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Managing and educating content editors - experiences and ideas from the trenches / Public Sector Forums / 10 May 2007
1. Managing and educating content editors
Patrick H. Lauke / Public Sector Forums / 10 May 2007
EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS FROM THE TRENCHES
2. Who am I?
Web Editor (M&C) at University of Salford 2001
responsible for all outward-facing content
one of the first web-standards UK uni sites
accessibility discourse for last 5-6 years
3. About Salford
A variety of web sites make up the salford.ac.uk domain:
core www
4 faculties
12 schools
9 research institutes
37 research centres
13+ support service
... dark matter?
4. How are these sites maintained?
traditionally, one web author per site
no Content Management System
Dreamweaver / Contribute / bespoke admin
systems
5. Role of web author
Covers wide spectrum:
technical post
clerical / administrative
academic
“web / marketing officer”
6. No CMS – a blessing of sorts?
steep initial learning curve
requires technical expertise
helps keep number of authors manageable
7. Flipside of “technical” nature
(for most part) web authors are “techies”
not writers/editors
don't generate “snappy” marketing copy
“web monkeys” handed documents to put
online
8. First step...knowing who authors are
ISD handle requests for new sites
embedded in request process
keeping track of known authors
ideally don't give access until trained
10. Hit them early...
New web authors get:
all guideline documents as pack
templates
(if possible) personal meeting
11. ...hit them often
New and existing authors:
staff training sessions
web clinic
yearly “corroboree”
12. It's not all guidelines
Just mandating rules doesn't work (or requires
very intense QA)
If authors don't understand reasons why, they'll
simply try to break them
13. It's not all guidelines
Moving from
“what can I get away with”
to
“what's the best solution”
14. It's not all guidelines
It's about quality, not compliance
15. How to get authors to follow guidelines?
Making sure that they understand them
“Buy-in” from web authors
16. Accessiblity for those who don't care...
Hypothetical, ethical/moral arguments?
Showing actual benefits!
SEO (particularly for internal search engine)
Use analogies that they can understand (e.g.
Word)
17. Make it easy!
few clear and simple rules/tips to follow
WCAG 1.0 (and “upcoming” WCAG 2.0) not
aimed at actual human beings
remove guesswork / interpretation
adapt guidelines to different skills and needs
18. Make it easy!
Be realistic! 95% accessibility still better than 0%
19. Right tools for the right job
Ready-made templates
CMS / admin systems that facilitate, not hinder
WYSIWYG vs WYSIWYM
“...don't lead us into temptation...”
20. Web authors doing their own QA
Checklists and automated validation ... with
caution
Giving them screen readers?
21. Community of practice
“the process of social learning that occurs when
people who have a common interest in some
subject or problem collaborate over an extended
period to share ideas, find solutions, and build
innovations”
22. Fostering a community of practice
internal mailing list
yearly web “corroboree”
conferences and workshops
“take care of yourselves ... and each other”
create healthy competition
23. Support, rather than enforcement
meet often
discuss potential issues early
act as lightning rod / scapegoat
24. ...but enforce when necessary
no formal central QA process
guidelines with actual clout (management “buy-
in”)
identifying rogues and dealing with them
25. Perfect process?
Far from it, but works reasonably well
Majority of top-level sites ok
There's always one...