Dear all,
Firstly, many thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread! It
has quite restored my sense of community!
I have made an attempt to distil some of the wisdom thus far received... it
looks like the following are pre-requisites for implementation of the
plan... we'll need:
* Political Will - the policy has to be driven from the top
PLUS EITHER
* Incentives - information providers should be persuaded that taking this is
the path of least resistance... doing things this way will in fact make
their job simpler (through templates, support, c/m systems...) AND
* Policing Methods - "workflow" processes which ensure content sign-off
prior to publication - or at least provide awareness of non-conformance.
Technical means to effect policy.
OR
* Increased Central Resources - the central web team take on the role of
developing and maintaining departmental pages - or perhaps "systems of
publication" - on behalf of content providers (Sheffield Hallam,
Strathclyde, bits of Oxford?)
It may be interesting to consider the cost implications of these contrasting
strategies. From my own experience, I have pretty much convinced myself that
it is more cost-effective to produce and maintain sites centrally than to
distribute the task; you also get a far more usable, integrated product. On
the other hand it's almost impossible to demonstrate this, because a large
proportion of current developmental costs across a distributed site are
'hidden' - performed, as Rick Hobson observes, by enthusiastic 'volunteers'
who have the departmental website tagged onto their job description, fail to
receive adequate support or training, and for whom the creative freedom they
enjoy is just about the only recompense for their labour.
It's also been great to see a good set-to on the old "to brand or not to
brand" debate - a valuable rehearsal of my next year or so on the phone, no
doubt!
Again, many thanks!
Richard Tammar
University of Sussex
|