redesigning lclark.edu

April 2009

Writing for the Web

Did you know that writing for the web requires a different approach than writing for other venues? As part of our redesign, WhiteWhale created a writing guide that tackles the two toughest issues: basic writing for the web and specific notes about writing for/about Lewis & Clark. It’s based on general rules on good writing for the web and PubCom’s own style guide. Download it. Read it. Use it.

Also published: https://media.zendesk.com/forums/22045/entries/33370

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Looking for a few good students.

Do you want a first-hand opportunity to test and work with our new content management system LiveWhale and get paid for it?

If you’re available during the month of May (and maybe into June depending on how things go), we’re looking to hire a bunch of students to help us migrate the web site content from Trillium to LiveWhale. The work is fairly straight-forward, and includes lots of copying/pasting with an eye for detail, but can be done from most anywhere, since all you’ll need is a web browser and the internet.

If you’re interested (or know someone who might be) send us an email: wwwadmin@lclark.edu

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Keep those questions coming!

You may have noticed that we’re answering questions as they come in. So, if you have one, please just email us and we’ll respond as best possible. Chances are, your question could become a great new feature or help us make sure that everyone has a good understanding of the redesign process. Keep them coming!

wwwadmin@lclark.edu

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Can we create some MyLC news feeds?

After I gave the presentation with Tom at the Admin Assembly (April 8), Charlie Ahlquist asked about an interesting possibility:

So, I currently work in Campus Living, and something that we’ve been trying to work with is advertising to the residents/students on campus.  When you showed the new “My LC” page, I got an idea.  I was wondering if it would be possible for us to set up an RSS Feed for each of the Complexes on campus (SOA, Platt-Howard, Copeland, Forest, and Apartzfeld) as well as one for all On-Campus Residents.  Then, would it be possible for us to have the default be for students who live in those complexes (which is stored in Colleague) are subscribed to the appropriate feed for their residence?

This is a great question and it is certainly possible at our end. We can setup groups in LiveWhale where you could publish news and information for residential units, or other such organization groups. These groups can push RSS which is then consumable by MyLC.

In this case, there is an additional wrinkle in that we don’t have direct access to Colleague. (In other words, we cannot directly ask Colleague for this information.) Colleague stores a great deal of financial data, so really, we don’t want this kind of access. However, we do have access to some of its data is through nightly dumps of select information and it looks as though we would have access to their building.

At this point I’m inclined to put this on a nice-to-do list for now until we get MyLC here and installed, and perhaps plan to look at it after the launch, since we’ll have the summer to iron out some kinks before the students return.

Also published: https://media.zendesk.com/forums/22045/entries/32110

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What will happen to tilde (~username) accounts?

Many people take advantage of the web space IT makes available to Lewis & Clark account-holders, known to us as tilde account space, as the web server serves them from http://www.lclark.edu/~username.

This service is long-standing, and over the years, individuals as well as offices across the three schools have used Dreamweaver (or another web page editing tool) to create web sites in their tilde space, including among many others, IT itself (at ~infotech).

First of all, except for a very few sites, we will not be converting or affecting the tilde space during the launch of the redesigned lclark.edu. Your site will still be available at your existing address:

http://www.lclark.edu/~username

That said, we will be assisting a select number of sites (that are institutional/school offices) to migrate into LiveWhale during the migration prior to launch — and this includes IT — but because of the very different nature of the sites compared to Trillium, this is not a large number.

After the redesign launches, if you want to move your content from your tilde space into LiveWhale to get all the sharing/ease-of-use benefits for maintaining your site, contact us and we’ll be happy to talk about the process and help you move.

Long-term, we have talked with IT about the future of the tilde space and while some form of this service is very likely to exist into the future, we expect that within six months to a year after the redesign, the service is likely to migrate or transform into a more modern equivalent — perhaps one that would allow for easier customization without requiring tools like Dreamweaver.

Also published: https://media.zendesk.com/forums/22045/entries/31361

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