Web Communications Group>

Web Communications Group Meeting: 07-13-05
Meeting minutes

I. Leaders of the individual working groups were asked to provide an update on their group's objectives.

A. Digital Asset Management Working Group - The group's initial meeting was on July 5, 2005. They listed the following items as their objectives:

• Become familiar with image database features to help determine our needs and requirements. The group has created free accounts on a photo sharing service named Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) to help gain more experience with photo sharing products.
• Compile a list of vendor/product requirements based on needs assessment.
• Invite representatives from other schools/departments that are currently using digital asset management systems to speak to the group about their experiences.
• Research and evaluate digital asset management products/vendors and recommend products that can suit various department needs.
• Look into the possibility of a product being shared throughout the University.
• The next meeting will be scheduled for sometime in mid-to-late August.

After presenting this information the group received the following comments:

• A suggestion that departments and schools should share their rights-free photos.
• The WCG was informed about the availability of photos on the Penn News web site and also about the availability of photos from the Web Services' Cumulus digital asset management system.
• Any WCG member that is interested in joining Flickr was told to send an email to Deni Kasrel.

B. Content Management System Working Group - The group's initial meeting was on July 7, 2005. They listed the following items as their objectives:

• Perform a needs assessment and then evaluate leading CMS products.
• University Communications (UComms) provided CMS group members with a list of potential vendors/products to evaluate. Group members are encouraged to suggest additional vendors/products to add to the evaluation list.
• The CMS group will invite selected vendors to speak to group and perform a product demo. Other members of the WCG will be invited to attend demo.
• Some of the CMS group members already use Contribute and will demonstrate the product to the rest of the working group.
• UComms intends to acquire a CMS product and is looking into the possibility of obtaining a system that can possibly be shared with different departments/schools throughout the University.
• The group will meet again in late August.

After presenting this information the group received the following comments:

• ISC Networking has decided that they are going to purchase a new Linux server. The chosen CMS product must be compatible with that server.
• Certain group members expressed concern about using Macromedia Contribute since the company has been purchased by Adobe. Some group members felt that Adobe has been reluctant to provide site licenses.
• There was a lot of interest in a CMS system, but some WCG members expressed concern about the expense of a CMS system and the problems that may occur with finding a product that will be compatible with the different Penn server environments.
• The group briefly discussed the possibility of looking into a central CMS system versus a distributed CMS system.

C. RSS Working Group - The group's initial meeting was on June 24, 2005. They listed the following items as their objectives:

• The working group is trying to determine how they want to use RSS; news and research are two possibilities.
• A survey will be sent out to the Web Super User Group group to gauge their experience with RSS.
• The group will meet monthly and has a meeting scheduled for July 22, 2005.

D. Web Analytics Working Group - This group has no leader and has not had an initial meeting. One WCG member volunteered one of her employees to lead this group. Group members expressed interest in the following:

• Perform a competitive analysis of web analytic software packages.
• Determine how to obtain data on search queries.
• Find out what other groups/departments/schools are using to capture web analytic data.
• Invite an expert in web analytics to speak to the group.
• Learn how traffic flows through the University site.
• Share data throughout the schools.
• Find out if anyone is using successful homegrown scripts that can be used to find web analytic data.
• Identify and create a set of web analytic best practices.

After discussing the above information the following comments were received:

• Because the University uses the Google search engine, we have no access to their data except for one script. We will only be able to find out what the user types into the upenn.edu search box, but will not be able to obtain user data after they search for information on the Google site.
• Google will need to be contacted to see what data they can provide.
• Wharton and the Medical School can share their web analytic data with the group.
• There are privacy issues involved in providing web analytics. ISC will have to "sanitize" the host name information before it can be provided to the group.
• UComms can provide WCG group members with available data for the central Penn web.

II. Schedule of future WCG meetings - The group agreed to meet every other month. The scheduling of meetings can be re-evaluated at a later date if it is determined every other month is not suitable.

III. University Communications Surveys - The UComms Web Team will be sending out a survey to see if there is a need for the department to hire an in-house designer. The survey also includes CMS related questions to see if there is a need and interest for this type of product throughout the University. The group was encouraged to complete the survey and forward the survey to anyone else they feel would be interested in answering the questions. An alternative survey focused on the CMS needs of people without a lot of HTML experience will also be sent out to the group. WCG members can forward this survey to those they deem appropriate.

IV. Best Practices - The WCG was asked if anyone had suggestions as to the best practice topic the group should address at the next meeting.

• Group members from Wharton will see if one of their vendors is willing to come to speak to the group about search engine optimization.

VI. Actions

• The UComms Web Team will create an area for each of the individual working groups within the Web Communications Group section of our Penn News site.
• Group will meet again in two months.
• The URL for the surveys will be emailed out to group members.

   

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