Karlyn Morissette once again posts about a great topic for universities: how to solve the problems we all know exist as web people who work in the higher ed space. I agree with her views that we need to brainstorm, promote and implement solutions since we all know very well what the issues are. So, here’s my take on how to affect change through culture. Continue reading →
January, 2009
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Jan 09
CMS- Proprietary or Open Source?
HigherEdWebTech has a series of excellent suggestions in response to Karine Joly’s call for cost saving measures for higher ed websites. One suggestion was to go open source. I think that’s an excellent idea- one grounded on social media principles of harnessing the power of crowds. I imagine many who read that last phrase would nod in agreement. Unfortunately for my school, it seems open source is looked down upon specifically because it’s open source- there is no big company (or small for that matter) behind it. This is all speculation on my part as I’m just a lowly designer who’s not privy to the information, discussions and pressures of those above me who are making these kinds of decisions. Nonetheless, I’ve been in the web world for a long time, worn many hats, worked in diverse environments and have dealt with a wide ranging set of clients. So I feel I can make educated guesses about such things and, let’s face it, I’m not shy about pontificating my views.
15
Jan 09
The Speed of Twitter
I haven’t been a long time user of Twitter, but now that I have Twitterific forever occupying the lower right corner of my monitor, I’ve increasingly noticed how much quicker the twittersphere is at reporting breaking news than traditional news sources. A couple of interesting take-aways here: Continue reading →
3
Jan 09
What Higher Ed Sites Could Learn From Barack Obama
One of the main arguments I hear against my mantra of centrally maintained websites for higher ed is that a decentralized approach allows academic departments the flexibility to market their programs based on their students’ specific characteristics and needs. Academic department’s tell me that their particular students are special and different from all other departments’ students. Therefore, their website has to have a custom design in order to stand out. Continue reading →
