a conglomerate business: freshman lectures, higher education’s equivalent of the classified section. If enough students defect to companies like StraighterLine, the higher education industry faces the unbundling of the business model on which the current system is built. The consequences will be profound.”

The idea is that large lecture classes taught by a graduate assistant or adjunct professor are highly profitable for a school, and help to fund all the other less cost effective programs.  Newspapers made tons of money from advertising and classifieds, until it became easier, cheaper, and more broadly reaching to do it online.  Now, they’re feeling the impact in harsh ways.  Higher ed could be in the crosshairs for a similar reason.  Antiquated business models are pinching industries across the board, some are adapting, some aren’t.  Another good example is the service that Hulu.com is offering (for free no less) vs. the traditional cable subscription model.  Or not to mention the mess that is digital music distribution, or the open textbook movement, or e-book standards.  The business lesson of the day is “evolve or die.”

Now, there’s one big obstacle here – you can’t get a degree from them.  In reality, StraighterLine.com isn’t accredited at all.  But, that’s the genius of it.  They are working on the side with REAL colleges and universities to accept credits from them, making them into an actual commodity for the students that they can take elsewhere.  I personally thought this was genius, and was sitting here wondering what their market penetration was until I read their first case listing.  Fort Hays State University.  In Kansas.  It just so happens I work for Pittsburg State University.  In Kansas.  This drove the point home like a stake through the heart of a vampire.  This is a school in our state, right on our level that has got the jump on us at something that could be paving the way to a totally changed landscape, and it REALLY gets you thinking.  And what if, WHAT IF, someone like the University of Phoenix stepped up and offered a similar service?  The ARE accredited.  What if they decided to attack that base demographic aggressively offering a similar model.  Not only would they pick up students from your school, they set themselves up for keeping them in the long run and offering them the same commodity at a cheaper price.

Interestingly, social media exposes the risks involved in such an endeavor.  Fort Hays is actually considering ending their agreement with them just because of the pushback they’ve seen around campus.  People who attend the brick and mortar institutes see it as a risk on the road to cheapening the quality of their education and the way they are viewed after they’ve graduated.  Ultimately, I see that as just a growing pain of such a system.  The Provost at Fort Hays ultimately had sound logic, that by accepting the transfer credits, it’s basically lead generation for out of state students that are worth substantially more to the school than in state students.  When you’re running the risk of losing money from both the state and to people like StraighterLine, and you’re beginning to have trouble funding teachers to teach some of your basic classes, why not team up in a way that can benefit everyone.  For Fort Hays, their anti-SL Facebook group only had 150 members, not all students.  And the pushback from the teachers is almost moot, because the teachers aren’t the commodity, the students are.  If only 150 out of 10,000 students complain about something, I might actually call that a big win.  Remember, you’re more likely to hear from the people against it than the people for it.

That’s the rub.  It’s about change.  The landscape is changing, and it’s happening more quickly, and with effects that are slowly becoming more obvious in their long term.  Schools need to be ready to address this, and need to understand that the demand for online courses is going up, not down.  What happens if someone develops a model that builds on something like the open coursework movements at MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley?  Eventually that wall holding back a company like StraighterLine is going to crumble.  They won’t be seen as cheapening education, they’ll be seen as valuing it exactly right in an environment where traditional schools just keep charging more for the same (inconvenient) service.  And then there’s the REAL worry: eventually, some day, a company that may be StraighterLine, or it may be someone else is going to GET accreditation.  That cannon volley is going to break the wall.  When that wall yields, the landscape is going to begin changing in ways that we aren’t even predicting yet.  It’s going to happen.  I’m not sure that this particular company will be the one to get it done, but they definitely exposed a chink in the enemy’s armor.

I want to end by sharing a SlideShare from one David Wiley Ph.D. of Brigham Young University talking about the evolution of higher ed, why we are in danger, and the future of opening ourselves up to new systems and ideas:

Related posts:

1. The Changing Face of Public Education
2. LiveVideoU: Changing the Way a Prospective Student Views your Campus
3. Continuing Web Education: Watching Out for #1

As I walked back to my office Friday afternoon, certificate in hand, I got to thinking about how critical leadership can be in a web office, and how our role at a university puts us in a position unique from almost anywhere else on campus.  First, it’s important to stress that real leadership isn’t about power, it’s about service.  I cannot stress that enough.  Almost more than in any other profession, in higher education when you are willing to take a leadership role, it means truly committing and putting yourself out there above and beyond your job description.  Maybe you’re sitting on extra committees, coordinating efforts, or taking part in things like a classified senate.  Regardless, becoming a leader requires you to commit beyond your job description and to give yourself over to serving others with the skills you have.  It isn’t just about being in charge of a bunch of people and telling them what to do.  Being a boss and being a leader are different creatures.

The reason we are in such a unique position is because of how connected we are across campus.  Public relations knows a lot of stuff, so does Advancement.  Ultimately, however, most of these entities are limited and restricted from certain aspects of campus.  The web, however, is different.  I’ve stressed before that a good web office sits under neither Marketing, nor PR, nor IT.  Instead, it should be between them all.  A hub, not a spoke.  When you serve as the hub, all things go through you.  PR isn’t particularly interested in the syllabus posting needs of faculty, or the photo gallery requirements of Athletics.  IT… well, they’re IT.  And Marketing’s main goal is to get students and money on campus.  All of them have on blinders.

We can’t work that way.  Recently, a group of about six offices came to me wanting a solution for doing things like storefronts, taking donations, and otherwise using the web to make money.  Great idea, that, because obviously with budgets getting cut, the more we can do to make easy money, the better.  It just so happens that with our web ear to the wall, we discovered at that exact time the Budgeting Office was meeting with vendors for a billing and payment processing system for campus.  Without that connectedness, this first group would have been in the dark, and we would have ended up with two different groups doing two totally different things towards basically the same goal, and spending way more money than necessary.  Instead, we stepped in, got people involved, and worked it out so everyone could benefit from a single tool.

It’s situations like that which have lead me to declare that any time I ever hear the word “web” or “internet” mentioned, I simply inject myself into the meetings and discussion.  If I don’t, there’s no one else here that is, and more often than not the result is people making less than well informed decisions.  In the case of the payment software, I didn’t necessarily have an obligation to step in and put the two groups together, but I knew that action would better serve them, the campus, and my office.  It’s no new thing that on a big campus, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, but a leadership minded web office can serve as the nervous system that sends signals to both, and gets them working together to do things like play the guitar.  Metaphorically speaking, of course.

We all have a ton on our plates, no doubt.  But these small things and actions can go a long way to proving and solidifying the importance of a well resourced web office.  Imagine the money that could be saved when web steps in with recommendations for taking certain data operations online, or like in my case, when they hear two different groups working towards the same goal.  Imagine the time that is saved.  No one else has as many feelers out there as we do, and that leaves us in a prime position to take a leadership role, and help serve the campus to keep it running straight and efficiently.  Pick your metaphor: we’re the nervous system, we feel the pulse, we sense the weather changing – it all comes down to knowing how much we can do and offer for campus, even if you don’t have to.

photo credit: pedrosimoes7

Related posts:

1. What the Doctor Ordered: Training, Technology and Leadership
2. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Best Gig in All the Web
3. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Toughest Gig in All the Web

This presentation was jam packed with great insights and nuggets that I found enlightening, and some rather surprising. 

Demographics:

• 250 from each of the four geographic regions in the U.S.
• 50/50 male/female
• 53% caucasian, 16% African-American/Black, 10% Hispanic/Latino, 9% multiple ethnicities, 4% Asian, 3% Indian/Native American, 3% declined, 1% other
• Grades: A – 39%, B – 48%, C – 12%
• Family income: 25% less than $50k, 23% between $50-75k, 11% between $75-100k, 7% between %100-$125k, 4% more than $125k, 29% don’t know/refused
• 77% connect via DSL or cable, 11% phone modem, 3% handheld device.

When asked if the current economic crisis caused them to reconsider the schools they were applying to or may attend, 64% said no. 

62% said their parents/family are helping them with research and/or paperwork. Of that group, 21% say they help them look at Web sites and go on campus visits with them.

Content is king! Prospects are taking time to read details about cost and processes. 

50% said colleges and universities should use young, edgy and bold designs for their sites. 43% said schools should take a more traditional approach with their site design. When I tweeted this tid-bit, @KarlynM said it would be interesting to find out these students definition of body and edgy. 

Navigation and information architecture is so important. 85% report the links should take me right to the answers to their questions, where 15% said they don’t pay much attention to the link choices and head straight for the search box or site index. Either way – making information easily findable and searchable is key.

41% found your school via Google or another search site by typing in your school’s name. 38% use services like Zinch, MyCollegeOptions or College Board to match them to your school. Only 13% referred to a printed document with your URL on it. May be time to re-think handouts, such as postcards, just to advertise specific Web sites.

They want to do fun stuff. 42% say they want to find more to do on a college site than just click and read. 

What do they want to do most? I’m most shocked by “RSS feeds with admissions info and campus activities,” and where it fares in the list! They actually know what RSS feeds are? I’ve gotten the impression from other articles and survey results I’ve read that most don’t know, that RSS is just the plumbing behind the scenes. They may be using it, but they aren’t aware of it. Maybe they are, now?

Social Networking

And, the ever-popular Facebook vs. MySpace debate. 50% listed being on Facebook and 52% said MySpace. For the Facebook group, 56% were A students, 47% B students, 41% C students. Northeast, midwest and south all more likely to be on Facebook than MySpace. For the MySpace group, 65% black, 70% latino vs. 44% white and 43% Asian. 47% were B students, 58% were C students, and 44% were A students. Only 2% reported not participating in social networking. When asked if colleges and universities should create a presence within social networks/communities to promote their programs, 70% said yes! In addition, 75% said schools should create their own private communities, like Cafe New Paltz, that are password protected and for invited students only. 51% said they wouldn’t mind school representatives contacting them directly via a social network.

What content will make a different to them on a social network? They’re most interested in discussions about courses and academics (3.74, mean 1-5), student activities and extracurricular options (3.65), and insight into the school’s culture and diversity (3.37). They’re interested in communication with current students and faculty (3.10), communication with prospective students (3.01), profiles of current students and faculty (2.88), and posting profiles as a student who may attend (2.88).

Very few reported text messaging as a method they’d prefer for admissions transactions such as answers to questions or  acceptance notices. For all transactions, their preferred method was online over in person, phone, mail or text.

87% are willing to give their e-mail address to a school to communicate with them. 45% of them do it at the inquiry stage, 28% when they’re ready to apply to the school, 15% after they’ve been accepted, and 9% after they make their final decision.

Summary:

• Economic issues mean that Web sites will have to work harder in lieu of visits to ensure prospects see value and compelling details.
• Parents and families are inextricably linked and we should be talking directly to them — and often!
• The experience prospects have on our site matters in their decision whether to probe further into your programs and offerings, and how they’d fit on our campus.
• We need to focus more on content. Content, content, content. Make it readable, printable, referenceable, searchable. 
• Focus on your navigation. Test it with college-bound students. Don’t use internal lingo. 
• Focus on your design. Take a leap. Go bold.
• Find your place on social networks. Be social. Be helpful. Find the right fit for your campus with the various tools out there. Re-read the demographics above – different sites work for different institutions, depending on their typical student base.

Related posts:

1. Live Blogging AMA Higher Ed: The E-Expectations of College Bound Seniors
2. Protecting your College’s Intellectual Property on Facebook: Learning from the Class of 2014 Groups
3. Show Me The Conversions

Developing a university-wide Web design template that is flexible enough for all departments, programs and units to use is one behemoth of a challenge. In the case of large institutions where there are usually multiple Web offices throughout the institution, it’s even more challenging and unlikely to find. Small- to mid-size colleges/universities with a centralized Web and/or marketing unit can make this happen – but it takes quite a bit of work, commitment and patience.

Five steps to rein in the outliers

1) Create a strong template
Create a visually appealing, yet flexible enough template that is customizable for each unit. The flexibility needs to range from having a small to large menu of options, the ability to manage rapidly changing content areas, and be able to use customized photographs and images that best represent the unit.

2) Create a strong policy
Create a strong, clear, concise policy that is enforced, endorsed and supported my upper management. Make sure this policy is brief, yet contains information about why and how using the standard design template will benefit them and their audiences.

3) Blame the law
Many states, as well as the federal government, have policies and standards related to Web accessibility. Some are more complex and intricate than others. Regardless, the average faculty and staff member who is not a Web developer for a living will likely gloss over these laws, and not be able to produce sites that are in full compliance of them. Let them know you and/or your staff have become experts, or perhaps have even attended seminars to learn these laws inside and out. Encourage them to focus on the content and messages they want to deliver, and to let you (and your staff) handle the technicals.

4) Make the case
Don’t make it personal. When initially communicating with the department, don’t make it personal, don’t be defensive, but do expect resistance. Always phrase your statements in ways that remove yourself, as well as the other individual, from the equation. Using the standard template is in the best interest of all parties involved – it supports the university-wide branding initiative, the users of the site will have a much easier time hopping around from site to site when a common template is in use, their site will be in compliance with local and federal laws, etc.

Talk about the benefits of cohesiveness. Talk about their audiences. Talk about the strengths of the overall university brand that will help their department/program/unit.

Compliment things they’re doing well. Empathize with them. Become their partner. Get them excited about the variety of options the new template provides – being able to use the content management system for quicker updates, being able to easily post and update news whenever they want, the ability to quickly and easily add videos, photo galleries, etc. Whatever the benefits are of your template – make them known. Make sure if they’re doing “cool” things in their current site, they’ll be able to continue to do them in the new template.

5) Don’t pull rank.
We all know universities are filled with politics. Tread lightly, but don’t pull rank. Avoid involving “higher ups” and keep it at your level and below whenever possible. If you’ve truly tried everything you can at your level, only then should you take it up one level to your direct supervisor. Doing this may give you a fresh perspective and approach to try that you hadn’t thought of previously.

Vassar College is an internationally known institution with approximately 2,500 students, but they made a strategic decision to not impose an institutional layout. Their college’s site is one of the most well-known in the industry. They have a centralized Web office with five staff members. What do you think about this approach?

As I mentioned before – I know this is hard, if not virtually impossible, to do at many institutions. But, it has been done. Tell us who you are – I know you’re out there. Are there steps or tricks I’m missing? Can you share any secrets you keep up your sleeve?

Flickr photo by sibhusky2

Related posts:

1. Reining in the outliers for a university-wide cohesive social media presence
2. Taking the idea of a cohesive Web template in a slightly different direction
3. Book Review: World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott

• Open Wireless Access Assured On 700 MHz Spectrum – An anonymous bidder exceeded the reserve price in the nationwide wireless spectrum auction Thursday. This is great news!
• Live from the Higher Ed Blogosphere: New ideas, new blogs & new projects in the higher ed design community – Lots of new things are going on in Higher Ed and instead of listing I’ll just link to CollegeWebEditor’s list.
• Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008? – A report that gives us a look into the future of what Technologies will shape the Education field.
• What Would a Combined Microsoft-Yahoo Look Like? – Interesting look at the future of these two companies and their finances
• Microsoft Makes $45 Billion Bid To Buy Yahoo – This is the BIG news of the week, hands down!
• Sociable WordPress plugin take-over – WordPress – Finally a new update for sociable has been released!
• Laptop Stolen With Personal Data On 300,000 Health Insurance Clients – Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is offering its members free credit monitoring for one year as a result of the security breach.
• Google, Facebook Battle For Computer Science Grads. Salaries Soar. – Good jobs are on the horizon for Computer Science graduates!
• A Marketer in Need Deserves a Student Indeed – Great advice about getting to know your students. Besides being one of the most enjoyable parts of my jobs working with students can teach you a lot!
• The Facebook Marketing Toolbox: 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer Base – A really LARGE collection of tools.
• Our Tech President Endorsements: Barack Obama and John McCain – Political opinion from the tech front.
• dotCMS: An Introduction – Writeup of dotCMS and it’s value as an enterprise CMS solution.
• Best & Worst Online Companies: The Results – Apple is big on both lists. The findings are interesting but make sense.
• Bill Gates For Senate – Somehow this prediction doesn’t seem that far off.
• Interactive Media for Higher Education: Leverage the Reach of Many Video Sites from One Page – If you post videos to multiple sites here are some tools to greatly simplify your life.
• When’s the Best Time to Send Email to Target Consumers at Work? Test Results – SUMMARY: Don’t take every fact and figure you read as gospel. Marketers need to rely on their own tests to determine important email elements, including when’s the best time to send your blast. An eretailer wondered how much of a difference they could
• Choosing the Right CMS Platform for Your Website (from an SEO perspective) – Great look at choosing an CMS, if you are still looking for one.
• Skyfire browser for Windows Mobile is game changing, does Flash – Skyfire is legit for mobile web browsing according to this article, but online if your phone runs Windows Mobile…
• Facebook Apps On Any Website: Clever Move – The client library allows users to make Facebook API calls from any web site and create Ajax Facebook applications on that website.
• Free (legal) P2P Music Downloads? Told You So. – Free music downloads IS the future
• Top 30 Wordpress Plugins that are actually useful – Nice list of WordPress plugins
• MySpace Private Profiles Aren’t That Private – Recently Ashyley of CyberNet News wrote about how someone else can view a MySpace profile’s picture even if the profile was set to private. Apparently, MySpace has fixed this issue.
• How 20 Words Generate a 220 Percent Lift in Response – Case in point: in a recent test I did with a client, we added a Johnson Box to its e-mail control. It generated a 220 percent lift in response rate! Here’s a brief overview of the results, along with some tips for making a Johnson Box work for you.
• How Search Engines Work – Whiteboard Friday – A nice ten minute video explaining how search engines work. A great video to introduce the beginner to this.
• Wikipedia Joins Academe to Evaluate Itself – Wikipedia is famous for its philosophy that ordinary people, not just scholars, have expertise to offer the public. But when it comes to evaluating the online encyclopedia itself, Wikipedia officials have apparently concluded that academe is best suited…
• Terabyte Memory Chips Expected From Microsoft-Backed Firm In 2010 – The chips from Nanochip Inc., which is also backed by Intel, will combine a DRAM-like interface with internals that function like a multi-head hard drive.

Hopefully the reading above will keep you entertained while I finish up my MySpace survey this weekend! Have a great weekend!

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week Jan 18th, 2008
2. Links of the Week May 16th, 2008
3. Links of the Week March 7th, 2008

Hopefully you have seen at least a little of the varied and creative ways that the presidential candidates have been using the internet to engage potential voters?  Over the last three months I’ve really enjoyed reading the many reports about different various uses of online technology used by candidates and ways to track the campaign  Also many internet marketing and analytic experts have been chiming in with web analysis on the campaigns.

Track the Election Online

Google maps has been helping us visualize the primares and how candidates are performing on a live basis, take a look at this map of the New Hampshire Primary.  You can visit Map the Candidates to see where they have campaigned!  Yahoo has a Political Dashboard that you can visit and track the candidates in a nice flash layout.  MSN chimes in with an Elections ‘08 Leaderboard and a Candidates and Issues Matrix.  If that’s not enough check out the Super Tuesday ‘08 Channel on YouTube.

Social Networking

I also went to the homepages of seven candidates.  McCain was the only one who didn’t have links to MySpace, Facebook, and other sites like YouTube on his homepage.  He did have an online community called McCainSpace on his site.  McCain is by no means the only candidate to create their own social network though.  Obama also has created a social network, my.BarackObama.

I followed the links from each candidates official sites to their MySpace and Facebook profiles.  Here are the friend counts (rounded down to the nearest thousand) as of Jan 26.

Myspace

• Barack Obama 234,000 friends
• Hillary Clinton 169,000 friends
• John Edwards 52,000 friends
• Ron Paul 119,000 friends
• Mitt Romney 34,000 friends
• Mike Huckabee 31,000 friends
• John McCain 42,000 friends
• Rudy Giuliani 10,000 friends

Facebook

• Barack Obama 271,000 friends
• Hillary Clinton 81,000 friends
• John Edwards 37,000 friends
• Ron Paul 77,000 friends
• Mitt Romney 33,000 friends
• Mike Huckabee 45,000 friends
• John McCain 30,000 friends
• Rudy Giuliani 17,000 friends

Barack Obama has an enormous lead in both networks, his Facebook support is not that much smaller than the support of every other candidate combined.  Also of note on Facebook is a group called “Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)“.  This group currently has 729,000 members!

Web Experts Take on the Election

One of Google’s most addicted new tools is Google Trends and it’s been absolutely fascinating to follow the Obama vs Clinton battle on their tracker.  Note: If you would like to learn more about how to use Google Trends this is a good video for starters.

They have slacked off a bit in the last few weeks, but Compete.com has run many excellent stories analyzing the Presidential Candidates Online data.  Their most recent election post, Candidate FaceTime in December, was a great post to check out.

The guys at HubSpot have written a few very interesting posts looking into the Presedential campaign and their marketing habits, but I have to say the Internet Marketing Report on Presidential Campaign Websites was their best piece of work.  Also while I’m plugging these guys if you have never used their Website Grader tool then I highly recommend running your site through a 10 minute test, it’s free!

TechCrunch, a blog devoted to discussing breaking tech news, as been running their own primaries.  As they put it:

TechCrunch wants to provide a voice for digital policy and technology issues in the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, and so we’ve decided to hold our own political primaries online. Voting will be open from Tuesday, December 18 through noon pst Monday, January 28. TechCrunch will endorse one candidate from each the Democratic and Republican party as the pro-tech candidate based on the popular results of reader voting and blog input from our community of technology leaders and entrepreneurs.

Just yesterday they gave their endorsements choosing Obama and McCain.

Tools to assist in making an Educated Decision

I would like to close by encouraging everyone to go out and vote.  Being from South Carolina I’ve already cast my vote and hope that you will do the same.  I’m not in the business of telling you who to vote for, or even push my opinion upon you, but please be responsible and do the research to make your own educated choice.  Besides checking all the candidates sites here are a few tools that I’ll suggest that ask questions to tell you how candidates align with your beliefs.

• Select a Candidate put together by Minnesota Public Radio
• 2008 Presidential Candidate Selector by SelectSmart.com

Related posts:

1. Comparing the Obama and McCain Emails
2. The Top 10 Posts of 2008
3. Links of the Week June 6th, 2008