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Web Operational Management Group

Minutes of the Meeting of November 24, 2010, 2:00 - 3:30 pm
Davis Conference Room

Present : Tim Ireland, Chris Gray (recorder), Esther Millar (facilitator), Marian Davies, Doug Morton, Charles Woods, Alex Mcculloch

Regrets: Annie Bélanger, Nancy Collins

  1. Approval of WebOps Minutes of November 10 – approved with minor revisions

  2. Business Arising

    3. #4 LibGuides Issues

    These action items are still waiting;
    (1) Investigating that Google Analytics is working properly (Charles/Kathy S.),
    (2) Retaining or removing Bill's URL list (Chris/Kathy S.),
    (3) Adding referrer URL to email feedback (Chris),
    (4) Convene group to decide on direction for widgets on LibGuides (Annie/Esther/Adrian K./Kathy S.)

    Testing for Off-Campus access:  Annie has sent a message to Kathy S. and Esther on how to use the Remote Desktop machine for testing.  Carl has not yet been asked about the feasibility of adding Tor to individual workstation.  Annie has not sent an announcement to lib managers and librarians.

    Clean up of Discipline Areas:  Rose is now contacting librarians and in the process finding homes for videos that can't be moved up to Springshare.

    #5 Phasing protocol

    Charles has reported on website directory sizes
    Esther has identified the directories not needed on the test site
    Chris is making progress on adding a new disk to the server; it will be mounted at /fsys4
    CGI area will be shared by the two test sites

  3. Agenda Review

    Add discussion of Blog server (Chris) as Item 7: item 7 and 8, moved to 8 and 9

  4. WebOps SharePoint

    Minutes will not be moved to SharePoint
    Action items will be placed under Tasks
    Working documents will be placed in SharePoint
    Agendas will be kept in SharePoint rather than in email messages
    Scheduling will be done through exchange calendar
    ACTION:
    Esther will create a WebOps group in exchange calendar once it arrives

  5. ISR Presentation

    Annie presented to ISR about Campus Web Redesign

    ISR had concerns about getting a chance to practice with Drupal, about Library expertise in Drupal, about the possibility of doing some of the things that Ryerson is doing, like connecting to courses, and about whether Systems has the people and resources to support new developments.  ISR liked the wider columns in the new design.

    The CMS group on campus is preparing training for staff on many of these issues. We probably need to worry more about Information Architecture than specific technologies. We need to do the work of content review and think about audience gateways.

  6. User Needs

    Marian provided information about creating a protocol, quoting directly from “Understanding your users: A practical guide to user requirements – Methods, tools & techniques” by Catherine Courage and Kathy Baxter.

    Protocol definition: A script that outlines all procedures you will perform as a moderator and the order in which you will carry out these procedures. It acts as a checklist for all of the session steps.

    Why creating a protocol is important:
    1. Ensures consistency for both participant and the activity. (This is crucial when running multiple sessions of the same activity.) A consistent approach will make the analysis of the resulting data more reliable.
    2. If you have more than one person running the session, both (or all) people running the session should create the protocol together and rehearse it.
    3. A protocol helps you as the facilitator to ensure that you relay all the necessary information to the participants. There are different types of information to cover, and this will ensure that you won’t forget anything, for example, a signature on a confidential release form.
    4. A protocol will allow others to replicate the study.  

    Develop your protocol after you have selected the type of field study, which could include contextual inquiry, on-site interviews, or simple observations. It will include how you will interact with your users, how much time you plan to spend, what instruction will be given, and identify activities.  

    A protocol allows you to collect the data in the most efficient and reliable means possible. It allows you to concentrate on the data collection, not trying to remember what you forgot this time.

  7. Blog Server

    The blog server is crashing frequently.  Attempts to diagnose and correct the problem have proven unfruitful.
    ACTION:
    Chris will rebuild the server and consult with staff about which blogs need to be migrated to the new server.

  8. Around the Table

    Charles reported that he is taking the ISR Web2.0 course

    Alex spoke about how he sees his role as a new member of WebOps. He is particularly interested in the web redesign effort and Circulations role in that.

  9. Next Meeting : December 8 - WebOps Lunch at Masala Bay, 12:30 - 2:30 pm
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January 27, 2011