VMC Web Council

On April 16, 80 people from around the university and medical center converged for the second ever VU/VMC Web Jam.

In this highly interactive session, hosted by the Center for Better Health, participants focused on two sets of questions.

What We Need

1. What are the IT/Web skills you need?
2. What are the tools and languages you need?
3. What do you want to have available through VU web hosting?
4. What information do you (org) need to share? And with whom (audience)?
5. What VU/VUMC databases do you need to access? And what level of authority?
6. If you called 1-800-WEB-HELP, what questions would you like them to be able to answer?
7. What criteria would you use to decide to use a VU standard Web resource?

What We Have

1. What IT/Web skills do you have that you want to share?
2. What tools and languages are you proficient in?
3. What resources do you currently use for Web Hosting?
4. What information do you currently share? And with whom?
5. What VU/VUMC databases do you currently access? What level of authority?
6. Which VU/VUMC Web Standards do you currently use? Why?

Tom Lloyd and Donna Schot are in the middle of summarizing the results, but for now you can see the raw data.

One of the most frequently mentioned topics in the needs assessment questionnaire was a request for training. While we can't provide a lot of one on one training ... I thought we might be able to pass along some of the wonderful resources we've all found online. There are so many great websites out there with tutorials, tips, free downloads, etc.

I'm going to compile web and design links - and we'll send out a monthly email newsletter. Hopefully - this will be a useful resource for the web community at VU and VMC.

So ... we need your help!

The results of this past winter's brief survey (done by the VU Web Spiders and Web Council) are now available in a fairly raw form.

Survey Results - March 9, 2009 (PDF)

Bioinformatician Jacob Weiss will be doing further analysis of the results, so stay tuned.

And many thanks to the 96 people who took the time to fill out the survey!

Thank you to the many people who came today for the "jam" session! Here is a PDF of the handout.

• Handout from the 12/11/08 Web Development "Jam" Session

You are invited to join the VMC Web Council for our first get-together -- on Thursday Dec. 11, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. in 208 Light Hall. Come meet others from around Vanderbilt with all levels and types of web responsibilities. Do you manage, design, develop, maintain or otherwise support a Vanderbilt medical center or university website? If so, this is for you.

Possibilities include (in no particular order):

• Intranets
• Analytics
• Usability
• SEO
• Internal search engines
• People directories
• Calendars
• Maps and floorplans
• Content management systems, in particular
  • Site Builder
  • Drupal
• Photo archive/database
• Mobiles (iPhones, etc.)

* Index of skills (probably using Drupal profiles)

* Links to key resources (e.g. SiteBuilder and Guidelines)

* Contact Us page

* Blog guidelines (don't gossip; be good)

* Group projects

So that we won't forget the needs that have come to our attention, here is a list.

* CME training online interface for registration, etc., to replace the previous system (C-Vent?)
* Cross-VMC web calendar coordination
* Photo archive