Once again, this posting is especially for our nearly 600 editors across campus currently using Vignette to update their Web pages. I have several pieces of information that I would like to share with you:

Web Queue
Many people have been asking me when they can start training for Sitecore, our new Web content management system (CMS).

Well, the answer depends on where you fit into the university-wide Web queue. We currently have about 225 sites within Vignette that need to be migrated to Sitecore. Plus, there are several more sites that are in iWeb accounts, FrontPage accounts, or other non-CMS systems that need to be moved to Sitecore.

The task before us is immense, and we needed a way to manage this workload. So, after individual meetings with vice presidents and deans to determine the priorities of their individual areas, plus weighing the needs of our various internal and external audiences, our office has created a Web queue to guide the process. (I wrote more about this queue in a summer update, if you want to know more.)

In many cases, our office will be working one-on-one with units to revamp their sites. In other cases, we have some units marked as “do-it-yourselfers,” who may be able to be more self-guided in this process. However, “do-it-yourself” does not mean that you will be on your own to figure everything out. University Marketing and Communications and Information Technology will still be providing support for you.

Training
A key piece of this support involves training. In Vignette, we required that you go through technology training to learn how to use the system. Barb Wills, an IT technology training specialist, will still provide this service for Sitecore users just as she does now for Vignette users.

Plus, University Marketing and Communications will be providing communications training for Sitecore users that will cover such things as tips for writing for the Web and an introduction to Ball State branding guidelines and new editorial style guide.

Web editors will be required to attend both sessions before they are given access to Sitecore.

Communications training has already started for some Web editors in the first part of our queue. And, technology training will likely start after the first of the year when more of the essential Sitecore programming has been completed.

Web Queue Updates
And, I know many of you are very anxious to get started, so we ask for your patience in this process. We will keep a running log of the progress on the Web queue (updated monthly) so that you can periodically check to see how soon we will be contacting you to being your migration process.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications 

cheap propecia
propecia online
buy propecia online
lasix
buy lasix
lasix online
purchase lasix
accutane
buy accutane
accutane online
cheap accutane
buy accutane online
diflucan
buy diflucan
diflucan online
viagra
buy viagra
buy viagra online
viagra online
discount viagra
order viagra
cheap viagra
acomplia
buy acomplia
buy acomplia online
acomplia online
tadalafil
buy tadalafil
soma
soma online
buy carisoprodol
order carisoprodol
carisoprodol online
buy soma
order soma
levitra
buy levitra
cheap levitra
levitra online
buy levitra online
order levitra
cipro
cipro online
buy cipro
zithromax
buy zithromax
zithromax online
viagra soft
viagra soft tabs
buy viagra soft tabs
cialis
Buy Cialis
Buy Cialis Online
cialis online
Online Cialis
Order Cialis
Cheap Cialis
Discount Cialis
rimonabant
buy rimonabant
cialis soft
cialis soft tabs
cialis soft tab
buy cialis soft tab
amoxil
buy amoxil
amoxil online
order amoxil
voltaren
buy voltaren
order voltaren
voltaren online
finasteride
buy finasteride
finasteride online
flagyl
flagyl online
buy flagyl
vardenafil
buy vardenafil
vardenafil online
sildenafil citrate
sildenafil
buy sildenafil citrate
buy sildenafil
propecia
buy propecia
order propecia
cheap propecia
propecia online
buy propecia online
lasix
buy lasix
lasix online
purchase lasix
accutane
buy accutane
accutane online
cheap accutane
buy accutane online
diflucan
buy diflucan
diflucan online
viagra
buy viagra
buy viagra online
viagra online
discount viagra
order viagra
cheap viagra
acomplia
buy acomplia
buy acomplia online
acomplia online
tadalafil
buy tadalafil
soma
soma online
buy carisoprodol
order carisoprodol
carisoprodol online
buy soma
order soma
levitra
buy levitra
cheap levitra
levitra online
buy levitra online
order levitra
cipro
cipro online
buy cipro
zithromax
buy zithromax
zithromax online
viagra soft
viagra soft tabs
buy viagra soft tabs
cialis
Buy Cialis
Buy Cialis Online
cialis online
Online Cialis
Order Cialis
Cheap Cialis
Discount Cialis
rimonabant
buy rimonabant
cialis soft
cialis soft tabs
cialis soft tab
buy cialis soft tab
amoxil
buy amoxil
amoxil online
order amoxil
voltaren
buy voltaren
order voltaren
voltaren online
finasteride
buy finasteride
finasteride online
flagyl
flagyl online
buy flagyl
vardenafil
buy vardenafil
vardenafil online
sildenafil citrate
sildenafil
buy sildenafil citrate
buy sildenafil
propecia
buy propecia
order propecia
cheap propecia
propecia online
buy propecia online
lasix
buy lasix
lasix online
purchase lasix
accutane
buy accutane
accutane online
cheap accutane
buy accutane online
diflucan
buy diflucan
diflucan online
viagra
buy viagra
buy viagra online
viagra online
discount viagra
order viagra
cheap viagra
acomplia
buy acomplia
buy acomplia online
acomplia online
tadalafil
buy tadalafil
soma
soma online
buy carisoprodol
order carisoprodol
carisoprodol online
buy soma
order soma
levitra
buy levitra
cheap levitra
levitra online
buy levitra online
order levitra
cipro
cipro online
buy cipro
zithromax
buy zithromax
zithromax online
viagra soft
viagra soft tabs
buy viagra soft tabs
cialis
Buy Cialis
Buy Cialis Online
cialis online
Online Cialis
Order Cialis
Cheap Cialis
Discount Cialis
rimonabant
buy rimonabant
cialis soft
cialis soft tabs
cialis soft tab
buy cialis soft tab
amoxil

This note is especially for our nearly 600 editors across campus currently using Vignette to update their Web pages.

I wanted to give you a heads up that on Tuesday, Sept. 25, we are having what we are calling a “soft launch” of the newly revamped Ball State Web site. In this soft launch, we will e-mail students, faculty, and staff a link to the new site, plus put a link on our current Ball State home page.   

We hope this soft launch will give our students, faculty, staff, and others a chance to preview the new site and offer any feedback they might have before the official launch on Monday, Oct. 1.   

We are very excited about the new site. The audiences and focus groups who have already previewed it have given us overwhelmingly positive feedback. Plus, the high school students who have put the new site through some paces in usability tests have found it easy to navigate, plus offered great feedback for further tweaks that will make it even stronger. Building and maintaining a Web site is always an iterative (repititive and evolving) process, so feedback from users is essential. I will be especially interested in thoughts from our current editors.   

This initial phase of development includes:   

Here is a quick update regarding some aspects of the BSU.edu relaunch. If you have questions or suggestions, please use the comment function at the end of this post or send me an e-mail.

Web Queue
One of the most frequently asked questions in the process to implement a new Web content management system (CMS) and relaunch the Ball State web site has been, “when will my site be moved over?”

There is no easy answer to that considering we have nearly 220 live sites in our current CMS. However, our office (University Marketing and Communications) is diligently trying to pin this down as much as humanly possible with the knowledge that twists and turns along the way will certainly mean we will all have to be flexible in this process.

And, while we might have been tempted to go alphabetically or draw names out of a hat –that hardly seems strategic or in the best interests of Ball State. So, we are taking what we hope will be a more well-planned out approach to the migration.

This summer, we are visiting with deans and vice presidents across the university to get recommendations on what order they prefer for the various sites within their areas. We are also suggesting that priority be given to those sites that are critical to external audiences (for instance admissions-related sites).

When it comes to moving departmental sites over, we will be trying to do these in groupings of 4-6 departmental sites of related programs. In many cases this would include all the departments within a single college. The advantage of going live with “groupings” is to provide a more seamless presence to the prospective student visitor, and discrete, manageable and efficient bundles to be produced by University Marketing and Communications.

We will then take this information from vps and deans and develop a university-wide Web queue as our means to manage this huge job and to help web site managers know where they are in the process. We are estimating that this process will take a minimum of two years to complete.

Keep on Truckin’
With that timeframe in mind, we continue to emphasize that you need to keep doing what you do to keep the information on your area’s web site up-to-date and accurate. However, if you are thinking about a complete redesign, I would strongly recommend that you consider whether that is a real need or something that could wait, or whether your main concerns could be fixed with some minor adjustments rather than a complete overhaul.

CMS Functionality
Now that the content and design portions of the first phase of our relaunch are nearing completion, University Computing Services staff assigned to this project are immersed in the buildout of the new CMS (for a reminder, that is Sitecore) with leadership from the technical team from mStoner.

Coming soon in July, a few of us will get our first training on how to enter content and images to start building our new Web pages. What I am most excited about in this process is the use of new tools that we have not had available in our current system. Here are some examples:

Versioning. Web editors in Sitecore will be able to look at various chunks of content side-by-side and see what changes were made to that content over a period of time, when they were changed, and who changed them. This is a great tool for tracking content changes through time and even rolling back to previous versions.

RSS feeds and other display options. The new system will allow RSS (Really Simple Syndication) functionality, which has been a common request from our Web editor. Plus, eventually, we will be able to more easily have other versions of our Web site for other devices such as cell phones.

Improved workflow. Currently in our old CMS, we have only a rudimentary version of workflow (which is a word that simply describes the process of approving and making content go live). Our new system will allow us to customize this workflow to the needs of individual units. And, alerts about workflow items awaiting your attention can be e-mailed to you.

Overall ease of use. Yes, Sitecore will be a new system to learn, but it is much more intuitive than our current CMS interface. These systems have come a long way in the eight years since we bought our current CMS.

Add this improved technical functionality to some new procedures we will be trying out (and which I will talk about more later as we give them test runs), I feel like Ball State is gaining ground in its Web presence that will be essential to support many of the university’s strategic objectives.

Overall, this summer is going very fast and there is still a lot of work to be done, but everything is going quite well. Let me know if you have any specific questions or concerns.

So many things are coming together for the relaunch of the Ball State Web site this summer it is difficult to keep everyone up-to-date. Below is a quick run-down of major developments. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know.

1) Sitecore selection: It is official that Sitecore is our selected Web content management system (CMS). Over and over again Sitecore demonstrated that it was the best fit for the needs of our users and for integration into the university’s technology environment. Staff from UCS have already underwent some training and more is planned in the next couple of weeks. We are all looking very forward to an improved system and one that will bring much more added functionality than we currently have. We appreciate everyone across campus who lent their time and input into the selection process.

2) Design: We have been in the middle of an intense process to select a design direction for the new Ball State Web site. Our consulting firm, mStoner, presented us with three design options that we immediately put in front of focus groups of first-year-freshmen and high school students. Based on that feedback, we eliminated one of the designs and did much more extensive testing that included online surveys of prospective students, parents, and alumni.

We also conducted focus groups of faculty and current Ball State students. The designs were also shown to a wide range of administrative groups like the president’s cabinet, academic deans, admissions, university advancement, and others.

Based on that feedback, one design really rose to the top. People pointed to the chosen design as one that was clean and seemed to exemplify a vibrant campus experience and the “Education Redefined” message. I can’t wait for the “unveiling” this summer.

Once the design direction was set, mStoner has been developing a suite of templates that will address a variety of needs across our many Web sites. Currently we are working together to refine these.

Any questions?
Through this whole process, myself and others from University Marketing and Communications are meeting with groups or individual to get feedback on the various aspects of this giant project. The Web site is such an important tool for communications. And, for those of us on campus — a tool for getting our work done. Your input it greatly appreciated.

Now that our plan is in place for the Web site redevelopment, the pace is really picking up as specific deadlines are approaching.

Here are some quick highlights:

1) Content assignments have been finalized for the first phase of our relaunch (set for July). The mStoner team is writing a significant portion of these pages. Plus, members of the University Marketing and Communications staff have been assigned different portions of the new content. First drafts are due by April 3 or earlier. (If you want to know more about our phases for relaunching bsu.edu, read the Jan. 19 entry.)

2) Preliminary graphic designs for the site will be tested with high school and first-year Ball State students on March 1. From there, designs will be revised and we will show them to a wider university audience and other targeted audience groups for feedback and additional refinement.

3) Concept and usability testing: Just after the preliminary design testing mentioned above and before revising designs, mStoner will be testing some of our assumptions on both concepts and navigation using high school students as test subjects. This is a critical part of our process as we test our assumptions, wording, organization, etc . . . with this key audience.

An important reason for the concentration of testing on high school students in these early phases is because high school students are often least knowledgeable about our institution – not to mention the organization and nomenclature of universities in general. Usability experts will tell you that if your site can work for those who know the least about you, it will work even better for those who know you best.

4) Telecommunications Department is going to be our first sample department Web site that will go into our new content management system. In our mission to be visitor-centric and to develop a good model for developing/maintaining content for departmental sites, TCOM had a number of aspects that make it a good candidate to be our first: 1) it has both undergrad and grad programs; 2) staff desire to incorporate some “cool” multimedia features to promote academic programs; and 3) like most of our departments, staff members are struggling with ways to manage the enormous duties of Web site maintenance.

This selection will mean some special time and commitment for them right now, but our goal is that it will be make for a smoother transition for other departments. We have warned them that being first means they are both our “innovator” and “guinea pig.” There will surely be some bumps in the process, but what we learn should benefit the greater whole.
If you have any questions, please use the comment feature below or contact me directly.

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications

I have a number of developments regarding the relaunch of BSU.edu and the Web content management system (CMS) selection that I want to let you know about.

I have been comparing the relaunch process to watching one of our new campus buildings being constructed. For a long time, it doesn’t look like much is happening as the ground is being prepared for a solid foundation. Then suddenly, framing goes up and the shape of the building starts coming to life.

We are nearing the end of our “foundation” stage, and I can’t wait to start actual “construction.”

Briefly this update will cover:

• Strategy Report
• Content Development Kickoff
• CMS Selection Update
• The Timing of All This and What It Means to You (Read this if you don’t read anything else)

Strategy Report
Shortly before the holiday break, Michael Stoner from mStoner returned to campus to present and gather feedback regarding the strategy report that his team and our office have been working on since the initial discovery visit late last spring. He met with President Gora, her cabinet, the deans, and many others across campus.

This strategy document provides our “blueprint” for going forward.

I had arranged with the Teleplex to have a student videotape one of the sessions so I could post it in this forum. Unfortunately, the student had some major technical problems, and we do not have this. However, I have a PDF of Stoner’s PowerPoint presentation (posted here for our campus community only).

If you have any questions after reviewing it, I recommend using the comment section at the end of this post.

Content Development Kickoff
This week, we invited a few CMS editors to a Web content workshop lead by mStoner staff members. We considered this the kickoff to the content development portion of the redevelopment process for bsu.edu.

The workshop covered some best practices for Web writing and content development. The sessions will serve as a model for our office as we develop future content workshops that we hope to present to current and future editors using our CMS.

Copies of the PowerPoint for the content workshop are available to our CMS editors. If you would like a copy, send me an e-mail.

On the same day as the workshop, the lead writer for the web redevelopment project, Jenny Breunig from mStoner, visited with several groups of faculty and students to begin getting a feel for our campus.

CMS Selection Update
As I mentioned last month, we have narrowed our focus to the Sitecore CMS. Just before Christmas, Sitecore sent a trainer to campus to teach programmers from University Computing Services how to use many of the functions in our test version of the program.

Following the holiday break, UCS is now putting Sitecore through several paces to test how it performs and how easily some of our databases can be integrated with it. We are also finishing up our reference checking. We will have this wrapped up by the end of the month.

The Timing of All This and What It Means to You
Of course, many of you may be wondering what all of this means to you and the site(s) that you manage.

First, I want to say that this will be a GIANT process to move all of the 214 live Vignette sites to our new system (plus more sites are coming online all the time).

There are no automated features that effectively move content from one CMS to another. We will be moving them one-by-one. My best-guess estimate at this point is that it could easily take two years or more. Of course there are a lot of unknowns, so we will do all we can to keep you informed of progress and changes.

Below is a preliminary schedule that will help you to understand the process.

• Phase 1: Soft Launch – Our initial launch planned for late spring/early summer will include some top-level pages (particularly those geared toward student recruitment) and a test departmental site.
• Phase 2: Beta Sites – This summer, we will take a few sites currently in Vignette and move them to the new CMS. This will give us the opportunity to smooth out processes, training, and technical issues before we unroll to the larger campus community.
• Phase 3: Everyone Else – If things work out in phases one and two, during Fall 2007, we will begin migrating other sites into the CMS.

Given the scope of what we are looking at, Phase 3 will likely be divided into its own phases. Before this process begins, we will pull a group of people together from a cross section of the campus to help us establish guidelines in prioritizing the order in which sites are moved. I know many of you want to be among that first group. Of course, not everyone will be able to be first, but our goal is to keep you as up-to-date as possible so that you know where you are in the que.

Another important element of this migration to remember is that you will not be left on your own to move content. You don’t have to worry about me calling up and saying, “Hey, you need your site moved by next week; good luck with that!”

Our office is looking at plans right now to hire student workers during this transition to help with the cutting/pasting operations. In addition, full-time staff from Marketing and Communications will be helping units who may want/need to more extensively revamp their Web sites before migrating. This is truly a great opportunity to examine what is most and least effective on our current sites.

In Conclusion . . .
Despite the enormity of the task before us, I could not be anymore excited about the opportunity before us.

It is certainly challenging to keep up with the day-to-day needs of Ball State’s Web site, while at the same time planning and executing plans for the future. But, I have to say that the possibilities for a greatly enhanced Web presence are keeping us pumped!

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications

I know many of you are anxious for an update about the content management system (CMS) selection, and I appreciate your patience. Since the RedDot and Sitecore visits in late October, the core selection team has been carefully considering what we heard from them and from you, as well as conducting further research about the products.

At this time, we are focusing our attention on Sitecore.

This is not to say this is our final selection, but at this point we believe it could be the better fit for Ball State. We are in the process of loading a demo copy of Sitecore’s CMS so that we can put it through some paces to see how it performs. We are also checking references and will be asking some tough questions of other Sitecore users.

After this analysis is complete, and if it is favorable, then we will enter the final phase of  negotiations.

And, if during our analysis, we find some fatal flaw, we will turn our attentions to RedDot, which we also believe could be a viable system. As I mentioned in my previous post, we really had two strong contenders.

Why Sitecore?
Which of course brings up the question about why we are leaning toward Sitecore at this point. Here are a few of the top reasons:

• The interface for Web editors is user friendly. In our lab testing and in the public demos, we received positive feedback about both systems. And, while it is true that some of our users preferred RedDot slightly, overwhelmingly the response was that both were very good and a vast improvement over our current CMS interface. And, after seeing Sitecore’s latest 5.3 version its user interface mimics Microsoft Office 2007, which a vast majority of our campus will be using in a few months.
• Sitecore offers better support for the Mac. Sitecore’s philosophy is that they will fully support a Mac-compatible browser. They currently support Firefox. So far, we have found everything that works for a PC in Explorer or Firefox, also works on a Mac in Firefox. We will be testing that even further with our on-site demo version. There were a couple of key areas that did not work for Mac users in RedDot (drag-and-drop editing and the form builder).
• Sitecore seems to offer a better fit with the technology infrastructure at Ball State. What I mean by this is that the programmers within University Computing Services are knowledgeable about a programming environment known as Microsoft .NET. Sitecore has been built from the ground up with .NET. This offers tremendous potential in that so many of the programmers building web applications (or services that we can access via the Web to do our jobs) can integrate these services more easily to the Ball State Web site. A more integrated Web experience will ultimately be beneficial to all of our internal and external site visitors.

If you have any questions, I would encourage you to please post them in the comment section below.

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications

It has been quite an intense week of learning as we spent Monday-Thursday with our Web content management system (CMS) finalists Sitecore and RedDot.

I came away thinking that no matter which vendor the university chooses, we will be able to take our Web presense to new and exciting levels.

We really appreciated the good turnout to the demos and all the feedback we are receiving. It is a very complex and multi-layered process where many aspects have be be considered, so hearing what most concerns people is very helpful. In fact, it gave me many ideas for topics to address here in the coming weeks and months.

The next steps in our selection process include collecting and analyzing feedback from users who attended the demos or are viewing recordings of them. Our information technology folks are also collecting more information that will help them understand more about how the systems could be implemented and how they integrate with other university systems.

We will then decide one vendor to narrow our focus on. Then, there will be more intense IT testing and reference checking. A final step will be negotiating an agreement with the vendor.

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications

Good news! We have narrowed our original list of five Web content management system (CMS) vendors down to two. They are:  

• RedDot CMS with LiveServer - www.reddot.com 
• Sitecore - www.sitecore.com 
   

These vendors will be coming in for two-day visits the week of Oct. 23. They will each be giving public demos that we are inviting all our current Vignette users to attend, plus anyone else on campus who has an interest. To help accommodate as many people as possible, each vendor will be repeating the demo twice. Every attendee will have the opportunity to fill out a survey to provide feedback. The public demos are scheduled for: 

Sitecore  

• 9-10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24– Bracken Library 225
• 1:30-2:50 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24– Bracken Library 225   
   

RedDot    

• 1:30-2:50 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25– Bracken Library 225
• 9-10:20 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 26– Bracken Library 225 
   

In addition, we will be asking about 12 current Vignette users to take part in much more in-depth user workshops to help us see real users perform tasks in the systems. 

Overall, I think most of you will really like what you see. These systems are truly next-generation systems from what we currently have.    

Nancy Prater
University Web Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications

This is just a quick note to let you know that Julie Tuttle, the new Web managing editor in University Marketing and Communications, has taken Heather Shupp’s position on our core team for the Web content management system (CMS) selection process. Heather, the associate vice president for marketing and communications, will be leaving Ball State next week for a position at Michigan State University.

One other note is that we are very close to announcing the CMS vendors who we are inviting to campus. We will be scheduling public demos of the products and asking for feedback from our current CMS users and others across campus.