Before I go any further a warning:There's two of my team in this session so to them - what goes on IWMW stays on IWMW and do as I say, not as I do!
So a little bit of background information about me and where I work.
it is a song by Groove Armada (but I'm not going to sing to you)
Not in Birmingham
it is a district of Liverpool (but we've not been there since the 30s)
We train lots of these (teachers)
And these (nurses)
I’ve been at Edge Hill University for over five years.
I started out as Web Applications Developer then played at being a project manager for a little while and I’m now Head of Web Services which means managing our website, portal and of course attending lots of meetings.
This is my sixth IWMW which possibly makes me “experienced” but probably just makes me jaded. You can spot the old hands by the 2007 IWMW conference bag - mine has seen better days!
Development vs Design vs Content vs Governance
Build a good working relationship between IT and marketing.
Higher Ed website management is about resolving competing priorities, some of which are more subtle than on many sites. Some of you may well have seen this XKCD comic before.
It's important that we champion the end user's requirements because often no one else will but we need to be careful. At Edge Hill if we listened to the bulk of our users we'd have a giant login button filling the screen as that's what the majority of our homepage visitors do but it's vital we consider the business needs of our institutions which is increasingly focused on the recruitment of high quality students.
It used to be the case that Marketing was a bit of a dirty word amongst some universities but that's changing. Everyone is starting to discover that reputation alone isn't enough.
So find out from the Marketing department or your Director or the Vice Chancellor what your priorities and work out how what you do can help with that.
If you do look to others for ideas then look as far as you can - take inspiration from the commercial sector and institutions in the US to see how they can apply to your website.
EDUstyle and EDU Checkup - a few times as conferences I've run a session called "Slate My Website" where I'll give you an honest opinion of your website if you agree to do the same for me!
There's a fantastically open community in highered web - one which you don't find in many other industries and this is one of the best opportunities to get involved in it.
If you’re not already on the Twitter then sign in and start following people who are posting about the conference.If you can, stay online and be ready to get involved – many sessions are interactive so make the most of that!
Of course some of them will Tweet about their cats but there’s lots of people talking about their work too.
Every year at IWMW the topic of blogging comes up. Personally I think it’s a great way of sharing what we’re doing. Getting the thoughts behind the work we do out there and discussed both within and beyond the institution.
Finally, make sure you drink lots of non-alcoholic drinks during the ceilidh this evening - you will get zero sympathy from me tomorrow morning when you're searching for a dark corner to curl up in.
So go out there – talk to people about their experiences and help others learn from what you’ve done.Enjoy IWMW and welcome to the higher ed web community!
