templatedata

Sometimes I think Gerry McGovern is stating the obvious but it's a sad state of affairs when something that seems so obvious is still so alien to some.

Take for example his latest column, Senior managers: you can't keep ignoring the web.

Senior managers have been out of touch with the Web for two main reasons. Firstly, they have no previous experience in managing websites. Secondly, they didn't see the Web as deserving significant management time. Well, the Web has come of age. It is no longer the new kid on the block. The Web has become mainstream. It needs to be professionally managed. Otherwise it becomes a dumping ground.

Those who have been working with websites for a while know that websites require management. They require ONGOING management. What they don't require is an elaborate, expensive and high-profile project every few years with no resourcing in between. Websites aren't projects. They are an ongoing part of your organisation. Much as you wouldn't expect a newspaper to be starved of resources and enthusiasm after an initial, expensive project, a website can not survive and prosper when starved of resources after the initial enthusiasm.

This is one reason that I don't like 'launch parties'. A party to celebrate the launch of something often points to a project mentality. Once the project is over senior managers wash their hands of the website and assume that it's going to run itself on the goodwill of those who actually care about it. They often appear in several years time telling all and sundry that the website is 'rubbish' and that a project will solve the problem. What they fail to see is that if the website had been managed and resourced properly from the beginning there would be no mess.

The thing that suffers most is the content. The very reason that people visit your website. Content has to be maintained, it has to be created. New content strategies have to be developed and funded in an ongoing manner. If an organisation fails to see the ongoing nature of content development they are like a magazine owner who assembles the very best printing technology, hires a project team and prints one issue. After that they fail to hire editors, writers and designers and wonder why the magazine struggles to make it to the presses a second time.

A website isn't a vanity publication. If it is it will surely fail. A website is a communication tool for your students, both current and future. It's a communication tool for staff. It should enable them to perform basic tasks easily. If you fail to see the ongoing nature of developing such a tool your website will fall behind those of other universities. If you fail to resource content development and if you allow senior managers to design websites while ignoring the expertise of those who have years of experience, your website will be in continual need of fixing. It will fail to develop and the web team will always be in damage control mode rather than free to innovate and refine.