eduWeb 2008 in 140 words – Blogs: The Many Voices of a University by Heidi Cool, Webmaster at Case Western Reserve Univeristy

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Viewbooks, brochures and university driven Web sites provide a wealth of information to prospective students, staff, faculty and others. But they can only go so far.

To truly convey the personality of our campus communities, we need to hear from the people who make up those communities.

University sponsored blogs give campus members an easy-to-use outlet for expressing their opinions, sharing their insights and communicating with the world. While individuals could blog anywhere, and often do, a university provided system also provides a way to aggregate and showcase the different blogs to our site visitors, thus letting them hear from a variety of voices in one easy to navigate location.

Together, the blogs written by students, faculty, staff and alumni, provide an inside look into the life of the university, thus allowing visitors to gain insights they might not glean from our traditional marketing materials.