June 2010 AgriLife Web Meetup

[Travis Ward]

Hey AgriLife Web Folk-

Sorry for the late notice, but we've finally secured a location for
our meet-up on Tuesday, June 8th from 3:00pm - 5:00pm. We'll be
meeting at the Evan's Library room 204a.

I'll echo Max's discussion topics from his save the date announcement:

1. The main College web site is moving into a new template design
within the Percussion CMS. The template is much more strongly aligned
with the current Research, Extension, and TVMDL templates. Wanted to
preview that for those who haven't seen it yet (we've given multiple
show and tells to varying groups within the College, including
Department Heads), and explain rationale behind some of the elements
that have been included/excluded.

2. Based on the new Percussion template that the College will be
moving into, we will be also moving all Percussion CMS based sites
into the new template to take advantage of the improved look, feel,
and functionality. ( I think you'll all really like the openness and
optional navigation available on the new templates). It also means
that on a page-by-page basis, site owners will be able to select which
template is used, finally allowing for the separation of College,
Research and Extension content on the same site. For those in
Percussion already, this should be a pretty straightforward 'flip-the-
switch' kind of transition, but we want to discuss timing issues and
have a Q&A before we engage in any of that.

3. In partnership with AIT, we have also developed several new
Percussion content types that allow for easier implementation of front
page column layouts, slideshows, etc. We want to show those off and do
a mini-training.

4. We wanted to announce officially our support for the WordPress CMS
option. We have been running it in pseudo-beta mode for the last few
months, and it has proven out to be a great solution for many of our
customers and partners. We currently have a Texas A&M AgriLife theme,
Extension theme, and multi-agency theme, and are working on finalizing
a Research and College theme. This means that when new sites are
produced, or existing site migrated, they will be able to choose
between our Percussion CMS (better for bigger, more static sites) and
WordPress (better for smaller, more dynamic sites).

5. I'm going to invite representatives of AgriLife IT to briefly
discuss any updates pertaining to some pretty major new infrastructure
changes they'll be putting in place in the coming months as part of a
larger IT initiative. Much of it affects web and online capabilities
in a very good way and I'd love for them to share some of that
information.

6. We're putting a new web site and process in place soon for incoming
and managing projects (web and otherwise) at AgriLife Communications,
and I'll look forward to briefly going over that with everyone.

7. Finally, I want to get a chance to introduce Travis Ward officially
as the new Web Production Manager in AgriLife Communications as I
complete my transition to the role of Associate Director which began
in January. Travis and the web team have been going gangbusters in the
last few months, and I'd like for you all to have the chance to meet
him, hear more about all they've been working on, and get his take on
next steps for the web in Texas A&M AgriLife.


I am looking forward to meeting some of y'all IRL.

Thanks,

Travis

Texas A&M AgriLife Communications