Interview: Paul Nozicka, San Jose State University’s Webmaster

Webmaster of the San Jose State University, Paul Nozicka is also a California State University System expert on web accessibility, a guest lecturer, a strong advocate of web standards, a conference speaker and a blogger.
At SJSU, Paul reports to the AVP of Academic Technology while working closely with Communications and Public Affairs. He is responsible for a 100,000 page website spanning across over two dozen servers or sub-domains. The main website uses the Java-based content management system, OpenCMS.
Despite his busy schedule, Paul has accepted to answer a few questions, kicking off the first interview for my new “Higher Ed Web Pro Files” series.

What’s your background? What did you do before becoming a higher ed web pro?

I’ve been designing for the web since 1995 and have been a university webmaster since 1999, previously for California State University Sacramento (CSUS) and currently for San Jose State University (SJSU).

My academic background is actually in biology and physical therapy. Computers and graphics have always been a personal interest. In 1995, when the web became graphic-based, I was naturally drawn to it as it married two of my interests… computers and graphics. While I was looking for graduate programs in physical therapy, I received an email asking me if I was interested in being the university webmaster for CSUS. Their webmaster at the time had decided to move on towards database application development, and I was known on campus for having designed and developed many department, program, and student organization sites.

Eventually, I went through a formal program for web development and realized that I didn’t want to get into programming. Scripting and mark-up was enough for me in terms of code. But, I did learn how to develop databases and web applications using both server-side and client-side scripting, which is invaluable in my ability to effectively manage and communicate with my web applications developer.

What’s your biggest achievement as a higher ed web pro?

I feel that simply getting to where I am without a formal background in anything related to the industry is my biggest achievement. Aside from this, if you create an amalgamation of all the projects over the past 2 ½ years that my staff and I have worked on, that would be the single greatest accomplishment.

A brief history can put some perspective on what I mean. San Jose State University did not have a formal university webmaster or a web services unit until I was hired in fall 2002. Thus, when I came on board and began to define the unit and hire staff there was a delta that we needed to address. There was a definite societal expectation that the university use technology to a certain degree simply based on our location in Silicon Valley. In terms of web technologies, this was far from being met. Additionally, there was no sound technical infrastructure to host a website, let alone begin developing and deploying more web applications and web-based services.

So, in the time since I was hired, we have developed an official university web solution with a specific online branding message and an established digital identity. We have rolled over 200 sites into the template and have introduced database-driven news, events, and faculty-web pages. We are currently performing a major upgrade to our CMS and I am in the process of measuring our redesigned site’s efficacy and ROI. In addition, I will be developing a document that will serve as a road map for the future of San Jose State’s web presence. We will begin looking at user-segmentation, personalization, content aggregation using RSS, blogs, web-based surveys, and much more. I have basically been looking at best practices and key performance indicators for web sites in higher education and plan on infusing as much of this knowledge into SJSU’s future web plans as possible.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

Having to say no, I don’t like having to say no, but there is only so much that my unit and I can do. There was a burning need on campus for our unit. When we arrived, people were already lined up with requests. However, we had to balance individual projects with our need to stabilize and upgrade our web infrastructure to develop and implement solutions that do the work for us. We are not here to build individual sites. Rather our job is to develop solutions that allow the campus to build and maintain their web sites and use other web technologies with little required technical knowledge or aptitude.

The other equally difficult part is balancing the sometimes conflicting needs that exist on any university campus. Being a university webmaster requires a people person first and a technical person second. My background in student government and leadership has proven an invaluable asset.

Last, working within a vastly distributed technical infrastructure introduces frustrations and timeline creeps that simply can’t be addressed but must be expected.

In your opinion, what’s the biggest challenge we face as web pros in our industry?

The speed at which technology evolves. Over night something can go from being an emerging technology to being the next thing that people are knocking down your door demanding. This is a given. More within the context of the question fundamentally the biggest challenge is effectively introducing technology into the classroom. Finding the perfect blend of technology and pedagogy is challenging and when a university requires students to have laptops, there’d better be immediate and obvious benefits in the learning process for that additional cost.

Any good advice to share with your fellow higher ed web pros?

For individuals involved with web sites in higher education here is my advice: integrated web design. It is essential to focus on user-centered, standards-compliant, accessible design and understand and acknowledge that university webmasters need to have an amalgamation of knowledge to be successful at their job. It is not enough to be a designer or developer without knowing what is needed to truly make a website successful.
Another excellent piece of advice is to take advantage of RSS feeds and monitor feeds and sites relevant to our industry. I have PubSub search feeds searching for strings like “web accessibility” and “university websites”. I also monitor feeds from sites maintained by industry leaders and sites dedicated to technology in higher education.

What about a couple of good links?

Web Accessibility Learning Modules
Web Standards Project
Educational Weblogs – Instructional Technology

Found this interview interesting? Check out all our Higher Ed Web Pros Files published until now!