Perhaps it helps to think of a university website as a "virtual" campus.
There will be groups of pages aimed at particular readers, just like there
are different buildings for different purposes.
When a reader moves from an on-line official brochure, to an electronic
library, and then onto a virtual student union bar, they should see
changes in information or visual design that make it clear they have moved
from one bit of the university to another.
I happily read the goings-on of student societies in other universities
(e.g. the Americans who build enormous potato catapaults :-) without it
affecting my view of other parts of those institutions. I expect to find a
universe inside each university.
Now exactly how to signal these changes is a matter for good design.
Perhaps someone will sponsor a university web(sub)site design competition,
and an evaluation research project to find the best ways of doing this.
A final point. The distinction is between what people are doing (their
roles) not their status. In my mind, a student project group's report has
the same function as a research report or a lecturer's notes, and should
be hosted only a few links away from similar materials (e.g.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/itsoc/proj/). This is different to the personal
pages of staff or students.
----------------------
Dr. D. R. Newman, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's School of Management,
BELFAST BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland (UK). http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/
FAX: +44-1232-249881 Tel. +44-1232-335011 mailto:[log in to unmask]
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