1) I welcome comments and suggestions (as most do) on home pages and how
they can be improved. If the University wants us to put in a "header"
and "footer" to standardize the initial home page, that is acceptable.
If they want to give a series of guidelines on constructing home pages
(e.g., don't have "blind alleys"), that would also be useful.
2) I am concerned that the process of home page approval turn into a
bureaucratic mess where it takes a long time to get approvals. (It takes
us forever to get new computer equipment). Although several departments
have been innovative and on the Internet for a long time, overall, NIU is
already been pretty slow in making a presence on the web. Although I
welcome suggestions and general guidelines on how to construct a website,
I question any attempt to define a strict set of categories. Innovation
is spawned by decentralization in this area. Traditional ideas about
what to put in the web or how to structure it would, in my view, slow
things down and stifle innovation. For example, it would be good to have
catalog descriptions of courses and policies somewhere, if this is your
major material in your website, you are likely to bore visitors.
3) The Grad school could help us out by providing the course catalogue
files it has (even better if they have HTML documentation inserted).
4) The University Computing Committee on Websites (sorry, I don't know
what their official title is since the info at the webmasters meetiing is
the first I have heard of this committee) seems to be making decisions
(e.g., the
required header and footer for NIU home pages) that are relevant to those
of us building new websites. Why aren't they sharing this information
with webmasters? It sure would be a lot easier to include requirements
BEFORE we finalize our website rather than after. Are they waiting to
produce a report months down the line? And is anybody outside of
university computing departments (e.g., several departments have had an
internet presence for years) on this committee? Most of those who have
constructed websites have done it gratis--it takes us away from research
and teaching responsibilities. I don't want to have to revise the whole
file structure and HTML of our website due to bureaucratic rules and
delays.
B.R.
Bruce Rocheleau, Ph.D.
Public Administration, Northern Illinois Univesity
DeKalb, IL 60115
(815) 753-1647 (campus office)
(815) 756-2169 (home office)
(815) 753-2539 (fax)
BROCHELE@NIU.EDU (My MVS electronic account which I check most days).
Office Hours: T 2:15-3:15, F 1-3, and by appointment