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Content in Motion: What iTunes Can Teach Us About Managing Web Content
3/29/2005
What are the characteristics of event information that motivate us to put such effort into managing events content?
* Events have shared properties (name, date, time, location, sponsor, etc.) that can be abstracted from the presentation of each event, and event information is more re-usable when this information is presented in a consistent manner. The content is granular and re-usable.
* To reach their intended audience, events need to leave the organizational unit they originate in and get exposure in more than one place (multiple Web pages, Web sites, and other media). The content needs to be syndicated.
* Events fall into categories--such as event type, topic, and intended audience--and event listings are more useful if they can be filtered, sorted, and grouped by those categories. The content has metadata.
* Events are topical and relevant to other content. On a Web page that discusses a particular topic, we want to be able to show events relevant to that topic to give the page more depth. The content has relationships to other content.
* Being able to aggregate and re-use events from across an institution and show the depth and richness of its activities is an important institutional goal, beyond the goals of each event sponsor in promoting their event. The content is institutional.
Back to the Big Picture
Once we generalize the characteristics of event information, we start to discover lots of other content on our Web sites with similar characteristics. Some examples typical to higher education are suggested below. The characteristics listed above apply to each one--granularity and reusability, syndication, metadata, relationships, and institutional importance.* Faculty profiles, including contact information, biographical information, expertise, publications, research, and connections to courses.
* Courses, including descriptions, requirements, schedule information, syllabi, and connections to faculty.
* Academic programs, their offerings, requirements, and connections to faculty and courses.
* University news, press releases, departmental announcements, and profiles of faculty and students.
* Organizations, their events, activities, announcements, and members.
At many of our institutions, the de facto process for putting this type of content on the Web is to embed it in a new Web page. Doing that is like creating an album of music, to return to our music analogy. We've frozen content in a single arrangement for a single purpose, when what we really want to do is re-use it and let it flow logically through our Web sites and into other media.
Content from a faculty member's profile, for example, should appear in a university faculty directory; on the Web sites of the departments and research centers the faculty member is affiliated with; in a faculty experts guide for the media; in a Web gateway for a particular research topic; and perhaps even in an RSS feed that updates faculty about their colleagues' latest publications, or a Podcast of the faculty member's latest lecture. In each instance, the content should be automatically linked to relevant related content. And each of those areas of content should flow freely and appear where it should as well.
Getting There from Here
Getting from traditional Web publishing to granular, easily syndicated content objects is no small task. Most of our institutions don't have the resources to make major changes across the board, so it's part of our responsibility as Web professionals to develop strategies that move our institutions incrementally in the right direction. Here are some of the areas I think we need to be working on.Recommended Reading
- News Update :: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Report: Green Efforts Improving on Campuses
: Polytechnic Institute of NYU Deploys Array Networks Equipment for Access Control
: Oracle Releases Student Administration Integration Pack
: Red Hat Hacked, Company Issues Security Advisory
: Sun Open Sources Mobile Toolkit LWUIT
: Vulnerability Management Needed for Security, Study Says
: Microsoft Details SharePoint-SQL 2008 Integration
: Higher Ed Growing into BI, Data Warehousing
: LectureShare Updates Free Course Management System - Campus Security :: August 22, 2008
:::::: CASE STUDY
: Corralling Identity Management
:::::: CAMPUS SECURITY NEWS
: Vulnerability Management Needed for Security, Study Says
: Wayne State Deploys Q1 Labs QRadar to Manage and Secure Network
: KU Medical Center Installs Real-time Beacon System
: Virginia Tech Tries 'Compliance Sheriff' To Improve Web Site Accessibility
: Microsoft, BearingPoint Team Up To Provide Risk-Based Compliance Solution
: Collaboration Key to Security, Microsoft Says
: IBM Unveils New Software Designed To Streamline eDiscovery
: Security Woes Up, as PHP and OSS Make the List - IT Trends :: Thursday, August 21, 2008
:::::: INTERVIEW
:: Higher Ed Growing into BI, Data Warehousing
:::::: IT NEWS
:: Microsoft Changes Virtualization Licensing Rules
:: Vorex Upgrades Web-based Data Collection Tool for Schools
:: AT&T 'Big Mobile' Grant Extended
:: U Illinois Implements New StorMagic SAN in 15 Minutes
:: OOXML Reaffirmed, ISO/IEC Reject Appeals
:: Butler U Deploys Virtual Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway
:: Linux Application Checker Brings Distro Help - SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
:::::: INTERVIEW
: The Power of Wikis in Higher Ed
:::::: NEWS and PRODUCT UPDATES
: Sakai 2.5.2 Gets Performance Boost; New Modules Released
: Georgia Virtual Tech Moves to Angel LMS for Web-based Instruction
: Video Spotlight: Campus Technology 2008 Keynote Address
: AT&T 'Big Mobile' Grant Extended
: Colorado State Launches New Online School - Web 2.0 :: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
:::::: THE BUZZ
: Digital Arrays for Evidence-Based Learning
:::::: WEB 2.0 IN ACTION
: "That Which Weaves Together:" The NSF Cyberlearning Report
:::::: PRODUCTS AND APPS
: Sakai 2.5.2 Gets Performance Boost; New Modules Released
: Vorex Upgrades Web-based Data Collection Tool for Schools
: Colorado State Launches New Online School
: Collexis' Lawriter Debuts Social Network for Law Students - News Update :: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Video Spotlight: Campus Technology 2008 Keynote Address
: Report Finds Dip in Microsoft's Browser Share
: Butler U Deploys Virtual Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway
: VMware's Updates Cause Problems, CEO Apologizes
: Intel Releases Interface for USB 3.0
: Linux Application Checker Brings Distro Help
: Wayne State Deploys Q1 Labs QRadar to Manage and Secure Network
: SunGard HE Releases New Unified Digital Campus
: Higher Education Fertile Ground for 802.11n WiFi, ABI Reports
