Since Sarah was unable to physically attend, she Skyped in from home. The presentation began with Sarah explaining why OIT needed a content management system and why she chose WordPressMu, such as the easy customizable web interface and its extensibility through plug ins (extensions of WordPress code). At the end, I demonstrated the areas we customized for our content managers to fit their needs such as widgets (portable code), and the media library where content managers can upload and store files such as images, flash, pdfs, and html. There seemed to be a number of people interested in using this particular system. View our presentation notes…

Although the conference was three or four days, depending on whether you attended workshop, I found it to be enough time to meet people and have informative discussions about the web. Throughout the conference, attendees actively networked with many groups and individuals. It’s a great opportunity to discuss project ideas and receive some feedback among those in your field.

Keynotes

Keynote speakers last year were the highly accomplished Jeffrey Veen and Kyle Ford. Jeffrey is the founding partner of Adaptive Path and project lead for Measure Map. Kyle Ford is the director of product marketing at Ning, Inc. and before that, he was associate product manager for Yahoo! Inc.  This year’s keynote presentation Cooking Up Gourmet User Experiences on a Fast-Food Budget was by Jared Spool, a top rated speaker and founder of User Interface Engineering. He discussed inexpensive techniques on website usability that will save time. Jared also presented a workshop Designing for Content-Rich Sites working with us on how, as the title states, to improve usability for websites with an abundent amount of content. He gave many examples of poor and successful navigation based on actual data, not arguable opinion.
[The other keynote, a social media speaker, unfortuately received poor reviews and harsh Twitter comments.]

Sessions and Presenters

There was an opportunity to attend the best presentations based on everyone’s evaluation forms.  These included Kevin Prentiss’s session on student created content using web 2.0 tools, Susan Ragland’s session on website usability, ”Maybe the Purpose of Our Redesign is Only to Serve as a Warning to Others” session by Anthony Dunn, Lori Packer’s session on strategies to demonstrate the importance of social media to your boss, and Paul Gilzow’s session titled “Cross-site Scripting: What Is It, and How Can You Protect Your Site from Becoming a Victim?”

Some other great sessions I attended were “Show Me the Data: Usability-driven Web Design” presented by Jason Alley and Kenneth Newquist from Lafayette College. They shared techniques on how to improve a website’s usability by learning how visitors actually communicate with the site. They described the usability testing in which they used ScreenFlow to gather enough information for making changes. Kyle Bowen’s presentation “Pop Culture Communication: Microsites, Major Impact” was highly entertaining talking about how microsites can help your department gain more visitors and more media coverage. I also enjoyed Joel Herron’s talking about his interactive map platform for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Check out the entire list of sessions.

HighEdWeb 2010…

I would definitely consider going another year. Not only did I bring back great content, I had a lot of fun. In fact, I’m still keeping in contact with these folks through Twitter. Anyone else with a good conference experience? Other conference suggestions?

Time to Be Afraid of the Web?

By Eduardo Porter

Internet users used to comfort themselves by thinking that to become victims of the pirates of the Web, they had to frequent the online porn circuit or respond to an e-mail from the widowed wife of the former central bank governor of Nigeria. The idea was that one had to do something naughty to get caught in the wrongdoers’ net, or at least go for a late-night stroll in the rough end of town.

But the conceit has become untenable. Two years ago, engineers at Google reported that about 10 percent of millions of Web pages they analyzed engaged in “drive-by downloads” of malware. Google today has about 330,000 Web sites listed as malicious, up from about 150,000 a year ago.

Continue reading…

What do you think? Are you concerned that your personal information can be swiped without your permission?

Read OIT Information Security Tips and Tools for more information about protecting yourself from cybercrime. Keep yourself updated on virus, spyware and adware alerts from Sophos and other sources reported by our Malware Alerts.

Subscribe to WVU OIT Malware Alerts

Digital Textbooks Call for New Business Models

by David Wiley
July 8, 2009

In the 1997 film adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Contact, S.R. Hadden teaches Ellie Arroway “the first rule of government spending: Why have one when you can have two for twice the price?”

When it comes to curriculum materials like textbooks, practice exercises, instructional videos, and online simulations, our universities ask students to pay for them again and again, year after year.

This made sense in the days before the advent of the Internet, when students had to compete for access to educational materials. In those days, if John was using the graphing calculator, Jen had to wait her turn; if Mary was using the physics textbook, Mark had to wait his turn. Students needed to purchase calculators and textbooks of their very own if they each wanted to have ready access to these resources.

Read the rest of the story on the Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog

Anyway, he brings up some excellent food for thought on how universities should to revisit how we think about openness.  Not only in the types of systems and software we employ, but in our academic materials.  He reminds us that the fundamental reason we are in higher education is to educate and share knowledge.  What difference does it make, really, if people can download our course materials?  Why shouldn’t they?  Because they haven’t yet paid for them?  Why is that important?  To get any kind of degree the will actually need to enroll, so I fail to see how that would affect the school’s bottom line.

MIT has for a number of years now offered most if not all of their course materials online for free.  Think of the savings to students in not needing to purchase books every semester.  What if the students did have access to all of the course work ahead of time, wouldn’t that just make it easier for them to complete the work and do better?  Perhaps they would get more out of the course if they were prepared and could be ready when the semester “clock is ticking?”

Here is the video clip of his presentation.  I’d love to hear what the university community thinks about this.

Cultural Agoraphobia: What Universities Need to Know About Our Bias Against Openness
In this presentation, Professor James Boyle will argue that we have a cognitive bias–he calls it cultural agoraphobia–that leads us to underestimate the potential of open networks, open culture and open productive processes. What is the evidence for such a bias?  What should a university do about it–from the library to the classroom to the archive? Using examples ranging from the development of the World Wide Web to Wikipedia and open source software, this talk will try and answer those questions.

Watch the webcast

I’m often asked what the differences between MySpace and Facebook are and I finally found a post that explains it rather well.  I never could really put my finger on what it was about MySpace that didn’t appeal to me and now I understand.  MySpace was always intended to be a place to meet people whereas Facebook is about connecting with people you already know.  This article also discusses the strategies MySpace is using to bring users back.  Interesting read MySpace in a  MySpace Welcomes Me Back; What Is MySpace?

There is much ado about a recent study making a tenuos connection between Facebook usage and lower grades.  Media have latched on to the story, according to ReadWriteWeb, but that, as it turns out is a rather simplistic interpretation of the study. The reseracher admits that those students who admitted to using Facebook probably would have found another way to distract themselves even if Facebook hadn’t been a factor. Read about this here: Fox News Says Facebook Will Ruin Your Grades (ReadWriteWeb) and here: Does Facebook Lower Academic Performance? It’s Still Too Soon to Say (The Chronicle Wired Campus Blog)

Last week TechCrunch posted FriendFeed Is In Danger Of Becoming The Coolest App No One Uses drawing our attention back to a service we mentioned a few months ago, but, yes, just simply isn’t as popular as Facebook or Twitter.  TechCrunch posted this past weekend that You Will Be Using FriendFeed In The Future — But It May Be Called Facebook.

Call for Proposals

The West Virginia Higher Education Technology Conference is now accepting presentation, poster session, and workshop proposals for its September 28-30, 2009 conference at Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa in Morgantown, WV.

This conference brings together experts from all over West Virginia for three days to connect, discuss, and learn about the latest in technology and the future of education.

We look forward to building a fantastic program that covers a broad spectrum of topics pertaining to technology and higher education. We hope to see you at the conference and invite you to submit your proposal today! Proposals will be received through June 1, 2009.

Conference Theme: weLearn Technology facilitates learning in higher education every day – every minute. In higher education we are all connected by a common purpose of educating and learning. Students, faculty, staff – we are all linked through information technology. Through technology weLearn.

Presentation Tracks

• Teaching and Learning
• Technology and Sustainability; Green IT: What does it mean?
• Emerging Technologies
• Getting the Message Out
• Legal and Ethical Issues

Poster Sessions

Last year we received a lot of positive feedback about the poster sessions and would like to encourage you to consider participating with a poster session of your own. This flexible format allows for more direct Q&A and is great for networking.

Pre- and Post-Conference Workshops

If you have something you’d like to share in a more in-depth session, consider holding a pre- or post-conference workshop.

We look forward to hearing from you!

- WVHETC 2009 Conference Committee

Subscribe to Our Conference Updates

West Virginia Higher Education Technology Conference
Phone: 304-293-5192
Conference Website: http://wvconference.com

We’ll be there!  Will you?

via ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb asks Is Your PC Part of a Botnet? Botnets are a collection of computers that have been compromised by malicious software installed via a trojan or worm.  If your computer seems inexplicably slow while connected to the ‘Net, it may be “zombified.”  Read the article here on ReadWriteWeb.

In another post from last week, ReadWriteWeb discusses a study that has found that social networking has overtaken email in its popularity.  As someone who just set her grandma up on Facebook this past weekend, I concur with that assessment. Read the post here: Social Networking Now More Popular Than Email, Report Finds

via Mashable

Mashable had a great How To article last week on using Twitter to look for jobs.  The article’s tips include utilizing your profile to pubish your bio, CV, areas of expertise, etc.  They also recommend following people and companies in your field.  Check out the article here: HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

Also on Mashable is a post on using social media to manage your finances.  The tips are common sense, but they list some online assessment tools, such as Mint, Rudder, and Wesabe.  They also suggest looking into Remember The Milk, and Budget Tracker.

Other Posts from Around the Web

Ron Bronson “Making sense of personal branding”
A good analysis of what personal branding is all about and how it impacts our lives.

“Where personal branding methods really hit home are with newly minted college grads and folks who are more actively involved in various forms of social networking. When you throw your name on a profile for some niche site and forget about it, all of that content affects what people find out about you when they google for you.”

Microblogging Will Marginalize Corporate Email
Interesting post making some good points about where we’re heading in corporate communications.

As more companies take up microblogging with services like Yammer, Socialcast, Present.ly and SocialText Signals, employee communications amongst employees will both increase and divert away from email.

Chonicle.com Wired Campus Blog “Technologist Who Coined ‘Edupunk’ Defends the Term in a Video Debate”
I’m apparently about a year behind in finding out about the term “EduPunk” and the stir it caused in higher ed tech circles.  If you are like me and have no idea what it is about, take a look at this post and watch the video clip to get the skinny.  It is a n interesting debate and one I think we could all take a moment to ponder.

That all for now.  Anyone else have any tidbits to share?

Our cadre of communicators regularly attend the WVU Key Communicators meetings every month. Last week was the February 2009 meeting.  During that meeting, three colleges presented on their new website designs: Eberly College of Arts & Sciences, Davis College of Forestry, Agriculture & Consumer Sciences, and Human Resources & Education. What impressed me the most aside from the bold new designs was the way in which each college had embraced social media on its website. I was genuinely impressed that each one had already done so much in this area and had embraced this shift in communication.

Eberly College of Arts & Sciences

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences redesigned website

Eberly’s new page features:

• Link to their RSS feed (lower left)
• Link to Facebook
• Feature stories
• Blog posts
• Links to their calendars
• Strong visuals with featured photos
• Simplified navigation

Davis College of Forestry, Agriculture & Consumer Sciences

Davis College redesigned website

New Davis College website features:

• Link to their RSS feed (on news page)
• Link to Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter and YouTube
• Feature stories
• Blog posts
• Links to their calendars
• Strong visuals with featured photos

Human Resources & Education

College of Human Resources and Education redesigned website

New HR&E Website features:

• Link to their RSS feeds (on news page)
• Link to Facebook (lower left)
• Feature stories
• Blog posts
• Links to their calendars
• Strong visuals with featured photos

What do you think of the updated websites?  Do you think WVU should go farther with incorporating social media tools such as blogs, networks (like Facebook and Twitter) etc?  Should the University do more?  What would you suggest?

Reminder: 10-Digit Dialing Starts February 28

On February 28, all local calls placed from 293 prefix numbers at West Virginia University must include all 10 digits (9 + 304 area code + the seven-digit phone number) to complete a call.

The 10-digit dialing requirement is a response to the West Virginia Public Service Commission approval of a new 681 area code assigned to new telephone numbers in West Virginia starting this year. At this time, new numbers may be assigned a 681 or 304 area code.

Inter campus calls will remain 3-xxxx. Long distance calls will continue to require 8 + area code + 7 digit number + TID.

Please refer to http://oit.wvu.edu/telecom/dialing.php to determine which prefixes are considered local calls from the 293 prefix.

What Will Remain the Same?

• Your telephone number, including current area code, will not change. WVU will retain the 304-293-XXXX block of telephone numbers.
• Your local calls are still local calls, even though they must be dialed using ten digits.
• Long distance dialing procedures will not change. Your TID will not change.

If you have pre-programmed speed dial lists using seven digits in your phones, these will need to be updated with 10-digit numbers. WVU Telecommunications is working to update speed dials on Cisco IP phones. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Help Desk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or 293-4444.

Feds Propose Storing Internet User Data for 2 Years

By David Kravets

February 20, 2009

In the name of combating child pornography, federal lawmakers are proposing that internet users’ online surfing habits be retained for two years.

The so-called “Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act of 2009,” or SAFETY Act,  was floated in both the House and Senate on Thursday.

Among other things, it demands: “A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”

In short, if approved, everybody from employers to ISPs to coffee shops and universities would be required to keep logs of all data associated with IP addresses assigned randomly to individual users – from e-mail logins to search queries to sites visited, legal experts said.

Read the rest of the article

How do you feel about this?