While I was struck by PCDS (Post-Commencement Depression Syndrome), the resourceful Andrea Schwandt-Arbogast has invited Higher Ed Web pros to participate in an interesting and creative exercise at her blog, Interllectual:
“Students have graduated and summer is upon us, so I thought it was a good time to take the imagination out for a spin.
Here’s the scenario: For the course of one project, the University web site fairy godmother has granted you full control. You can manage the project any way you see fit, and staffing, money, politics, institutional inertia, technical resources, and any other common barriers are not an issue. The only stipulation is that the project must be for the University web site.
What is the project that you would do? What is your dream project […]”
At the time of this writing, Andrea’s challenge has already resulted in the listing of some good projects (just dreams, really?):
- “A campus-wide CMS, with a consistent look and feel for EVERY department within the university […]”
- “[…] train all of our faculty and staff to think about how to use this technology more effectively.”
- “A full-blown faculty database that could easily be tapped into by anyone who needs all or part of the data.”
- “A web-based survey tool that anyone at the University can use”
- “[…] set up an accessible, standards-based portal for our on-campus folks, and change our front door into a page finely tuned for prospective students and their parents, alumni, and donors.”
- “a fully online system to manage our intramural sports. From scheduling, team management and player registration, computer rankings, tournament seeding, and bracket building, to everything else.”
So, what would be my dream project?
I guess that I would really like to be able to work on a comprehensive 3-year strategic plan for the college website.
In my dream, everybody on campus will see the website as the only important tool for the college (eh, it’s a dream – why not go crazy?) I will have unlimited access and budget (mainly time) to meet with my President and VPs, interview all our website stakeholders, survey our main target audiences and perform extensive benchmarking to come up with a great strategic plan defining clear result-driven goals for the next 3 years.
And, you? I’m sure you also have a dream project.
So, don’t be shy for a change (you tend to be when it comes to posting comments on this blog…), and go share it by posting a comment to Andrea’s invitation!
