World-Wide Web Steering Committee

Minutes
October 26, 2000

9:00 a.m., Sampson House Conference Room

In attendance: Butts, Hirby, Lanouette, Lowe, McDuffee, Gilbert

Introduction of New Members
We greeted one another warmly. New members Ruth Lanouette and Andrew McDuffee were welcomed.

Location of Committee documents
Hirby reminded us that minutes and other useful documents are kept at http://www.lawrence.edu/committee/web-steer. He also recapitulated the history of the committee, noting our many and varied accomplishments.

Old Business

  1. Update and discussion on Web site redesign
    Gilbert reviewed the Web Working Group's redesign specifications. Response was generally enthusiastic. Butts  recommended that more resources be put into content (as opposed to "look"). He further  recommended that the webmaster job description be fleshed out before being presented to the President's staff.

  2. Update on WLFM Webcasting
    Hirby reviewed the history of the webcasting project, noting that the committee endorsed webcasting WLFM last spring and recommended it to the President's staff. They approved as well. This fall, a small working group (Hirby, Lowe, Armstrong, Shrode, Gilbert) has met twice to further the project. Software will be ordered soon and we hope to have live webcasting started by the beginning of term II.

New Business

  1. Yahoo Internet Life Survey
    Hirby disseminated information about the controversial Yahoo! Internet Life Wired Colleges Survey (http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/) which a number of CLAC (http://liberalarts.org) schools are interested in boycotting. The committee didn't think that participating (in either the survey or the boycott) was necessarily a problem. Gilbert noted the existence of EDUCAUSE's Online Guide to Evaluating Information Technology on Campus (http://www.educause.edu/consumerguide/) as a better way of evaluating campus technology.  

Other business

  1. WiscNet Web-caching initiative/Akamai
    Lowe reported on caching options. He noted that the WiscNet initiative, about which we were hopeful, was focused on filtered access for K-12 and would probably not work for us. Since CLAC has an agreement with Akamai, we discussed allowing an Akamai server to be installed on campus to allow faster access to frequently visited large sites that have agreements with Akamai (Yahoo, CNN, Microsoft, etc.). The committee is in favor of improved response time.
  2. External email addresses
    Butts noted that many students come to campus with email addresses from Hotmail or Yahoo or some other free and/or Web-based email provider. He wondered whether that caused a problem when trying to contact students at their Lawrence addresses. He was assured that students were advised to have their Lawrence email forwarded to their external address.

Next meeting
Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 16 at 9:00 a.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,
Pete Gilbert
Secretary-for-the-day