Project to Acquire a Portal and Content Management System

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Investing in the JMU Web

• Project to Acquire a Portal andContent
  Management System

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At each stage of JMUs relationship with its
learners, the Web becomes an increasingly
important tool.
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The average teenager now spends more time online
than watching television. American Demographics
Seventy percent of prospective students form
their opinions of a university by visiting its
Web site as early as 10th grade. Stamats
research JMU alumni prefer online communication.
Recent JMU research
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These trends will only strengthen in the future.

• JMUs Web technology has not kept pace
• In 1995, JMU launched its first Web site using
• UNIX hardware
• an open source server and
• publishing via FTP.
• Today, JMUs main Web site uses
• UNIX hardware
• an open source server and
• publishing via FTP.

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Today, Web users are more sophisticated.
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They expect Web sites to know them
and provide personalized choices.
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They expect to transact business easily
at any time of the day and from any location
online.
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Successful Web sites provide these sophisticated
services using portal technology.
Odds are, you use Web portals nearly every
day. If you bank online, make purchases from
Amazon.com, shop on eBay or use almost any Web
site that asks you to log in, you use portal
technology.
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Every Web portal serves a different purpose, but
there are some common features
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Portal
Authentication Users must have an account to use
the portal
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Portal
Once the user has logged in the portal can ask
its databases for information
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Portal
And the databases will respond with information
about the users roles
and personal preferences.
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Portal
The portal can then use that information to build
the users personalized screen.
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Portal
Personalized content is the primary advantage for
portal users.
For example, a banking portal locates all the
users accounts with that bank and offers a
single access point
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Portal
While a general Web portal such as MyYahoo!,
might provide information you have specifically
requested (such as local weather).
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Portal
Content aggregation Portals differ from
traditional Web sites in that a portal can
combine content from multiple sources
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Portal
onto a single screen.
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Portal
Portals in higher education have been used to
provide specialized information for faculty,
staff, students, alumni and other
constituents. For example
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MyUCLA provides access to course information for
registered students
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While the University of Washingtons portal
provides a personal calendar for staff
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And Wisconsin offers email access for all portal
users
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and access to an advising system for faculty.
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Portal
Implementing portal technology will not be easy
or quick. There will be many phases, each adding
new features.
Integration of data from other systems, such as
PeopleSoft and Blackboard, may be particularly
difficult and integration of these systems may be
phased as well.
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Portal
According to Gartner, a technology research firm,
JMU should expect at least a five-year rollout
for major portal features.
Yet, when fully implemented, portal technology
can provide a single starting point for JMUs
online relationship with learners at all stages
of life
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Portal
Using the portals ability to know them
(authenticate) a returning user, a young learner
(or a parent) might sign-upto take advantage of
an online education outreach program beginning
a possible lifelong learning relationship with
JMU. Services delivered could evolve based on
age better preparing future students and
building strong JMU affinity.
ProspectiveStudent(K-12)
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Portal
The portals ability to combine content and
services from many systems in an integrated,
personalized presentation would serve the learner
during the years of enrollment at JMU.
EnrolledStudent
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Portal
Important university notices and information
based on the learner membership in an academic
program, student organization, geodemographic
segment might be pushed to that learners
portal
EnrolledStudent
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Portal
and the learner would have tools to define
preferences, shape their own views and pull
information from sources of interest
EnrolledStudent
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Portal
all combining to present a single access point
for JMU Webmail, e-campus, Blackboard, etc.
a personalized view of the students JMU learning
program.
EnrolledStudent
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Portal
Alumni
The portals ability to share information with
other university databases could promote a more
lasting relationship between the university and
its alumni.
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Portal
With the ability to tie Web content to user
preferences academic, professional, personal
online offerings might be created to attract
alumni to JMU for training, acquiring new
certifications, exploring new interests
Alumni
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While a portal will create many new opportunities
for users of the Web site, Web publishers will
need to create more sophisticated content
Thats why this project also includes the
acquisition of a Content Management System (CMS).
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So that Web publishers can create and provide
more sophisticated content
without having to acquire advanced technical
skills to do it.
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Content Management
Web pages could be created and edited with
standard word processor tools, making it possible
to change text and style in a familiar
environment.
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Content Management
Yet high-end publishers would have access to
source code and/or APIs (Application Programming
Interfaces) to create or link to their own
interactive Web applications.
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Content Management
Publishers could subscribe to shared content from
another departments site, eliminating
duplication of information
changes to the original text would
automatically update the subscribing site.
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Content Management
Publishers could create content and schedule its
availability well in advance
and specify when out-of-date content should be
automatically removed or archived.
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Content Management
Publishers could easily use CMS tools to
integrate JMUs branding/identity system and
ensure consistency with JMU Web site navigation
and search systems.
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Content Management
Content prepared for the Web could be
automatically re-formatted to be seen on
SmartPhones and PDAs
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Content Management
and content could be made more accessible to
Internet users with disabilities.
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Content Management
Since all content would be maintained in a
database, search and index creation could reflect
the Web sites offerings much more accurately.
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May all your problems be technical. Jim Gray,
Microsoft Corp, 1998 Turing Award winner
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Our immediate challenge is to acquire the best
portal and CMS for JMU. This will be the tool set
upon which future phases will depend.
Choosing the right software and hardware at this
stage may appear to be primarily a technical
issue. It is not.
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The biggest challenge will be understanding how
JMU people will use these new tools how this
project will affect people and relationships.
To understand this best, we need your help.
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For example
To offer customized services to different
audiences we must know who those users are.
What roles distinguish them from each other?
How do we manage users who have multiple
roles? This requires careful attention to the
JMU campus directory
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And just as the portal allows us to customize
services, a CMS must support multiple publishing
roles.
Web authors, editors and reviewers will be
needed. What policies will be required to govern
JMU Web publishing activities?
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This project is truly an activity in which we
are all together one
How can you contribute to this vision?
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What challenges do you currently face that this
tool set could help answer?
How will you relate to learners in the future?
How would you envision using this tool
set? These tools will allow us to work together
like never before. How might we reshape our
working relationships with others on campus to
serve lifelong learners better?
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Timeline
September 2004 Develop vision/scope, begin
purchasing process (Request for Proposal), begin
analysis of user roles and requirements October
2004 Evaluate user input and prioritize desired
needs develop phased rollout plan October 2004
CMS/portal RFP released April 2005 CMS/portal
tools acquired
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Timeline
Spring 2005 On-going planning process
developed Fall/Winter 2005 Initial
rollout Spring 2006 and beyond Identification,
prioritization, funding, development, integration
and implementation of additional services
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