On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Cox, Will wrote:
> > i think we're getting all worked up about nothing here.
> Yes that's right, let students and staff run their own businesses on university machines, provide MP3 and porn downloads, get your entire
> site blocked by filtering software because of content on a personal webpage - there are well documented examples of all of these, nothing to
> get worked up about!
I note that Will removes this quote from its original context, which was
a valid point about the disanalogy between personal web space and a
printed prospectus.
> > put a disclaimer on then
> Do you read disclaimers
Yes. I'm all for designing for accessibility, but you seem to be
suggesting we manage sites around the expectations of users who refuse
to think about the provenance of what they are reading.
> > universities are not businesses
> That's why numerous institutions are in debt, have closed, merged and trimmed schools/faculties and even closed campuses.
I note that Will removes this from its context, which was a point about
how support of "freedom of expression" is integral to university
culture. If you *can* respond to the actual points being made, why not
do so?
> The world has changed, universities have to change, the service they
> deliver has to be as good as the service delivered by commercial
> organisations and their websites have to deliver in the same way too.
This is either an uncontroversial statement using a mundane sense of the
word "good" or a highly contentful statement using "good" in a way which
many of us will find objectionable.
If you are advocating draining university web sites of any real sense of
individual personality and removing a lot of material which makes people
visit them, and your justification is in terms of making the sites
"good", then something has gone wrong. (I don't think it's snobby to say
that the personality of individual academics is far more relevant to the
perceived culture and value of an academic institution than the
personalities of managers are to customer perceptions of HP).
I wonder if the same train of thought can avoid the conclusion that
academics should take all those Gary Larson cartoons and other humourous
items from their doors. All sorts of people visit academics, and it
reflects on the univesrity as a whole if an unprofessional impression is
created. If Richard Feynman were alive and on your staff, would this
train of thought justify sacking him (or hiding him away from the
public)?
> I use a sign in presentations, it says "You are now entering a higher education website - please lower your expectations" - people laugh,
> but our customers don't find it funny.
Very witty, but relevance to the present topic?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Iris [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 29 November 2001 15:49
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Staff webpages
>
>
> At 15:08 29/11/01 +0000, you wrote:
> >You are looking at this from a 'personal' point of view not from a
> >'university' point of view.
>
> yes, wouldn't it be nice if institutions and businesses allowed their
> employees a bit more personal space instead of just treating them as
> machines? isn't that what we learned in management class?
>
> >Would your prospectus look as professional if each course leader had a few
> >photos of their cats next to their course page or a recipe for
> >meatloaf next to the intro by the director of school.
>
> yes, of course, your employees have got that little common sense that they
> will want to put a meatloaf recipe in your prospectus. i think we're
> getting all worked up about nothing here.
>
> >We wouldn't allow this in print and it's questionable whether we should
> >allow it on the web, users looking at an address
> >www.universityname.ac.uk/~staffpage would assume that it's an officially
> >sanctioned page of www.universityname.ac.uk
>
> put a disclaimer on then
>
> >You don't see personal pages on HP, Sun, Sainsburys or any other large
> >corporate company because it would damage their brand -
>
> damage their brand? i'm sure lots of people (customers/prospective
> students) would actually appreciate a personal touch.
>
> >why should
> >universities be any different?
>
> because universities are not businesses but places where freedom of
> expression and critical analysis are fostered. or so i used to believe a
> long long time ago.
>
> iris
> (from home and therefore w/o disclaimer. ha!)
>
> <http://www.demos.ac.uk/>
>
>
--
Martin Poulter, Web Development Officer, Economics LTSN
http://www.economics.ltsn.ac.uk/
Based at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol, BS8 1HH
http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/
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