CoA Website CommitteeMarch 18, 2011

Agenda I. Review and Approve the AgendaII. Meeting Dates/TimeIII. Current Status of Website Project – Jane

McKenna, LibrarianIV. Determine Next StepsV. Elect Committee Chair

Meeting Dates/TimesProposed Dates:

1st and 3rd Fridays from 1-3pm in L237

(Mar. 18th, April 1st & 15th, May 6th & May 20th)

Current Status - CommitteeThe previous Committee, called the Web

Committee, was a subcommittee of the Technology Committee. This committee reviewed the various CMS (content management systems) and recommended the campus move to Drupal (an open-source CMS). The campus currently uses a proprietary CMS that is no longer being maintained by the company.

The District has no plans to move to a new CMS or support any new system. Merritt have a new Drupal site. Laney and Berkeley City Coll. have Wordpress sites.

New Website Committee Senate and Council approved a new Website Standing Committee that

is a college standing committee rather than a Tech sub-committee. The updated charge for the new Website Committee is as follows: Acts as a recommending body for the development of College of

Alameda website, including its structure, design, policies and procedures. Identify, prioritize and advocate for Web needs and services.

Membership is as follows: 1 - Administrator

1 - Public Information Officer1 - Network Coordinator 1 - Distance Education Coordinator 3 - Classifieds 1 - Faculty – Library 1- Faculty –Student Services1 - Faculty – Division 11 - Faculty – Division 22 – Faculty – At Large2 – Students

Drupal – What is it? Drupal is a web content management system (CMS). That

is, it's a tool for creating, editing, organizing and publishing website content. (equivalent of mycoa.peralta.edu)

There are core functions built into Drupal but you need a designer and a developer to custom build the look, feel and function of your site based on Drupal. Also, additional modules can be added to increase the capabilities and function of your site (like apps for an iphone).

The current version that is being used by most organizations is Drupal6 but Drupal7 has just come out of Beta (in Jan 2011). New versions come out every approx. every1.5 years and security updates are only provided for the current version and one previous. We should consider this in deciding whether to use Drupal6 or Drupal7. Bleeding edge vs. need to migrate in just 2 years. Most drupal experts that I spoke with recommended staying with 6 for now.

Success of Project Communication, Transparency , Buy-in and Feedback Recognize our limitations and plan accordingly.

◦ No webmaster or specific position responsible for web on the campus. Design must require little admin. Automate as much as possible (ex. LDAP – usernames and passwords come from District database not created manually by an Admin.).

◦ Limited funds. Can’t rely on having money to fix things/upgrade later. Get as much as possible in now. Recognize that our budget is extremely small and it may be difficult to get all functions we currently have.

◦ Need for on-going hosting and regular security updates. Some funds must be set aside for this.

◦ Not enough $ to pay developer to migrate. Do it ourselves … hire student workers. Get the most for our $ by paying for high level set-up functions that we cannot do ourselves.

◦ No Drupal expertise on campus or District (some at Merritt).

Next Steps -Survey CommunityCreate an online survey for

faculty and staff to determine likes, dislikes, priorities, functions and needs regarding site. Also, might want to have them react to, provide feedback on Merritt’s new Drupal site.

Create an online survey for students with similar sorts of questions from a user rather than editor perspective.

Volunteers to work on this with me?

Next Steps – Site ArchitectureThe hierarchy of links and menus for the main page

needs to be determined early in the process.I developed a draft of possible site architecture

based on current pages in existence, statistics on usage/hits for pages, and my expertise as a librarian (organizing info. so that it is easily accessible) and input it into a copy of Merritt’s site.

The architecture should be reviewed and modified based on feedback from the campus community. http://new.alamedaweb.org

Next steps? Approach key people about architecture? Send campus-wide message asking for reaction to draft? Attend certain meetings asking for feedback?

Next Steps - ResearchI have a list of the most heavily viewed pages on

our site (with number of hits). Identify key players and priority pages for redirect (may be limited in # of redirects)

I’m currently using a copy of Merritt’s Drupal site as sandbox. I can create editor accounts for all committee members to go in and explore the back-end of this Drupal site. Use this experience to create priority list for our developer.

Continue to talk to developers and other colleges using Drupal. Touch base with Merritt about issues that are coming up in their migration to Drupal.

Drupal ResourcesDrupal online videos

◦Lynda Site - http://www.lynda.com ($25 per month).

◦Drupalize Me Site (by Lullabot) http://drupalize.me/ ($55 per month)

Drupal Books (Library just ordered)◦Using Drupal by Angela Byron◦Pro Drupal Development by John

VanDyk

Hiring a Drupal Designer/DeveloperIn order to narrow down the list of potential

interviewees, I have contacted multiple colleges with good Drupal sites asking for advice and recommendations of developers.

Going into negotiations and a contract, we need a clear idea of priorities (more details the better)because based on our funds we will not be able to get everything …especially not migration. (surveys, analyze Merritt’s site)

Question: should we identify 2 or 3 members of the Committee to interview and select a developer?

Next Steps – Finalize Membership and Select ChairThe Chair is elected by the CommitteeIs anyone interested? Should we have an election this

meeting or next?Does current attendance match

membership list? I have contacted the Student Body

President asking for 2 students to be appointed to committee. Probably only possible to get one.

Next Steps - BudgetClarify budget with PresidentRequest backfill for chair to take

on management of project.Identify/hire student workers for

migration