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Firstly, thanks to the UKOLN team and University of Reading for hosting another great IWMW event. It was great to see so many familiar faces and equally pleasing to see so many new ones.

As most of you will know, Siteimprove were holding a free draw to win a Kindle. Thank you to everybody that took the time to enter and our congratulations go to the winner – James Parry, Web Development and Support Officer at the University of Oxford.

Part of our entry form asked four multiple choice questions about the use of each institution’s internal search. The background to this was a case study Siteimprove undertook with Leeds City Council that demonstrated how some simple changes made to commonly searched terms could generate significant potential savings. Please find a summary of the questions we asked below.

• Has your institution ever measured the variation in cost between handling an enquiry online versus offline. 88% of you answered no.
• Do you ever adjust the order of results on your search results page based on the offline enquiries you receive? 81% of you answered no.
• Do you regularly create sponsored links to promote upcoming events, i.e. open days and graduation? 56% of you answered no.
• How regularly do you review your internal search engine statistics?

18% selected every 2 weeks.
38% selected every month.
22% selected every quarter.
22% selected less frequently than every quarter.

A more detailed summary will be made available for any person that would like to receive it. Siteimprove are also planning to run two short webinars in August to explain the case study and demonstrate ways in which Universities may be able to make similar changes using their own internal search engine. Those that indicated they would like to take part in the webinars will be contacted with a choice of dates to attend. If there is any person that did not get chance to enter but is interested in learning more about the case study, then please contact info@siteimprove.co.uk for details.

We look forward to seeing you all again at IWMW12!!

Daniel Jackson, Development Manager at City University, presented a case study of their recent web project to redesign and rebuild the university’s two corporate websites and create a new intranet for staff and students. This huge undertaking incorporated a new CMS (Squiz Matrix), new search engine (Funnelback Search), new servers, new network, new content, new IA, new design, new business processes… the list goes on!

Dan’s talk took us through the project process from inception to completion and delivered a lot of useful information and advice along the way, such as their use of domain driven design to determine appropriate focus areas for their site content. Dan also showcased their course finder – a user-friendly tool, powered by Funnelback Search, which makes the university’s course information easy to access and navigate. You can view a summary of the case study, along with the presentation slides, on the Squiz Blog.

The second case study, presented by Kris Collins, the University of Bedfordshire’s Online Marketing Manager, detailed their ongoing project to completely redesign and rebuild their website – it’s due to go live at the end of July. The overhaul includes migrating from their old CMS, which was too technical for content-editors to use and was no longer able to meet the demands of the site, to Squiz Matrix – a much more user-friendly and powerful CMS.

A key requirement for the new site was that it had to take into account the constantly increasing number of users who access the site from mobile devices. The solution was to build the site with a responsive web design which adapts according to the width of the user’s browser, making it equally usable on a desktop computer or mobile device. The responsive design is a great way to meet the needs of the mobile users without requiring additional resources for maintenance of a separate mobile site or application.

Again, there is a summary of Kris’s presentation and his presentation slides, on the Squiz blog.

Squiz and Funnelback work with a large number of clients within the Education Sector to help them to achieve their business objectives through tailored web solutions. We’re exhibiting at the IWMW this year, so pop by our stand to find out more about our work with the higher education institutions. In addition, don’t miss Funnelback Chief Scientist David Hawking’s plenary session “Search Engines in the Fight Against Institutional Impecuniousness” in which he will be discussing ways in which search can be used to increase efficiencies and income.

SearchImprove, Siteimprove’s hosted internal search engine, gives you complete control over your search’s look and feel, ranking weightings, promoted results, language policies and much more, as well as providing detailed search statistics, such as conversion rates. Recently these features were put into practice at Leeds City Council, in which a rolling four month case study was able to demonstrate potential savings of over £3,500 per year on the top five search terms alone. This was achieved through making simple configurations that can be made in a matter of minutes by any SearchImprove customer.

To enter the competition to win the Kindle, Siteimprove have prepared an entry form which includes four multiple choice questions about the use of each entrants internal search engine. The forms will be available from their exhibition stand. A summary of the results, as well as the draw and Kindle presentation will take place on stage during Conclusions Session on Wednesday 27th July.

In recent years Siteimprove have established a real presence within higher education, with 33 of their 130 HE customers worldwide being based in the UK. Almost all of Siteimprove’s HE customers are users of their content quality assurance tool called SiteCheck, but in the past 12 months the first two UK based universities have started using SearchImprove to help ensure visitors are presented with the most relevant search results available.

Last year our sponsored delegates did a fantastic job of helping out with much of the back room work that goes on. Between them they blogged, videoed, interviewed delegates and wrote reviews of sessions.

This year’s sponsored delegates have a lot to live up to.

We’d like to give them an opportunity to introduce themselves, say why they applied and what they hope to get out of the event.

Mike McConnell, University of Aberdeen

I have attended IWMW for around ten years and been part of its associated community for 10 years and the benefits accruing to my institution have been enormous. These include, but are not limited to, advice on selecting and implementing an enterprise level content management system, building a useable information architecture, working with external consultants, legal and policy advice, practical strategies for Web 2.0 use, using data creatively via mash-ups and apps, the use of third party applications like Google Maps, resourcing and staff issues, etc etc.

In terms of my participation I can bring my considerable experience to discussions and am happy to facilitate any parallel sessions if necessary. I would be an enthusiastic participant in any social activity.

We have already signed Mike up as the chair of, what he calls, ‘the hangover shift’ – the Wednesday morning Session on Improving Visability.

Guy Berresford, Web Analyst, University of Nottingham

I would like to attend this year’s IWMW, but my institution is only funding two places. I attended Birmingham, Bath and Sheffield and had a great time at each. I was actually hoping to present one of the parallel sessions at some point.

I have 11 years experience of the web including SEO, Analytics, Adwords, Information Architecture, Usability and user centred design. Being able to attend would be a great opportunity to both share my knowledge and learn from the other attendees.

Guy has offered to use his skills as a photographer and take some photos of plenary speakers, social events and other scenes of interest.

Rich Pitkin, software Engineer, TConsult

I’ve been a software engineer since 1995 working in the defence industry, but have recently joined the family firm and I’m now the company’s Head of Technical Services. My role covers a lot of different areas, but my main focus is developing iPhone apps. I also provide support for the other members of TConsult which sometimes involves supporting my wife at conferences by providing live streaming or video recordings of talks and post production.

Rich is the husband of Kirsty Pitkin, our excellent event amplifier. Rich will be helping us with all things video, including streaming and filming vox pop videos.

Statistics into Decisions

Statistics into Decisions help clients understand their online space with intelligent analysis. The company was founded by Ranjit Sidhu who will be giving a plenary talk at IWMW on OK, we know what you do, so how much is it worth?.
Navopia

Navopia provides usability testing, prototyping with Axure RP, information architecture consultancy, and usability auditing (expert reviews). Keith Doyle, who will be running a parallel workshop on Developing Using Third Parties – is the tail wagging the dog?, is a user experience architect and the founder of Navopia Limited.

The sponsored place will include attendance at the workshop, refreshments and lunch, workshop dinner and one night ensuite accommodation.

If you would like to apply for a sponsored place you should send an email to Marieke Guy, the programme chair of IWMW 2011 by 17:00 on Friday 15th July with details of:

• The benefits you feel that attendance at IWMW 2011 will provide for you and your institution.
• How you feel you can participate at IWMW 2011 in order to enhance the event.

You should also provide details of the reasons you are seeking funding to attend.

You may wish to look at details of last year’s sponsored places to aid your application.

Note that in case of the number of applications exceeding the numbers of sponsored places the IWMW 2011 organising committee will allocate the places based on the information provided in the submissions.

At the time Andy Powell, our Research Programme Director, said:

“there appears to be a continued emphasis (particularly amongst senior members of higher education institutions) on using the web as a way of “marketing the institution to new audiences” rather than meeting the ‘business needs’ of existing members of the institution such as lecturers, students and researchers and other staff.

… despite the growing recognition of value there is a perceived mismatch between the expectations put on the web team and the level of resources made available to them leading to significant ‘time pressures’ for many teams.“

Take part – you could win a HD digital camera

Two years later, has anything changed? We’re inviting IWMW participants to take part in a survey to find out.

The survey will run until 20 July and should take only 5 minutes to complete – and if you do, you’ll be in with a chance to win a HD digital camera.

Free Workshops

The survey findings will help inform some free workshops for Institution Web Managers that we’re planning to run in October or November each year – you can sign up to receive updates on this when you fill in the survey. You can also visit our stand at IWMW to find out more – or just come and say hello!

Edu-who?

Eduserv has been around since 1988. We started life as a collection of services run by and for the education community, based at the University of Bath. We negotiate licences for software and data, develop OpenAthens for single sign-on to resources, and create content-managed sites for the public sector. We also provide a range of hosting services, and have recently been selected as the infrastructure partner for the UMF-funded Cloud Pilot for universities and research.

Find out more about what we do at www.eduserv.org.uk. Eduserv will have a stand at the IWMW 2011 Exhibition.