...and All Other Duties as Assigned

Six weeks ago, I started my new position as "Web Content Management System Coordinator". Well, actually as "Web Content Management System/Accessible Technology Initiative Coordinator".

I tended to ignore the "ATI" part of my title, since I was really hired to implement the campus' WCMS. Or so I thought.

ATI is a mandated program to insure that all university Web sites meet Section 508 compliance. I'm cool with that, but it's taken over my life. WCMS? I've forgotten what it even means anymore.

The Home Page Redesign Committee Meeting

We have our first one coming up this Friday! It should be fun!

Wine and Espresso Meet Their Future Boss

Last week I was offered a new job at my university. It's job I want, but financially it's dicey because I'd have to give up teaching and some other sources of income. My wife and I have spent a lot of time going back and forth about the pros and cons of taking (or turning down) the job. I have to have a decision by Monday morning.

Last night we decided to take a break from all the intense discussions and go out to a nice dinner and have a nice bottle of wine to go with it (2005 Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir - 4.75 stars - yummy!). We had a great meal and topped it off with a couple of cups of espresso.

From there, we headed over to a local bookstore to browse a bit before heading home. There I happened to run into the person who would be my new boss if I accepted the position. The following "conversation" ensued...

My apologies, "Larry". I didn't mean to talk your ear off.

We Know What We're Doing - Don't We?

OK, I freely admit that I'm just being mean here.

The problem isn't with administrators, it's with people who don't understand the Web as a communication medium; people who don't understand it's strengths, weaknesses, limitations, needs, or the expectations of users.

The problem is with people who think the home page should try to be all things to all people. Instead, it ends up being nothing to no one. To be effective, a university home page needs to be focused around a specific, clearly crafted message. Users should be able to come away from looking at the home page being able to articulate (in some manner) that message.

I really wanted the tree to collapse under the weight of all the ornaments, but since I can't draw and am relying completely on the Microsoft Office clip art library (no lie!) for props, I had the tree burst into flames instead.

Thanks again to the propeller-hatted admin for the idea for this cartoon.

What could possibly go wrong?

I'm not saying that this could happen at our campus. Nope. Not saying that.

Thanks to the bespeckled, propeller-hatted admin for contributing this cartoon idea. Yes, that's right - blame him, not me.

PowerPoint Hell

I'm giving a couple of presentations at the annual CATS conference next week, and I put together a huge PowerPoint presentation that ended up being pages and pages of bullet points, all of which I was going to read.

It was death PowerPoint. I felt sick to my stomach. So I went through a replaced most (not all, unfortunately) of the text with pictures... pictures of lolcats.

DONOTWANT PowerPoint.

I Curse You All

Yesterday, our Provost dropped by for an hour long Q&A session with the staff in our department. The thing is that Web Services is a very small part of a department that is primarily focused on providing support for classroom technologies and our Learning Management System. Web Services is a just tiny little corner of this department.

Anyway, I've been so influenced by all the Web recruiting blogs I've been reading, and all the higher ed recruiting and enrollment people I've been interacting with online lately, that I could only think of one question to ask her. And it sounded really weird and out of place in that environment.

I'm supposed to be a techie, dammit! I curse all you recruiting and marketing types who have infected me with your twisted way of seeing the world!!


OK, so this isn't the funniest cartoon ever written, but it really happened.