Edu Web Conference 06

7 guest bloggers, 14 posts in just 5 days and a very happy, excited Karine… live from her office.
It felt like my good old days of journalism…

While some of you might have thought that their RSS readers were going crazy with so much action, I’m sure everybody will find something interesting in the excellent coverage the 7 guest bloggers provided this week.

If you want to read everything later, here’s the page you might want to bookmark:

EduWeb Conference 2006

Now, I just want to thank again the 7 amazing people who agreed to send their reports in record time (actually, like pros), so we could provide you with the best thing after attending the conference:

• Nina Sossen (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
• Drew Olanoff (Educational Directories Unlimited)
• Natalie DiPasquale (Ripple Effects Interactive)
• Kesha Boyce Williams from (Cleveland Institute of Art)
• Aba Blankeston (Cornell University)
• Shane Colvin (University of Oslo)
• Rachel Reuben (State University of New York at New Paltz)

They did a splendid job, so don’t forget to say “thank you” by posting a comment after reading their reports. They are the living proof of what the so-called “Consumer Generated Content” (reader generated content in this case) can do and why your institution should look into it.

When people are passionate about something and belong to a community, they can really do great stuff.

Let’s wrap everything up with 2 last points about the conference:

First, Rachel did send me the following report about the last session she attended: “Editing Print Document for the Web,” by Merry Bruns, Science Sites Communications. I’ve been wondering if I should post it as the session was really not worth the blogging attention. If I had been the one sitting in this room, I would have probably not bothered writing anything. But, Rachel did – so here it is:

Unfortunately the title was misleading from what was actually presented, and her session was plagued by technical difficulties, which seemed to lead us even further off the topic as promoted in the conference literature. But, I stuck it out for the sake of the collegewebeditor.com readers who are waiting with bated breath for my summary of this session (!), and sincerely hoped she would get back on topic at some point.

She did not talk about taking an existing print document (such as an alumni magazine, viewbook, or a course book) and how to best put it up on the Web, other than just using those basic tips I mentioned above.

Last, Natalie DiPasquale was eager to send me a link to the presentation her company did at EduWeb. None of the 7 were able to attend this session. So, I told Natalie that I would check it and see if there is anything worth sharing with all of you (I’m always cautious with vendors presentations – don’t want to make this blog a sounding box for sales pitch, that’s what online advertising is for ;-). Well, there is (data, trends, tips and advice on how to deal with the Millenials). So, you should probably take the time (literally – the file is 20MB) to download this presentation.

Natalie DiPasquale, one of our guest bloggers at EduWeb, attended another very, very interesting presentation: “Marketing Your University with Dynamic Print, Immersive Websites and Streaming Media” by Ryan Fisher, Director of Web Development at Furman University. Her report got me all excited when I read and edited it — especially the last line.

Another interesting session on the implementation of creative marketing tactics that have proved effective for Furman University. While Ryan Fisher opened with a helpful print talk (with ideas like three admissions magazines a year instead of one viewbook), I’ll include notes on the website and streaming media portions here.

Furman completely redesigned its website approx. 18 months ago to include elements like video, audio and a new design – and greatly enhanced the six-year-old Admissions site, EngageFurman.com/, available from the Prospective Students link on the university homepage and promoted in all admissions marketing collateral.

Furman’s goal was to achieve immersion through its website, helping people feel they were at Furman, not just experiencing it from afar. As we know, even when you visit a school in person, the people you meet during your stay and make connections with are far more important than just seeing the buildings. Through Furman’s flash-based virtual tours, Guided Video Tours, real students (“nightlife guy,” “Greek life girl,” “overachieving club president/exerciser/volunteer,” “athlete,” etc.) let you into their lives as a Furman student. When asked by an attendee how long the video tours are kept up on the site, Fisher acknowledged that every year, the site markets to a basically new audience, and that the video tours run for approx. two years.

Another fascinating concept Furman presented was its Dorm Room Extreme Makeover, an engaging way to show students just how they can make a Furman dorm their home. Despite the fact that there were no videographers on campus, all Furman had to invest was approx. $800 worth of equipment plus student labor (physically moving items for the Makeover, then video editing).

It will be six years this Fall that Furman has utilized student blogs. What’s unique about Furman’s program is that students can post their blogs live and unedited from their dorm rooms with no intervention from the marketing office. And Furman’s only seen a handful of questionable posts. While a few speakers alluded to blogs being a fad, Fisher commented that blogs may morph over time and likely include more audio & video, but there’s really no better way to show what current life on campus is like besides student blogs.

Fisher doesn’t see blogs playing a large role in driving application, though. [Karine's note: on this point, you might want to have a look at my University Business column about the ROI of admission blogs and the interviews I did to prepare this article for the August 2006 issue]

And if you’re doing blogs right, you have to expect to worry about what will be said. Fisher noted an instance when a student blogger announced the reasons he was transferring to another school. While the university was understandably sensitive to this post just days before applicants’ final payment was due, the blog was only taken down for 24 hours and then reposted.

While some presentations lacked statistics, Furman was able to share:

• 33,000 visits a month to EngageFurman.com
• Up from 18,000 visits a month after 2001 launch
• 6.46 minutes = length of average visit
• Students report that they visit weekly (note that nothing else on site is updated weekly besides student blogs, so one can conclude that student blogs play a significant role in driving traffic and maintaining interest)

Furman is also launching their on-demand video channel, with advertising, for the university this Fall, partnering with Multicast Media out of Atlanta, GA (which resells Akamai’s bandwidth) and could include:

• Lecture series
• Athletic events
• Musical performances
• Admissions marketing
• Distance learning for alumni
• Distance learning for corporate education
• Fundraising
• Testimonials
• Student-produced filmed

Furman seems to have an ideal, budget-conscious arrangement in place, only paying for the bandwidth used and number of minutes watched – so the university will not lose out if no one happens to watch or viewers quit viewing early on in the broadcast. An attendee questioned Fisher on music & speaker rebroadcasting issues, and Fisher explained that all of Furman’s speakers sign a waiver before speaking that allows the university to rebroadcast speeches, but Fisher did agree that it might be too cost-prohibitive to purchase copywrights for rebroadcasting musical performances.

Final comments of interest:

• Parents are extremely involved in Furman’s prospective students’ decision process
• This is the first year Furman is spending more on web than print

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Karine’s note: “more budget on web than print” – now, that’s something. I’m pretty sure more and more higher ed institutions will (should) follow Furman’s lead.

Kesha Boyce Williams attended “Auditing for Results,” a presentation given by Jon Mikel-Bailey (Wood Street, Inc.) at EduWeb earlier this week. Kesha sent this report

What you should do: Examine your Web site – look at navigation, detail, general design, depth of information, clarity of information.

Why you should do it: If you don’t do it, the problems on site won’t be recognized. The audit proves the value of what you have been doing so far. and identifies what still needs to be done.

How often your should do it: At least yearly. Consider doing it monthly so you keep up with out of date info.

Key Questions:

1)Is the Web site content relevant to each audience?
2)How does my Web site content and functionality stack up to my competitors?
3) Can I get a sense of how often my competitor sites are updated compared to mine? And how many people they have behind the scenes? It is imperative that your institution understand how having limited staff impacts your web site. This is one way of getting that info.

Recommended: Focus groups – current students, prospective students (high school juniors) Online survey – posted for all Web site users on your Web site Usability testing – 508 Compliance, SEO Optimization.

Write a report at the end and share the findings with key decision makers. Report length depends on how indepth you go.

Fresh Eyes: An outside firm can do your audit and lend some fresh eyes to your site. They also can help find people for focus groups if you’re challenged.

BIG IDEA: Use your admissions staff to find out how much service your Web site is actually providing. It might be the equivalent of 1 or 2 customer service reps. That means you’re responsible for a lot of the success of recruitment.

Help them understand that spending more money on the Web site will end up customer service and so much more. This generation has high expectations for what they expect Web sites to be able to provide and do.

Patricia Baldridge, Vice President, Marketing & Public Relations, Christopher Davis, Director, Web Communications and Kathleen Kissane, Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions (Philadelphia University) presented their case study “Online Student Journals as Effective Recruitment Tool” earlier this week at the EduWeb Conference in Baltimore.

Nalatie DiPasquale, Online Relations Manager at Ripple Effects Interactive, is one of the seven very nice people who agreed to share their notes with all of us who couldn’t attend the EduWeb conference this year. This is Natalie’s first post about the conference.

A very informative, engaging session on Philadelphia University’s take on student blogs and the success they’ve seen to date, granting prospective students the opportunity to more personally enter the lives of current Philadelphia U students via their weekly journal entries.

It opened with a compelling exercise – the presenters projected four phrases onto the screen and asked all attendees to identify which one of the four was written by a college student. Needless to say, the large majority of us guessed incorrectly – consistent with one of the themes of this conference (if we heard it once, we heard it 20 times!), that we are not college students, and that they are perhaps the most dynamic, challenging group to market to in respect to the web today. The correct college student lingo was, “I would like to welcome everyone to my world of lyrical wizardry as I begin to place my college life on exhibit.” written by Malcolm, a Philadelphia U pre-med student in his first online journal entry on 1/13/05. The presenters awarded the prize, a cute stuffed Baltimore Orioles mascot, to one of the attendees who guessed correctly, Jake Yale, Assistant Director of Admissions for Clarion University, and Patricia Baldridge, VP Marketing & PR, opened the presentation.

Interesting take-aways from her portion:

• Blog purists argue that all blogs are journals, but not all journals are blogs
• Colleges, universities still in early stage of embracing blog culture, either via third party external blog providers (www.blogger.com, www.typepad.com), third party blogging software hosted locally (www.wordpress.com), or blog-like html journals hosted as part of a microsite, subfolder or subdomain, written by students but designed, hosted and maintained by college/university – which is what Philadelphia U chose
• Choosing the most appropriate student blogging approach is more than a technology decision; it’s an issue of marketing strategy
• Philadelphia U made a conscious, strategic decision that the entire University website is primarily a recruitment entity, and online student journals will play an integral role in Admissions’ messaging

Chris Davis, Web Communications Director, helped explain the major aspects of launching and maintaining online student journals, including collaborating with PR and the Web Dev team to create a template for design and content. Philadelphia U’s journals have a nice design, consistent with the entire University’s look and feel, although darker – and they include weekly text postings (updated every Thursday, which cause a significant spike in site visits!), photos & video, student profiles (no last names), archives of past entries and an email alias to contact each student blogger (which actually goes to Kathleen Kissane, Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions, who reads and forwards each email to the respective student blogger).

Kathy went on to present how they’ve successfully recruited, selected and managed student bloggers and how they’ve successfully driven traffic to the online journals.

Interesting take-aways from her portion:

• Visual & text-based links, right on the University homepage as well as the Admissions homepage, help drive traffic to the journals (Philadelphia’s received comments that prospective & current students appreciate how easy it is to access the journals)
• Philadelphia’s application process required student blogger applicants to submit three journal entries (one on freshman year experiences, the other two on anything creative of their choosing)
• While some schools experimenting with blogging do not offer incentives, Philadelphia U provides a new digital camera each student blogger can keep, an hourly wage (same amount University Ambassador tour guides are paid), a CD of their journals upon completion of the year, and of course the opportunity to become a celebrity!
• Philadelphia’s experience has been that student bloggers spend approx. 1.5 hours a week on their journal & photo submissions – not a bad investment for marketing that really speaks to this audience!
• Philadelphia has heard from several students that they love the photo aspect of the journals
• Philadelphia changes the student bloggers every year, but don’t’ worry – the 04 & 05 journals are still available on the site
• Philadelphia suggests FrontPage as a WYSIWYG editor, and PhotoShop to crop and size all images, or Dreamweaver and Fireworks as other options
• Philadelphia is considering staff and president online journals for the future

Of special interest was Philadelphia’s unique “Where Are They Now” concept, which updates readers of these online journals on what the students are doing after their stints as celebrity bloggers (jobs, engagements, etc.) – the fact that there is interest in these bloggers’ lives, even after Philadelphia U, really speaks to the popularity of online journals!

Another very cool tactic presented was Philadelphia’s podcast (first was on 3/16/06) during which all five student bloggers gathered to answer questions submitted by students accepted to Philadelphia U. They received approx. 60 questions and chose to answer approx. 13 live; every student whose question was chosen received a free Philadelphia U t-shirt. All questions and answers are available online, but what a great idea to also have real students’ voices giving honest, off-the-cuff answers to questions from “How did you adjust to the transition from high school to college life,” to “Do you find the Philadelphia U workload overwhelming,” to “What is it like to move into a strange dorm room and live on campus your first year” – prospective students today are looking to not only absorb content, but to interact with your brand, and while this podcast concept is a great step in the right direction, more live chats would probably be received well too. (Philadelphia reported that to date, over 600 people have downloaded the podcast.)

One great quote was that “online journals are portals, not just destinations.” This helps demonstrate Philadelphia’s understanding that it is necessary to embrace our prospects’ desire for consumer-generated content and community-building online. Online student journals, when done well, drive readers to want to learn more – whether it’s further exploring your site, requesting more materials or applying, it was clear that online journals can help influence recruitment & application decisions.

Some statistics (besides a general questionnaire, are there any stats being gathered on how journals are tangibly impacting recruitment?) might have been the only element that could have enhanced this otherwise very well-prepared, helpful presentation on one university’s clear success after two and a half years of online student journals.

Yesterday at EduWeb in Baltimore, Shane Colvin attended the presentation given by Nina Sossen, another of our guest bloggers and the Web Communications Director at the University of Massachusetts Amherst: “To Blog or Not to blog.”

Nina Sossen began her presentation by describing what a blog is and how it came about.

What, when and where?

-web+log = weblog= blog
-arose in the late 1990’s
-blogging software in 2004-5 (blogger, movable type, wordpress) made it easier for people to create blogs and gave blogs a consistent look
-popular topics in blogs
personal diaries
news and politics
culture
sports
hobbies
-over 50 million blogs today, 75000 new blogs a day, 1,2 million blogs post daily

What about blogs in higher education?

Sossen, points out that there is still much scepticism of blogs is higher education . Some schools like to simply jump in and start using them, while others are still reluctant to do so. Many school are fearful of blogs because they believe negative things would be said about their institution. The same sceptics are worried that student bloggers would wrote about things that are not related to the school. Moreover, they might be writing material that doesn’t have substance, going on and on about nothing at all. Many schools also still think it’s a passing fad and a big waste of money.

On the other hand, many schools are going all the way with blogging, Sossen gave the following examples:
Biola University
RPI

Blogs at UMass Amherst

Sossen went on to present the blogs they were using at UMass Amherst:

Senior Bloggers

- They were graduating seniors blogging about their last 6 weeks at Umass
- Targeted at prospective students
- Recruited 40 graduating seniors from a range of majors
- Ten accepted, eight carried through with it- almost all were journalism majors
- Reviewed and edited only if they spelled the university’s name wrong or exceeded the allotted length
- No compensation
- Used blogger, customized to their look

Juniper Summer Writing Institute

- ”Juniper Notes”
- Summer institute held on campus with writers from high school studying with UMass faculty and guest authors
- Invited all 72 participants to blog, 20 accepted, 17 followed through, including some faculty

Dinner services blog

Blog about food and service issues at the university, written by their enthusiastic food director- parents and student loved it.

Lesssons learned

- Content is king
- The best writers are the best bloggers
- Make it easy and identifiable- use a blogging programs
- Promotion is essential- have to say what the blog is about- don’t focus on the medium, but more on what they are going to get out of it.
- Blogs must be short- students must be paid for their work and hey, it looks good on their résumé

Next steps

- Beyond the “Six carefully selected students narrate their life story” blogs.
- What’s the essence of a blog?
- Is it authentic when the administration censors it, and the students are paid to write it?
- Be creative, do something that makes you stand out, because everyone is going to have student blogs
- Things will change
- Don’t dump a bunch of money into it

Back in Ithaca NY, Aba Blankson sent this report about the session she attended yesterday at EduWeb in Baltimore: “HTML Email & Flash Appeals The Basics and Beyond,” a session presented by Andrew Iskowitz.

The development track sessions at the conference have been quite informative. The presenters have provided great insight, but I’ve also learned a lot just from the questions and discussion from the audience.

The presentation started with an audience poll: “Who is currently using plain text emails to reach out to constituents? Who is using HTML? Who is currently using 3rd party email vendor? Any sending hundreds of emails from their desktop using outlook?

There were quite a few using text emails, some using HTML, and few using rich media (such as flash, video, or audio). Much to my surprise there are still some people sending mass emails from their desktops! Who knew?!

Interesting Research Findings

• Email marketing spending is forecasted to grown from $885 million in 2005 to $1.1 billion by 2010. (JupiterResearch)
• Over 60 percent of email users have the ability to receive HTML email, which gets twice the response rate as text emails. (JupiterResearch)
• Email open rates were 12.5% higher and click-through rates were 75% higher when the subject line contained 49 characters or less. (EmailLabs)
• Flash plug-in on 97.7% of internet enabled desktops worldwide (NDP Research, 2006)
• The ‘from’ and ‘subject’ lines are the most important factor motivating consumers to open emails. (DoubleClick)

Emailing Tips

• Broadcast emails can be used for solicitations, newsletters, reminders, event registration, survey, birthday acknowledgements, etc. But whatever the case, the emails should be targeted, measurable, and actionable – the ‘Marketing Trifecta.’
• HTML emails are more visually appealing than plain text emails and have the potential for better click-through rates. But…they may not render the same in all email applications.
• Be careful when using rich media. While the flash, video or audio may be more engaging than HTML emails, they take longer (and cost more) to develop.
• Consider using 3rd party vendors/products when doing HTML / rich media broadcast emails. They can help you think through some of the issues described above.
• Whether you do it yourself or use a 3rd party, it is critical to test before launching any broadcast emails. Test internally with a group of colleagues, test different email applications (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, outlook, etc), test different subject lines… test test test!
• When sending the emails DO send on weekdays after 9 am, but before noon. DON’T send on Friday afternoons and weekends

Another session Rachel Reuben was supposed to cover got canceled today, so she decided to share some of the buzz going on in the hallways at EduWeb in Baltimore…

Unfortunately the speaker for the Mobile Web Design session did not show up this morning, so instead I thought I’d give a brief overview of the common themes I’ve been hearing throughout the conference so far in the various sessions I’ve attending, and through the networking opportunities I’ve had to chat with other attendees.

The common thing I’ve heard is – Video is hot. Those of us considering podcasts or other audio features on our sites have been told to think again. Speakers, and some attendees, truly believe video is what’s expected by our target audience now, and audio alone is already starting to feel low-tech. We’ve seen some very exciting examples of videos used on college/university Web sites (Furman University jumps to mind), and many colleges/universities that have been doing blogs for years are trying to find their new niche by incorporating video into their blogs.

The other theme that is hot this year is carrying your college’s brand promise through all mediums. More than ever, integration between areas (yes, that includes admissions, athletics and your Schools of Business, Music, etc.) is crucial. One voice, carrying one message is very important and can easily be customized to become a sub-brand in the larger “brand house.” It’s a political and tricky trend for many colleges/universities to pull off, but those that are, are doing it very well.

Drew Olanoff attended “The Usability Drive Homepage: Design a User-Centered Approach,” a presentation given by Matthew Winkel (The College of New Jersey) yesterday at EduWeb. Drew sent this report this morning.

Matthew Winkel started off by talking about indirect and direct marketing techniques, but the main theme of his presentation was brand testing.

User feedback is their first approach when coming up with the phases of their site’s redesign process. They asked current and former students what they thought about the site, and designed based on that. They brought students in and videotaped them going through the site, seeing who could find things and how long it took. They did about 15 hours of student interviews before and after the process as well. The results were amazing, once they redesigned their sites, the same students were finding things 10 times faster and also noted that they now liked the website.

An example of registering for parking was used. None of the students could ever find that information, but TCNJ now has the ability to move the most important news to their homepage at key points of the year.

They also noted that the use of Flash isn’t bad on a website, but just to make it easy to navigate. Also, A-Z navigation is a good idea, along with a “Suggest a link” area. As soon as they put that feature up, they got about 20 useful links submitted by students.

The key to their success was mentoring students to become web developers. It’s something they suggest that all schools do. The students were passionate with making their schools website better, and learned valuable design techniques and skills.

Great session, with the underlying theme of “Get feedback before AND after you redesign your site.” A website is never done, it’s always ongoing, and having something you can tweak easily is the way to go.

Steve Kappler (Stamats) presented a session titled “Building a Brand that Matters,” yesterday morning at the EduWeb Conference in Baltimore.

Shane Colvin from the University of Oslo is one of the seven very nice people who agreed to share their notes with all of us who couldn’t attend the EduWeb conference this year. This is Shane’s first post about the conference.

Steve Kappler’s presentation was on the importance of building a strong brand in an extremely competitive higher education environment, where institutions are fighting for the hearts and minds of students.

Kappler began by discussing the warning signs that an institution has a “brand problem.” Giving the following traits of a weak institutional brand:

-Tuition revenue is flat or declining
-Prospective students and parents have undue price sensitivity
-New programs languish
-Alumni involvement and giving is declining
-First year to second year retention rate is below norms
-Job ads fail to attract the best candidate

Kappler went on to discuss what perspective students are looking for when choosing the right school. Academic programs were number one on his list as most important when deciding which school to attend. Other factors when deciding the right school were:

-Cost
-Value
-Outcomes
-Your brand!

The following quote from a student truly summed up how important it is to have a strong brand:

“I didn’t think of ever going to school there!”

Kappler pointed out that if students don’t know you and what you are all about (your brand) they will never visit your website, apply or attend your institution.

If indeed, the web is the most important marketing medium, we should be building our brand there. Kappler went on to cover what is necessary to build a strong brand on the web:

Key concepts about branding-

Brand marketing > Direct marketing > Customer relationship management

Creation of a Brand portfolio

-brand attributes: A series of words or phrases- implied in your brand promise
-sub brands
-brand attributes matrix
-brand architecture
-tagline
-elevator speech
-graphic identity

Make a brand promise > Communicate your promise > Live your promise

Brand stewardship- deliver on your promises

Consistently tie your brand to your strategic plan/initiatives
Help people understand their role in brand fulfilment
Ongoing staff training, development, evaluation and rewards
What does your brand promise mean to recruiting, fundraising, and the business office?

Campaign maintenance
>Secret shopper (have someone go through the campus to see what your brand is like, how they are treated, what they think about the administration process and so on)
>Post-mortems

Brands are “Lived” through 10 Domains
1. Mission and vision
2. Finances and budget
3. Academic affairs
4. Student recruiting and financial aid
5. Student development/retention
6. Institutional advancement and alumni relations
7. Facilities planning
8. Information technology
9. Brand marketing and integrated marketing
10. Human resources

Internal branding
-Changes in brand culture come through the thoughtful development of tools, training, and using evangelists to spread and keep the word
-Brand evangelists are also those students who are currently attending your school (these are the best word-of-mouth marketers)

Strengthen your promise

-ongoing evaluation to determine how we can:
>Make a better promise?
>Communicate our promise better?
>Live our promise more completely?

Kappler concluded by presenting examples of institutions that were successfully building their brand online. I particularly liked University of Pittsburgh at Bradford who used the one word tagline- “Beyond”. The word was cleverly used to convey the message that their students and faculty went “beyond”. This concept was used on cups, hats, banners and the web to project the message that if one attends University of Pittsburgh at Bradford they would “go above and beyond”. I like that! Kappler points out that in order for a campaign like this to work, the institution must merchandise the tagline by using different mediums throughout the campus, there by strengthen the brand message.

The other examples were:

-York University , “Redefine the Possible.”
-Montana Tech, “Get into it!”

Overall the session was very interesting and thought provoking. In fact, the presentation reminded me very much of the books written by Dr. Robert Sevier, namely, Building a Brand That Matters and Thinking Outside of the Box. Not surprisingly, considering that Dr. Sevier works for Stamats ;-). I would highly recommend reading Dr. Sevier works if you would like to learn more about branding in higher education. Both books have proved very useful in my work in communication.

Presenter’s Book recommendations:

Sacred cows make the best burgers by Robert Kriegel
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith

Brian Hantman (University of MD, Baltimore) presented a session titled “Thinking Outside the Table: Designing the Websites with CSS and XHTML,” yesterday morning at the EduWeb Conference in Baltimore.

Aba Blankson, a Webmaster at Cornell University, is one of the seven very nice people who agreed to share their notes with all of us who couldn’t attend the EduWeb conference this year. This is Aba’s first post about the conference.

We’ve all done it before… ‘misused’ HTML by controlling the presentation of our web pages. We’ve forced pixel-perfect design by using tables..nested within tables… nested within even more tables! That was the standard; a perfectly suitable solution to any design problems. Well, as speaker Bryan Hantman found, when you look under the hood of a table-based website, things are not so pretty.

In his presentation Bryan cited his own experience as a webmaster at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and talked about why and how we can all ‘think outside the table.’ Specifically, he advocated separating the structure, presentation and behavior of our websites by using cascading style sheets.

Some web developers have done just that. To those of you who have people in your organization still stuck on table –based design, wouldn’t you love to convince them to take one tiny step toward style sheets? I’ve found that sometimes its easier to buy-in when ideas come from the “outside” — even if outsiders say the same thing you have been saying for a while.

So here it is… your “outside” information …courtesy of Bryan Hantman.

Why use style sheets?

• Simpler to develop and maintain the website
• Forward compatibility with future browser versions
• Faster downloading and rendering
• Better accessibility
• Better search engine rankings
• Adaptations across media types

How can you get started with style sheets?
CSS Zen Garden
Meyer Web
Max Design
WestCIV
StyleGala’s review on ALA