January 28, 2008 11:36 PM
| by Darin Stewart, Director
As you all know, OHSU is facing some major challenges. As a result of the loss of the tort-cap the university is being forced to cut, consolidate and curtail. In the past, support for the web has been first on the chopping block. Naturally, there has been a lot of concern for the future of the web at OHSU in the post-tort cap world. We have started moving forward and have made a lot of progress toward revitalizing the web at OHSU. No one wants to see those efforts and investments derailed. I want to assure everyone that they won't be.
I have been meeting with members of the Executive Leadership Team regarding the impending launch of the Unified Site. Without exception, each member of the ELT has reiterated how critical the web is to weathering these difficult times and moving the institution forward. None of the initiatives we have undertaken or the support we have promised will be diminished by the loss of the tort cap. I think it is very telling that despite the challenges the institution is facing, Web Strategies has been instructed to fill the open positions on the team. We have an outstanding support analyst and a seasoned developer joining us at the end of the month. I look forward to introducing them to you.
The Unified Site will launch on schedule, February 19th with a new homepage, mission pages for Healthcare, Research, Education and Outreach as well as a revamped "About OHSU" section. This is just the start. Several areas of OHSU have already engaged Web Strategies to begin the process of redesigning their sites and integrating with the new Information Architecture. The coming year is going to see a transformation of the web at OHSU. The strictures placed on OHSU by new fiscal realities make that more imperative than ever. For once, difficult times will move us forward instead of back.
-dls-
December 4, 2007 2:35 PM
| by Darin Stewart, Director
Launch of the Unified Site design is approaching fast. We are on target to go live with a new look and feel for OHSU online in February, so I thought you should know what to expect. First of all, only a small segment of OHSU's current web presence will change. The main OHSU landing page, www.ohsu.edu, and each of the top-level mission pages will be completely redesigned in accordance with the Unified Site visual identity guidelines. Below this level, existing websites will not change. Existing commonspot sites will be transferred to the new environment Renee McKechnie described in a previous post, but they will not be redesigned for the February launch. The only section of the current web that will change significantly below the top level is the About OHSU section. Web Strategies and the Strategic Communication group are working together to create a completely new area on the website for learning about OHSU.
This does not mean that we are going to just put a new coat of varnish on the front door of our website and declare victory. We are developing a completely new information architecture for all of OHSU that will facilitate the migration of existing sites into the new structure over time. As this architecture gets refined, we have been posting documentation on the Web Strategies website. Several departments have already put in a great deal of work on recreating their sites in line with the unified site design. These will be in the vanguard of the migration.
Part of the new architecture is a move away from organizing content according to our org chart. Our new approach revolves around our various audiences and the tasks the need to accomplish on our websites. So while a department may consider itself primarily a research organization, the will likely have some content that is more oriented toward education or healthcare. Similarly, a clinic under the healthcare mission may also have an outreach component. The new architecture allows OHSU to present an integrated picture of what we have to offer while still preserving the identity of all our individual units. In February we will have example sites available to demonstrate how this cross-mission navigation will work. These won't be live sites, but will be available for review as each area begins to consider integrating their site with the new OHSU design.
As we roll out with Unified Site, Web Strategies is available to assist with the planning and execution of migrating your site to the new world. Start laying the groundwork now by looking hard at your content, who your audience is and what you want to help them accomplish. We are here to help so please don't hesitate to give us a call.
October 4, 2007 11:19 AM
| by Darin Stewart, Director
The World Wide Web changes and evolves at an extraordinary rate. Over the past few years OHSU has fallen behind. Too few resources have been available and too much has been expected of departmental web managers. As a result, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, the web at OHSU is a very unfriendly place.
This is finally starting to change. The executive leadership of OHSU has identified the web is a lynchpin of the growth and success of the university and is determined to support the web community fully. The first step has been the revitalization of the Web Strategies department. Web Strategies has been charged with creating a viable web ecosystem for the university. To accomplish this we are taking several immediate steps. We are working with ITG to completely revamp the infrastructure supporting the web at OHSU including new hardware, applications and dedicated staff.
The first component of this effort is nearing completion. CommonSpot , our CMS, is being completely reconfigured and upgraded. The initial configuration of the new CommonSpot will be well underway November. This new incarnation of our CMS will allow us to fully (and finally) deploy the Unified Site redesign we have all been talking about for so long. This will not only be a unified look and feel but will also eventually change the nature of what the Web Manager role at OHSU. The Unified Site architecture is based on common templates, style sheets and widgets developed and maintained by the web strategies development team, lead by Brenna Harris.
These elements will be made available to the OHSU web community, allowing you to focus on your content rather than your code. Web Strategies will assist you at each stage of the web lifecycle from design and planning to reviewing the final product to ensure it reliable meets your needs and that of the university as a whole. It is hoped that over time this will dramatically reduce our dependency on outside consultants and contractors. As the new infrastructure, design and processes are rolled out, we will be going through some huge culture changes in the OHSU web community.
To succeed in this period of transition and to make it as painless as possible, we need the input of everyone with a vested (or even passing) interest in the web. Two primary channels for this are already in place, the Web Managers Group and the Web Strategies Advisory Council. These are critical but not sufficient. I hope to use the Web Strategies website as a forum for communicating what is under discussion and underway. As policies, procedures and resources become available, they will be available from the website. As issues arise, I will discuss them in this blog. Please feel free to email me with your comments and feedback; I would love to hear from you.
We have a lot coming up beyond the new infrastructure and Unified Site including new directions and resources in Marketing, enterprise search, analytics and reporting, calendaring, OHSU's web 2.0 strategy and the semantic web. All of these areas are critical to OHSU keeping pace with the evolution of the web. I hope you will give us your thoughts and help us keep up.
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