We had a smaller turn out than normal today, however, we had enough interest that we did have some discussion. However, we dropped the normal formalities we’ve used in the past and bypassed the agenda, and simply had a free form, open discussion that took place mostly organically. What follows is the transcript from that discussion.
[2008-04-01 13:13:24] <Quicksilver[rt]> I’ll forgo the formalities
[2008-04-01 13:13:52] <Quicksilver[rt]> We’ll just go free form, and let people join in as they like.
[2008-04-01 13:15:21] <Quicksilver[rt]> So
[2008-04-01 13:15:25] <Quicksilver[rt]> Students and content.
[2008-04-01 13:15:34] <Quicksilver[rt]> I’ll give you some of our background.
[2008-04-01 13:16:05] <Quicksilver[rt]> We usually have one student that assists John and I. Doing mostly grunt work (template transitions, content migration, link fixing, etc)
[2008-04-01 13:16:13] <Quicksilver[rt]> They do not make anything though.
[2008-04-01 13:16:30] <Quicksilver[rt]> We do have a lot of student webmasters around campus though that do tasks for their departments
[2008-04-01 13:16:41] <xx-CEAS-xx[rt]> (that’s what I am)
[2008-04-01 13:16:48] <Quicksilver[rt]> The Student Center is a big one. Their student webmasters handles most everything.
[2008-04-01 13:17:27] –>| catfredo (n=webedito@ucmerced030-186.ucmerced.edu) has joined #uwebd
[2008-04-01 13:17:41] <Quicksilver[rt]> (welcome, jump on it, we’re just having a free form discussion)
[2008-04-01 13:17:51] <Quicksilver[rt]> (it = in)
[2008-04-01 13:17:53] <catfredo> alright, thx.
[2008-04-01 13:18:06] <Quicksilver[rt]> Generally, students don’t write anything we use though.
[2008-04-01 13:18:16] =-= bsteere is now known as bsteere[rt]
[2008-04-01 13:18:19] <Quicksilver[rt]> In fact, all the top layer of the site from now on will be marketing controlled.
[2008-04-01 13:18:44] <Quicksilver[rt]> Others?
[2008-04-01 13:20:21] <catfredo> We have a student intern (rotating) who has the ability to author a weekly podcast segment (edited by one of our PIOs). – UC Merced
[2008-04-01 13:20:43] <catfredo> We started doing that at the beginning of last ac. year.
[2008-04-01 13:20:55] <Quicksilver[rt]> What kind of topics?
[2008-04-01 13:21:38] <catfredo> Mainly of student concern – regulations on music downloads, raising cost of textbooks, etc.
[2008-04-01 13:22:09] <Quicksilver[rt]> Do they come up with it, and you approve it, or do you just assign something to them?
[2008-04-01 13:22:20] <catfredo> The student we hired this year either isn’t that interested (despite a heavy background) or doesn’t have the time (freshman).
[2008-04-01 13:22:21] <bsteere[rt]> Our marketing people are (semi) responsible for all official content (anything that shows up on cornellcollege.edu)
[2008-04-01 13:22:34] <bsteere[rt]> Students don’t do any writing that I know of…just grunt work
[2008-04-01 13:24:05] <asu[rt]> we have a few students who help maintain sites around campus, but mainly it’s just fac staff
[2008-04-01 13:24:05] <catfredo> I apologize if you all covered this already (or if I’m forefront on the stage…), but what about graphics contributions on sites?
[2008-04-01 13:24:24] <Quicksilver[rt]> We’ve never had students doing anything graphic related.
[2008-04-01 13:24:39] <Quicksilver[rt]> Though I’m pushing to allow some student videography type stuff
[2008-04-01 13:24:49] <Quicksilver[rt]> Send them out with a flip camera
[2008-04-01 13:25:02] <bsteere[rt]> Same here…never had any (that I know of).
[2008-04-01 13:25:02] <Quicksilver[rt]> But that’s a pipe dream at the moment.
[2008-04-01 13:25:32] <asu[rt]> we do have a number of students who work in our multimedia lab and one of their responsibilities is to handle website requests
[2008-04-01 13:26:02] <asu[rt]> mainly formatting type stuff
[2008-04-01 13:26:06] <catfredo> I’m sending my video assistant out with a Panasonic HD camera I just purchased. Good for capturing event footage, especially.
[2008-04-01 13:26:22] <catfredo> The other assistants help w/Web templates.
[2008-04-01 13:26:43] <catfredo> lucky me.. 
[2008-04-01 13:26:46] <Quicksilver[rt]> What about students not directly under your control, ie in other offices/departments. Do you just allow the office to make the call on how trusted the student is, or do you require some kind of oversight on your end?
[2008-04-01 13:27:14] <bsteere[rt]> Generally we let them do what they want
[2008-04-01 13:27:23] <asu[rt]> we allow departments to enlist student help
[2008-04-01 13:27:26] <bsteere[rt]> And the marketing people handle anything they don’t like
[2008-04-01 13:27:45] <asu[rt]> but we hesitate sometimes due to the transient nature of students
[2008-04-01 13:27:58] <catfredo> I agree. As Web Editor, I keep an eye out on departmental content, but they decide how and why to hire.
[2008-04-01 13:28:19] <Quicksilver[rt]> What kind of turnover do you see, generally.
[2008-04-01 13:29:06] <catfredo> It depends on the students’ schedules.
[2008-04-01 13:29:08] <bsteere[rt]> In students or content?
[2008-04-01 13:29:12] <Quicksilver[rt]> Students
[2008-04-01 13:29:31] <Quicksilver[rt]> Are you rehiring every semester, or do they tend to stick around.
[2008-04-01 13:29:34] <catfredo> We had one return after taking the semester off, due a particularly hard class load.
[2008-04-01 13:29:46] <bsteere[rt]> Ours usually stay out a year or more
[2008-04-01 13:29:48] <Quicksilver[rt]> We had a good one, very reliable and sharp, then they vanished one day after a couple years.
[2008-04-01 13:30:03] <catfredo> Too bad. Generally, we have two or three.
[2008-04-01 13:30:06] <bsteere[rt]> They work more or less each block depending on their course
[2008-04-01 13:30:34] <Quicksilver[rt]> Do you find that you have to train them usually, or do you get them pretty well learned.
[2008-04-01 13:30:43] <bsteere[rt]> We have to train
[2008-04-01 13:30:56] <catfredo> Training always, but some less than others.
[2008-04-01 13:31:33] <catfredo> Do you find that students are excited to do Web work? Do you have a lot of applicants?
[2008-04-01 13:31:46] <bsteere[rt]> Not usually a lot
[2008-04-01 13:31:56] <bsteere[rt]> That varies pretty widely year to year
[2008-04-01 13:31:58] <Quicksilver[rt]> Our last one loved it. But finding a good replacement is hard.
[2008-04-01 13:32:13] * bsteere[rt] started out as a student
[2008-04-01 13:32:15] <Quicksilver[rt]> We had a referral from the technical writing department that looks promising
[2008-04-01 13:32:31] <Quicksilver[rt]> Technical Writing has actually been a good source for us.
[2008-04-01 13:32:52] <catfredo> It seems like many departments are hiring multimedia students now, so the competition is on.
[2008-04-01 13:32:53] <bsteere[rt]> Mostly we pick people at random based on a questionnaire they fill out before their freshman year
[2008-04-01 13:32:59] <bsteere[rt]> Sometimes we get lucky
[2008-04-01 13:33:08] <asu[rt]> some of our multimedia students enjoy web more than others so we assign jobs to the appropriate ones
[2008-04-01 13:33:17] <bsteere[rt]> Also, we hire students for the summer and usually one or more will stay on for the following year
[2008-04-01 13:33:31] <catfredo> Good idea. We tried tabling at Orientation this year.
[2008-04-01 13:34:01] <catfredo> That’s where we found our (absent) podcasting student.
[2008-04-01 13:34:24] <catfredo> What do you look for in an interview?
[2008-04-01 13:34:43] <bsteere[rt]> Mostly just basic knowledge
[2008-04-01 13:34:49] <catfredo> Do they ever bring samples of their work?
[2008-04-01 13:35:15] <bsteere[rt]> If they have the basic skills we are looking for, then they have a good chance at the position.
[2008-04-01 13:35:32] <bsteere[rt]> We’ve never tried for multimedia types, so we don’t usually see samples
[2008-04-01 13:36:01] <Quicksilver[rt]> Same. We’ve never had more than one student, so we try to just hit a balance.
[2008-04-01 13:36:17] <asu[rt]> most of ours started out as only lab assistants and have shown interest and abilities through that job
[2008-04-01 13:37:23] <Quicksilver[rt]> Are you happy with the number you have?
[2008-04-01 13:37:30] <Quicksilver[rt]> Would you want more? Less?
[2008-04-01 13:37:55] <catfredo> We are interviewing for another tomorrow. More is not always better though…
[2008-04-01 13:38:16] <catfredo> It would be better if we could hire one more staff person…
[2008-04-01 13:38:27] <asu[rt]> agree.
[2008-04-01 13:38:30] <bsteere[rt]> We have 3 students right now which works pretty well for us. We don’t always have things for them to do, but they can always run through tutorials and such
[2008-04-01 13:39:03] |<– jdw5 has left irc.freenode.net (“dentist”)
[2008-04-01 13:39:49] <Quicksilver[rt]> Here’s a bit of a tangent
[2008-04-01 13:40:02] <Quicksilver[rt]> But do you use any student programmers for app development?
[2008-04-01 13:40:10] <bsteere[rt]> We have
[2008-04-01 13:40:17] <bsteere[rt]> Depends on the skill of the students we have
[2008-04-01 13:40:23] <bsteere[rt]> and the sensitivity of the information
[2008-04-01 13:40:38] <asu[rt]> no that’s all handled by staff
[2008-04-01 13:41:07] <catfredo> If you call YouTube app work, I assigned one student to uploading our footage.
[2008-04-01 13:41:47] <catfredo> “grunt work”
[2008-04-01 13:42:03] <catfredo> Anything that requires logging into the Web server, I do.
[2008-04-01 13:42:55] <catfredo> No offense to the students, of course. It’s just for security.
[2008-04-01 13:43:03] <Quicksilver[rt]> Of course.
[2008-04-01 13:43:24] <Quicksilver[rt]> So it seems safe to say that students generally aren’t trusted for any kind of writing, for the most part.
[2008-04-01 13:44:02] <bsteere[rt]> Generally
[2008-04-01 13:44:14] <Quicksilver[rt]> But we love them for grunt work
[2008-04-01 13:45:54] <Quicksilver[rt]> Are you all the ones normally responsible for them, or is it someone else in your office?
[2008-04-01 13:47:24] <catfredo> My associate, the graphic artist, and I oversee the “Student Web/Graphics Assistants” (the tag-team style works).
[2008-04-01 13:47:51] <catfredo> I oversee the video assistant.
[2008-04-01 13:48:09] <catfredo> My supervisor reviews the hours.
[2008-04-01 13:48:11] <asu[rt]> my coworker oversees the students
[2008-04-01 13:48:20] <bsteere[rt]> My boss is technically responsible…but he lets me assign tasks
[2008-04-01 13:48:33] <Quicksilver[rt]> Are they limited to a certain number of hours?
[2008-04-01 13:48:38] <asu[rt]> but she sends them to me for technical questions
[2008-04-01 13:49:01] <catfredo> 18 hours max. (one or more jobs)
[2008-04-01 13:49:08] <bsteere[rt]> They are work study, so they are limited by the hours they are allotted
[2008-04-01 13:49:14] <bsteere[rt]> which they can use up as fast as they like
[2008-04-01 13:50:30] <bsteere[rt]> Summer workers are just under full time (to avoid benefits)
[2008-04-01 13:51:11] <Quicksilver[rt]> Sounds similar here as well.
[2008-04-01 13:51:42] <catfredo> yep
[2008-04-01 13:51:57] <catfredo> Did anyone talk about blogs yet?
[2008-04-01 13:52:08] <bsteere[rt]> Don’t think so
[2008-04-01 13:52:13] <catfredo> Anyone doing them?
[2008-04-01 13:52:13] <bsteere[rt]> What about them?
[2008-04-01 13:52:19] <bsteere[rt]> Yep
[2008-04-01 13:52:20] <xx-CEAS-xx[rt]> we don’t have blogs
[2008-04-01 13:52:26] <bsteere[rt]> though students don’t really know about it
[2008-04-01 13:52:26] <xx-CEAS-xx[rt]> we might be getting some soon tho
[2008-04-01 13:52:32] <Quicksilver[rt]> Admissions has a couple student blogs on Blogspot.
[2008-04-01 13:52:40] <Quicksilver[rt]> But that’s completely their deal.
[2008-04-01 13:52:56] <Quicksilver[rt]> Though I plan on getting them migrated into the CMS once we’re ready to launch.
[2008-04-01 13:53:09] <bsteere[rt]> We have a few faculty sponsored blogs (Internships, Admissions, etc), but anybody can create their own if they want
[2008-04-01 13:53:14] <catfredo> I’ll check it out. I’d like to hear how easy/hard it is to set one up, start-to-finish.
[2008-04-01 13:53:29] <bsteere[rt]> I imagine it depends on the system
[2008-04-01 13:53:41] <catfredo> It seems participation would be harder than the tech scope.
[2008-04-01 13:53:48] |<– asu[rt] has left irc.freenode.net (“http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client”)
[2008-04-01 13:53:57] <bsteere[rt]> We use WordPress-MU which is pretty simple to setup and connect to Active Directory
[2008-04-01 13:54:19] <Quicksilver[rt]> Yeah, WPMU is pretty nice.
[2008-04-01 13:54:22] <catfredo> Yeah, that sounds stable… and free.
[2008-04-01 13:54:24] <bsteere[rt]> I don’t think we really expect students to use them on any kind of large scale
[2008-04-01 13:54:27] <Quicksilver[rt]> And students can usually jump right in.
[2008-04-01 13:54:32] <bsteere[rt]> Yep…free it is
[2008-04-01 13:54:46] <bsteere[rt]> Plugins can be a bit tricky
[2008-04-01 13:54:48] <Quicksilver[rt]> (I suspect WPMU will be getting updated shortly as well, to the 2.5 codebase)
[2008-04-01 13:54:53] <bsteere[rt]> I hope so
[2008-04-01 13:55:06] <catfredo> hmmm.
[2008-04-01 13:55:17] <bsteere[rt]> I wish I had done the SVN install for that (instead of the manual)
[2008-04-01 13:55:30] <catfredo> Ah..
[2008-04-01 13:56:14] <Quicksilver[rt]> Students blogs appear to be a big upcoming thing.
[2008-04-01 13:56:16] <bsteere[rt]> We modified ours to be completely over ssl which makes upgrading a bit more challenging
[2008-04-01 13:56:22] <Quicksilver[rt]> The question then is, who manages them.
[2008-04-01 13:56:35] <catfredo> What have you heard about paid v. unpaid help from students based on a certain number of posts?
[2008-04-01 13:57:04] <Quicksilver[rt]> Some schools are doing things like giving them a digital camera or something in exchange for X posts a week.
[2008-04-01 13:57:22] <bsteere[rt]> Nice…we don’t do anything like that
[2008-04-01 13:57:41] <catfredo> That’s an idea. I just want to know there will be some commitment. Our podcast plan went south due to that.
[2008-04-01 13:58:19] <Quicksilver[rt]> Sign up kids like student ambassadors
[2008-04-01 13:58:47] <Quicksilver[rt]> Or kids who might be student employees in Admissions or Marketing.
[2008-04-01 13:59:11] <Quicksilver[rt]> Ones who are a little more engaged with promoting the college than a random walk in applicant.
[2008-04-01 13:59:37] <catfredo> Great approach.. maybe we even can approach the faculty for suggestions.
[2008-04-01 14:00:00] <Quicksilver[rt]> Also good.
[2008-04-01 14:00:20] <catfredo> Though that has a greater potential to get political…
[2008-04-01 14:01:10] <catfredo> Any other thoughts on blogs before I have to leave? You’ve all been great to talk to!
[2008-04-01 14:01:36] <catfredo> Thanks!
[2008-04-01 14:01:39] <Quicksilver[rt]> I’m good. This was nice for a small group.
[2008-04-01 14:01:45] <bsteere[rt]> Yep
[2008-04-01 14:01:51] <Quicksilver[rt]> I’d love suggestions on future discussion subjects.
[2008-04-01 14:02:05] =-= bsteere[rt] is now known as bsteere
[2008-04-01 14:02:16] <catfredo> Will send you a line. Bye!
[2008-04-01 14:02:17] <–| catfredo has left #uwebd
[2008-04-01 14:03:18] <Quicksilver[rt]> Thanks everyone!
