No progress to report
We discussed the general problem of how to disseminate information to faculty and students about Web page construction methods, particularly a roadmap and some tips on the VMS environment and the HTTPD server in use at Lawrence. It was felt that wide distribution of Dave Baird's how-to-do-it guide and the availability of a page on the CWIS or WWW sites treating this subject would help. It was suggested later in the meeting that e-mail from the dean on this subject to all faculty might the creation of departmental home pages and assisting in their realization. Peter Peregrine, Pete Gilbert, and Dave Baird agree to work together on documentation and the development of a resources page containing links to local icons and navigation bars.
No progress to report. We discussed whether to recommend that Web browsers on public campus workstations be configured to use cwis.lawrence.edu as their default home page. It was felt that we should not go on record with such a recommendation even though there might be short-term advantages from the change. The advent of a new, better-integrated and -organized "front door" would help solve our current problems of communication, navigation, and usability without expending the effort needed to change several dozens of browsers.
No further progress to report.
It was noted that neither wiscnet.lawrence.announce nor wiscnet.lawrence.forsale appears in the list of newsgroups offered via news.wiscnet.net. Pete Gilbert agreed to check.
There was some discussion of the practicality of newsgroups vs. other conferencing mechanisms (a Web-based DECnotes interface, e.g.) in providing a medium for on-line discussion related to courses. No conclusions were reached.
Steve Hirby reported that Jim Evans is moving ahead on this project.
Peter Peregrine reported that the problems identified by Candice Bradley have all been addressed and corrected. It was agreed, however, that better communication and, perhaps, training of departmental webmasters could have avoided the situations she described.
Possible remedies were discussed: A meeting of departmental webmasters, e.g., and the development of better documentation. Robert Lowe noted that after creating a workspace for a department's home page, he sends an e-mail message to the webmaster to confirm that fact. He agreed to provide a pointer in that e-mail message to existing documentation describing not only the project manager utility, but also some of the issues related to maintaining and sustaining departmental home pages at Lawrence.
Next Meeting: December 5, 1996
Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Hirby