As a follow up to the web management paper presented by Jake MacGregor at the last Caffeine Break in April, we are beginning work as part of IT@Illinois "to rationalize the campus web environment, which translates to streamlining the underlying infrastructure and tools while still enabling units, research groups, and others needing websites to maintain design and functionality suited to their goals." The Stewarding Excellence report on IT also spoke of cost savings that would follow from improving efficiency and effectiveness within web management, and we believe that is likely as well.

Under the auspices of IT@Illinois, Mona Heath is acting as executive sponsor of the Web@Illinois effort. Mona has asked Mike Bohlmann to lead a group of people from around campus both during this first phase and as we move forward with the broader community from around campus.

Phase One - COMPLETED

• Identify areas to focus attention for improving efficiency and effectiveness
• Create a project charter

Phase Two

• Investigate problems and opportunities from the charter
• Create plans for specific projects based on the charter
• Broadly work with the campus web community and other stakeholders

Details of Phase One

The first step of the Web@Illinois effort was to craft a charter for the project based on what areas we believe can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of web production and management across campus. The second phase will be where we open the process more broadly to work with the campus web community and other stakeholders to create plans to address the specific areas defined by the charter. As an example, we might describe in the charter that a plan needs to be created to reduce the number of independent CMS instances around campus, but it would be in the second phase where the plan is developed as to how that would specifically be done.

Details of Phase Two

The second phase takes the charter as a foundation and creates actionable plans to address the areas of investigation defined by the charter.

Working groups and leaders

• Site building – Phil Pochrzast (pochrzas@illinois.edu)
• Multimedia and specialized content – John Tubbs (tubbs@illinois.edu)
• Campus community resources – Rachel Weber (reweber@illinois.edu)
• Standards and best practices – Andrew Reynolds (areynold@illinois.edu)
• Hosting and archives – Anthony Benjamin (alb@illinois.edu)
• Scripting – Michelle Rome (mlrome@illinois.edu)
• Short-term – Mike Bohlmann (mikeb@illinois.edu)

More information

• Read the charter
• Visit the project work space

Initial Planning Group

The following people from across campus agreed to work together to craft the charter. They brought an array of experiences and expertise that were invaluable in writing a charter that defines the Web@Illinois project and includes multiple perspectives to capture the important areas of focus:

• John Tubbs, ACES
• Phil Pochrzast, ATLAS
• Michelle Rome, ATLAS
• Rachel Weber, Education
• Anthony Benjamin, Engineering
• Andrew Reynolds, CITES
• Jake MacGregor, CITES
• Mike Bohlmann, OTM

Getting Involved

For those that have not worked with Mike previously, he would like you to know that he is a big believer in everyone having the ability and opportunity to lead. When we have completed the charter and move into the project, all of us - both on the initial team and in the campus community - will have opportunities to lead, bringing our individual experiences, skills and personalities to bear on a challenging and exciting project.