Moving this site forward

[Mark Greenfield]

My goal when we started this site 18 months ago was to create a community for higher education web professionals where we could build relationships and share experiences and expertise. As we look to the future and how we can improve this site, please share any ideas and suggestions on how best to take this site forward.

[Khalil Akashah]

maybe u can setup a new website, with cool features instead of using ning.com ?

[Roger Skalbeck]

I think Ning is fine. The big problem (to me) is not in creating features, it's in finding a good platform for people to want to interact, post questions and participate in the network.

[DNI]

agreed.
ning is fine.
what kind of "cool" features would you want?

[Bradjward]

3 votes for Ning.

[Marie Howell]

4

[Jerry Garcia]

Being new to uwebd I'm still finding a wealth of information. I hope to be able to contribute as I build momentum.

[Piero Tintori]

Is there anyway to subscribe to the forum's by email rather than remembering to visit or subscribing via RSS?

[Aron Roberts]

+1 to Piero's question/request. I'm participating actively in the mailing list, and if there were two-way gateways between either all of uwebd's Ning forums, or individual forums, and email, I'd participate here as well.

[Steve]

I think it would be nice if we could get a wiki engine integrated into this site. It would be a nice place to aggregate the collective wisdom of topics that most of us have to deal with, and can share our experience about.

E.g., there is an ongoing discussion on the HighEdWeb list right now about RFP for a redesign, and I shared a couple documents that I had drafted previously that are questions you should be addressing when you approach the RFP. With the experience of others, the discussion can move to the Wiki where it can be modified and updated by the group, rather than by e-mail.

I think of this as a "Wiki-whitepaper".

Absent a Wiki, I think this would also be a great project for using Google Wave, if we can get access to it.

[Fabio]

Here my few ideas:

1) create a collaborative wiki with relevant topics and a Guide on How to Develop a University website (design, structure, hosting, cms, security, search engine optimization etc.)
2) create guidelines on best practices and standardization recommendations on a worldwide scale (ex. webpage naming, design structure etc.). Would not it be good if all English speaking Higher Education websites had for example the same link format to reach their Library webpage (ex www.library.university.edu)? Would not it be simplier for visitors to have the Site map called in the same way instead of A-Z, Index, Site map or something else. Would not it be simplier for visitors if all university websites had their main categories similarly structured and named such as Current Students, Prospective students, Staff, etc. Sometime the time needed for a prospective student (especially if international) to find relevant information across different University websites during his/her decision making and selection process can be frustrating. A certain degree of standardization and adoption of best practices would help.
3) create a Reviews section with software (ex. cms), useful resources independently reviewed and rated by members/developers.

[Jen Nahlik]

I like the idea of a wiki A LOT. I would really be interested in a place to share case studies and focus group info on how high school and college students are using the web, which social media platforms are most prevalent among 16-22 year olds, what elements on a school's website they find useful. I know we ask students about this ourselves, but a broader knowledge base for this type of information would be awesome.

[Steve Bacher]

A Wiki is a very good idea. Another topic for it would be "choosing a CMS".