IT Department Website
2011 Overhaul
Cath Noble – IT-DI-LCG
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
February 2011
Overview
• Motivation
• Proposal
• Roles, workflow, training
• Migration & retirement
• Prototype
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Summary
2
IT website has a problem…
• Information fragmented and hard-to-find
– 300+ independent websites
• Majority based on previous department structures
• Lots of sites, lots of conflicting information
– “Variations on a theme” template make usability
difficult and unpredictable
• Navigation is unstructured & has often disintegrated
– Search doesn’t work
– Target audience is not clear
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
3
IT website still has a problem…
• Information is unreliable
– Content maintenance… hit-n-miss!
• Owners come, owners go
– No archive policy
• Overall consistency, coherency and
usability has been lost.
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
4
Overview
• Motivation
• Proposal
• Roles, workflow, training
• Migration & retirement
• Prototype
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Summary
5
Proposal – our main audiences
• Analysis of search keyphrases, top URL hits
& information-gathering missions show
three main audiences
1. CERN-wide
 New users and visitors
 Other departments
 Users – general
 Users – specialised
2. IT Staff
3. Interested Public
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
Help
Access to IT-related Services
Information about IT and Dept
‘Internal’ site for IT staff
About IT and Dept,
Computing at CERN
6
Proposal - the aim
• An official hub/portal for all IT-related
communications and services
– audience- and service-based architecture
• complements the Service Catalogue
– centralised management of structure
• Coherent ‘storyline’ in navigation, look&feel
– automated wherever possible
• Reduce manual intervention
– regularly maintained
• Trusted, reliable content
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Change the way the IT website is managed
and hosted.
7
Proposal – in practice
• As much official content as possible will be:
– migrated and created
using Drupal content
management system
– managed under one address:
cern.ch/departments/it/
» provisional URL – to be approved
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
8
Overview
• Motivation
• Proposal
• Roles, workflow, training
• Migration & retirement
• Prototype
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Summary
9
Who?
• Concrete implementation of new site
– New build & initial information structure
• IT Webmaster
– Routine site maintenance & co-ordination
• IT Webmaster
– Drupal backbone
• Drupal Support Team / OIS
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
10
Who?
• Providing and publishing content
– Web Content Team
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
•
•
IT Webmaster
Service Content Providers - SCP
– Ideally your Service Catalogue person
– Helpdesk MoD, Secretariat, willing individuals
•
No longer ‘Group Webmaster’ role
11
Who?
• Decision on ‘official’ content depends on the
Service Owner or GL of SCP
– Total flexibility on content
• Complement Service Catalogue where necessary
• You have 100% decision over what is published
• Delegate to SCP for decision
– Prototype framework provided for guidance
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
12
Who?
• Content maintenance
– Service Content Provider (SCP) is responsible
•
No need to notify the IT Webmaster every time there is
an update
– IT Webmaster responsible for:
• Some top level content, general landing pages
–
IT Webmaster to trigger regular, general
maintenance overviews
• Early stages: “Chase’n’check” the SCPs ~2 months
• Less frequent with stabilisation of Service Catalogue,
SCP familiarity with content maintenance duties
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
13
Workflow – new content
SCP/SO to decide what official content + information structure desired
IT Webmaster notified by SCP/SO
Feasibility of creating
content in Drupal / IT site
Appropriate referencing of
new content
Content validation
workflows
IT Webmaster creates initial zone/permissions for new
content under cern.ch/departments/it
SCP creates and populates new pages, adds to permitted menus etc
SCP works with IT Webmaster to enhance structure/permissions etc if more advanced
requirements
SCP responsible for content maintenance
IT Webmaster to trigger regular content overviews with SCPs
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
14
Workflow – revising content
SCP/SO decision to update/revise content
SCP updates/creates content, menus etc
Validation/publication of draft passed to either:
Service Owner
or
SCP
Content published
IT Webmaster to trigger regular content overviews with SCPs
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
15
Drupal Training
• New site designed to minimise need for
SCP training.
– Content structure provided – very easy to add
content
• No formal training sessions planned
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
– Informal basic training can be provided by IT
Webmaster
– www.cern.ch/entice community is helpful
16
Overview
• Motivation
• Proposal
• Roles, workflow, training
• Migration & retirement
• Prototype
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Summary
17
Migration – first stage
• All “turquoise template” sites
– All sites listed under “Additional Information” in
the Service Catalogue
– Will go to the IT site Reference section
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
18
Migration – second stage
• All “no-template” sites will follow.
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
19
Migration - optional
• Twikis have their own universe
• In principle will not be touched.
• However more than welcome to join
cern.ch/departments/it/… if desired
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
20
Migration - unlikely
• “Self-contained universe” or established/branded
IT websites will not be migrated
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
21
Retirement
•
Implement ‘Good Housekeeping’ and
Archiving as a policy
–
–
•
Archive sites if of value
Delete if obviously rubbish
How?
–
Archiving options under discussion
•
•
–
Content maintenance-tracking possibility in
Drupal.
•
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
Identifying sites…. Big task….
T. Bell, A. Wagner, D. Noyes
Process not perfect but better than what we have
now.
22
Overview
• Motivation
• Proposal
• Roles, workflow, training
• Migration & retirement
• Prototype
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
• Summary
23
The prototype
www.cern.ch/it-test
A working Search
Respects the CERN
Consistent global navigation
graphic charter
across entire site
Targeted audiences
Complements the
Service Catalogue
Automated
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
24
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
Presentation title - 25
Summary
•
•
•
•
A tool: Drupal
Site hosted & managed on one address
Create a dedicated Web Content Team
Working prototype: www.cern.ch/it-test
• GLM help needed
– Review proposal + prototype
– Feedback for improvements
– Support the set-up of the Web Content Team
• Ensure SCP role is taken seriously
– The go-ahead to build…
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
26
Supplementary material
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
When?
Drupal 7
released
December ’10
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
CERN Theme
D7 version to
be stabilised
URL to be
decided by
DG/CO team
Initial
construction
assured by IT
webmaster
~2/3 months
SCP to
build/populate
their pages
1 month
Go ahead
from DHO /
final tweaks
2 weeks
OIS/Drupal
Support /
Computer
Security
OK to go live
1 week
Online
28
Example
?
CERN IT Department
CH-1211 Genève 23
Switzerland
www.cern.ch/it
29