Web technologies are rapidly changing the opportunities to gather, organize and distribute the information on which these processes are based. Ease of access provided by web technologies also increases the need to evaluate information, and to teach critical evaluative skills to our students. I am not suggesting that we must alter our traditional information processes just because web technologies make changes possible.
Indeed, there are risks, for many of these technologies are "digital incunabula." Printed documents produced during the period 1455-1501 are termed incunabula (Latin for straps that hold a baby in a cradle) because many lacked pagination, tables of contents, indices and even paragraph structure. They were immature. They lacked other "technologies" that make the book fully useful. Just as it took decades for Gutenberg's printing inventions of 1455 to spawn other technologies that made a truly useful text, web technologies are evolving. Many are immature, partial solutions to needs that are unclear. Many are simply brittle and fail to work as advertised. Still, in the last five years it has become abundantly clear that networked information will have dramatic effects on our information cultures.
Web technologies, especially those applied to local information (in an intranet), make it possible to separate the physical and logical organization of information. This is key to the (as yet largely untapped) value of the web. For instance, printed documents kept in file folders arranged alphabetically have been effective for years, but this process requires that we classify each document and in doing so, specify a particular location for that document. To retrieve a document, one must know a great deal about the filing system. Without highly prescribed filing algorithms, one person's logical filing scheme will effectively hide a document from others. The same is true even of the structured databases on which current administrative systems depend, for again, logical filing schemes are based on key fields and the physical separation of records into different databases.
Web technologies make it possible to store and retrieve information without linking the nature of the information to a physical location. Web technologies also make it possible to store and retrieve both huge and small (even tiny) documents with nearly equal ease and cost. For retrieval, web information systems use the power of modern computing devices to do the repetitive tasks they were meant to do, in this case, searching through local (and even global) collections of information which we have spent far less time preclassifying. This approach favors a new style of management. Event-driven management needs information "just-in-time," not "just-in-case." "Just-in-time" is an important strength of the web. In many ways, "JIT" defines the character of work at the end of this millennium. Intranet uses of web technology shows great promise for meeting these needs.
These important aspects of web technology have more to do with the effective management of institutional information (and our local information culture) than with a web presence through which we recruit new students. In this light, web tools aren't just "The Web" anymore.
It is prudent to evaluate such new tools especially when they offer substantial promise for improved service to our students, for better informed (and effective) staff, and for cost-containment.
Web technologies are perceived to be relatively inexpensive to implement, work interchangeably on nearly all types of computers, are surrounded by a great deal of promotion (even hype), and are easy to use. These are precisely the criteria on which rapid adoption of new technology depends (see "The Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett Rodgers, and Moore's book "Crossing the Chasm"). It is no wonder then that browsers, web servers, personal web pages and e-commerce have become ubiquitous, and useful, so quickly.
For many of the same reasons, deploying web technologies is quite different from the deployment of traditional software applications. An easy-to-use application that can be downloaded at no cost will be used by employees and students if they feel it has value to their work. Issues of support and integration into the information systems of the campus are not likely to be addressed. Vendors of freeware/shareware can't provide consistent support for the freely downloaded programs. Many firms are bankrupted as fast as they formed. They certainly can't help customers take into consideration their institution's decision-making processes, organizational structure or information flow.
On the other hand, traditional software applications can be very costly and so demand the attention of senior administrators who must fund the purchase and implementation of these expensive (six figures or more) systems. These expenses call for serious planning. Issues of the integrity, distribution and security of institutional information managed by expensive software will be carefully considered during the planning and deployment phases of these large projects. Vendors sell costly annual maintenance contracts for such systems. They sell contracts to install programs, convert data and train staff. They specialize in selected markets and can advise customers about the institutional ramifications of the use of their information systems.
Thus we are challenged to maintain the integrity of institutional information processes (quality of data, appropriate access, legal uses) in the face web-based information tools to which every employee and student has open access. Moreover, the information culture of our organization is challenged because these web tools allow us to connect, relate and extract new knowledge from heretofore unrelated repositories of information. Again, I am not suggesting that we must alter our traditional information processes just because web technologies make changes possible, but if new web tools enable the campus community to extract new value from institutional data in ways that enhance our work, then these changes in our information processes and culture are inevitable.
There are three general phases in the adoption of web technologies (revised from Nambisan and Wang, 1999, Communications of the ACM 42(1)):
The sequence of web adoption is less important than creating a coordinated approach to these rapid changes. Who is keeping track of new developments in web technology? Who is systematically evaluating new information management tools? Who is tracking the myriad and unsettled legal issues that are woven into nearly all these new web tools? And what about policies for information quality and their enforcement? At many campuses and corporations, these are duties of the "webmaster" which is more often a team than an individual, even in small institutions.
Most small college campuses have established a committee to advise senior staff on these and related issues. Many of the functions of the traditional webmaster are not part of the charter of these web advisory committees. To understand these planning, implementation and advisory roles, I'll review the chronology of the last eight to ten years.
In the early '90s, webmasters set up and managed web servers that presented public information to the early surfers of the Internet. New staff positions were not created for these roles. Existing job descriptions were expanded to include web server management. Indeed the role was not extremely taxing as long as someone on campus wrote the web pages that were served. Therefore at this point, we have two rather different functions – web server management and content preparation. Throughout the mid-'90s, college staff trained many information providers (who converted existing documents or wrote new documents in HTML format). This training function became an important element in colleges' use of web technology. For the most part, web training was simply added to the offerings of campus technology training efforts. Classes in HTML publishing remain popular although online, web-based training materials and easy-to-use authoring programs are also popular.
Many of these page maintainers worked on web pages outside of the definition of their job duties. In some cases, they were preparing materials for presentation that required their supervisors' permission to "publish" on the web. At this point, then, many colleges defined another function related to the web – that of information sponsor - the person whose responsibility it is to approve the posting of new types of information on web pages.
Many web pages provide means for outsiders to fill in forms to submit information. These sources of contact with outsiders require staff attention. Requests for a printed viewbook must be forwarded to admissions; inquiries about updating an alumni address must get to alumni affairs. These aspects of contact management must be handled promptly and without loss of information if the reputation of the institution's web presence is to remain solid.
So now we have several broad sets of activities – web server management, web training, content sponsorship, content formatting, and contact management.
As more and more members of our campus communities began to publish web pages, web training and consulting consumed more and more staff time. This increase in attribution of staff resources to web projects quickly became clear. Few colleges had planned for additional staff time needed to take full advantage of the new web medium. This was probably a prudent course of action at the time because the web was not a proven mode of communication. By the beginning of the new century, the strategic value of web technologies for creating an informative public presentation was confirmed.
Most small college campuses have created new positions for managing the institutional home page. The campus home page is often viewed as a new form of official publication. At some institutions, the campus web site is perceived as exclusively as a means of communication with the public. Editorial responsibility rests with the public relations departments; technical support is provided by the information technology departments. However, web technologies provide significant strategic value in ways beyond that of public presentation. The coordinated management of web technologies for on campus applications (Intranet uses, as opposed to external Internet uses) has become the focus of leading academic institutions of all sizes and missions.
Network and web technologies continue to empower more people to publish their own materials. At many campuses, staff at all levels are maintaining web pages if not also running their own personal or departmental web servers on their office computer. Many students are running personal web servers from personal computers connected to the residence hall network. Web-oriented products such as Microsoft Office 2000, which is used at many colleges, is fueling these trends. All of these activities are increasing the need for staff to devote time to monitoring, advising, training for and coordinating web services.
Thus, web management includes at least five main areas:
Server management is a highly technical activity. Included are web server installation and routine maintenance (backup, upgrades, etc), traffic monitoring and capacity planning. Server management is best conducted by highly-trained technology staff. Some aspects of the campus web infrastructure can profitably be outsourced for purposes of reliability, performance and total cost. Please read "Outsourcing the Campus Web" for more detail on this concept.
Training and consulting are often combined into a single staff function. Training includes more than the offering of scheduled or departmental training sessions; it includes a relatively large commitment to document development and especially to individual consulting. Consulting with web publishers consumes large number of staff hours and ranges from coordinating related site work, one-on-one training, research and development to meet specific as well as future needs, and in some cases, production work where institutional needs call for it.
Consulting is particularly important for non-technical staff who wish to take full advantage of the web as a new medium. For traditional textual content, standard web technologies are adequate, and modern web authoring tools can meet the web publishers' needs. For more advanced uses, there is a strong interdependence between content and the latest technology used to present the content. What one says on new web pages depends upon what technology one uses, and for non-technical staff, this emphasizes the need for consultation from staff who are abreast of the latest developments. Web technologies should be seen more as opportunities with cost and less as obstacles.
Routine content management is best moved "out" to the departments who sponsor information. Web sites are often less successful when departmental information is routinely mediated by non-departmental staff. It is important that the overall public web presentation has a clear "look and feel" to meet the identity needs of the institution, while at the same time ensuring that those who know the departmental business are at the front line of content presentation. This does not suggest that "official" college web pages should not be managed centrally by public relations. The purpose of official pages parallels that of traditional print publications which has always been centrally managed by public affairs staff. Central management of official college web presentations requires significant staff resources.
Management of general web contacts includes responding to inquiries and parsing the hundreds of general information requests received through the visitors' center or prospective student requests (e.g., sent to webmaster@domain.edu, or entered into the guestbook). Some of these interactions with the public through the web will shift to departmental pages and will be managed there, yet some will remain embedded in the official pages of the college. These general contacts should be managed by public affairs staff to ensure that the college web site is accurately responsive to public inquiry.
Policy management - a huge topic in itself - is usually handled best by a consultative body that is authorized by the campus leadership to represent all constituencies in creating, maintaining and enforcing policies. As the impact of web technologies grows, however, it should be recognized that this advisory body is likely to be called upon for advice on technological possibilities and their impact on the campus information culture. These are issues concerning people and culture far more than issues of technology.
The key to much of web management is knowing what is best done centrally and what is best done at the front lines of college business. However we manage it, the web isn't just "The Web" anymore.