The UW Web Advisory Committee (WAC) is studying ways of improving content management on UW websites. We are currently reviewing web technologies used at UW as well as future needs for web content management. If you are responsible for maintaining or developing websites in some way you may be contacted over the next few months about your web content management needs. We will attempt to answer some anticipated questions below.

What is a web content management system (WCMS)?

Currently, most UW websites are maintained as a collection of individual pages. Elements of content, visual design, and web technology are intertwined on each web page and maintained using Dreamweaver and Contribute. In recent years, the web has advanced in complexity. People are trying to do more with their websites but continuing to maintain websites as individual pages makes this more difficult.

A web content management system provides the tools for content, design, and special functionality to be managed separately by relevant experts and to be automatically combined into pages viewed on the website. The people responsible for content can edit it without having to learn complex tools. People responsible for the visual design of pages can change that in one place and have it propagated to the rest of the website. Special functionality can easily be implemented without a lot of custom programming.

What are the benefits of a WCMS?

There are many benefits of using a WCMS, such as:

• Separation of presentation and navigation from content will enable content to be managed separately. Tools within a CMS allow for content to be shared across websites or pulled from other sources.
• Better specialization of roles allows website designers and developers to focus on design and functional enhancements while web-content contributors focus on authoring and updating the content of web pages.
• Design templates are controlled separately, which makes it easier to keep a consistent look and feel across UW websites and makes templates updates much faster and easier to implement.
• Distributed website administration will allow us to take advantage of centrally maintained software and design templates while allowing area experts to control their own content, user permissions, and feature sets.
• Enhanced and extended functionality, such as blogs, RSS feeds, photo galleries, and more can easily be implemented. This is often as simple as turning on a setting within the CMS. Custom development can be done through an extendable interface that allows developers to build their own add-ons to the CMS.
• A standard university-wide technology optimizes technical support, staff training, and more shared implementation.
• Other useful features such as:
  • The ability to track content changes and roll back to a previous version.
  • Tools to identify content that hasn't been updated recently.
  • The ability to schedule content to be posted and/or removed from the website at a certain date and time.

Does this mean we're getting a WCMS?

Maybe. We are studying the suitability of such as system for our web content management needs.

Would everyone have to use it?

We're not really sure at this point. Currently, there is no mandate for web advisory or IST to force anyone to use any technology. That said, we hope you will recognize the benefits of a new content management environment and choose to use it for your site(s).

How long would this process take?

If we do go ahead with the selection of a WCMS product, the plan would be to choose a product by January with a pilot project taking place in the winter term. Depending on the success of the pilot and approval from UCIST, migration may begin in the spring term.

This is a long term project. You would not be expected to learn new technologies and migrate your content overnight. Adequate support and training are an important part of this project.

Does this mean that website administration will be centralized?

No. Decentralized administration will be a key requirement in our WCMS selection criteria. Most WCMS products have methods to create separate websites with separate templates, settings, and user groups. Exactly how this is implemented varies. In addition, larger units will be able to run their own instance of the software if they want to.

Is the common look and feel changing?

Not right now. We do know that a redesign of the CLF is planned as part of the UW identity exercise. That's really all the information we have at this point. When and how that will happen hasn't been decided yet.

Who is involved in this project?

Members of the Web Advisory Committee are participating in the WCMS project. The project is divided into three sub-groups: communications, needs assessment, and technology. The needs assessment group will be working with you to determine your content management needs.

Where can I find more information?

Regular updates about the project will be posted here at web.uwaterloo. If you want all the details you can visit the Web Advisory Committee website as well.

Who can I talk to about this?

If you have more questions or would like to talk to someone about this please contact your web support person or Web Advisory Committee representative if you have one. Pat Lafranier, communications lead for the WCMS project is also available to talk to you at pllafran@uwaterloo.ca or x36433.