Web Strategy and Development Blog

Missouri HighEdWeb Conference Recap

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We recently attended Missouri’s regional HighEdWeb one-day conference. We had a great day and got lots of good information from our peers around the state. Here’s some of the information members of our office learned:

Brad:

  • When designing and implementing a new website, you have to manage expectations of others at your institution. It’s impossible to please everyone.
  • Hackers will often use university websites for cross site scripting, because people trust websites that end in .edu.
  • Audio and video is much easier to find via search engines if a transcription is included with the media.
  • You can use e-cards as gifts that people can give to one another on Facebook. The Gift Creator application is an easy way to brand your own gift-giving Facebook app and have students, alumni and fans use to share branded imagery from your university.

Sara:

  • You need to use several layers of protection on web applications to prevent cross site scripting:
    • Input filtering when possible
    • Input validation
    • Output encoding
    • Using an intrusion detection system, such as PHPIDS or .NETID
    • Tidying the output, such as with HTML Purifier

Brian:

  • Several markup strategies will improve your search ranking:
    • Use TITLE tags (Web Press: check)
    • Limit dynamically generated pages (check)
    • Use semantic markup (check)
    • Use META tags (check)
    • Keep presentation (CSS) and functionality (JS) external (check)
    • Microformat addresses (now planned)

Missouri State University News Site Updated

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NewsThe updated version of the Missouri State University News web site went live on Monday, August 3rd. The new site utilizes WordPress as a publishing platform with a custom design and interface. Since the updated site only contains news content, a separate web site was also created for the Office of University Communications in Web Press.

Along with a new layout and design, the updated News site also has these new features:

  • Featured Story
    There is a new area on the front page that allows for a featured story that includes an image associated with it.
  • Podcasting
    There is a new Podcast section on the website that includes both audio and video podcasts. Users can listen to or watch the three most recent podcasts on the front News page by clicking on the name of the podcast to stream it in their web browser. An option to subscribe to the podcast is also available through RSS.
  • Search Function
    Users can now search within the News site itself by typing in a keyword in the ‘Search News’ search box in the grey bar at the top of the page.
  • Consolidation of content
    The previous content areas of Faculty & Staff Accomplishments, Student Accomplishments, and the Out In Front blog have now been consolidated into an overall Accomplishment category.
  • Integration of Audio and Video
    There is a simple way to add audio and video content to a news release, whether that be the main focus of the news release or supplemental material. Any audio or video included in a news release will be embedded in that story and include an audio or video player so users can stream the media from the page they are viewing.
  • Multiple Archives
    Content is archived by the month it was posted as well as by news category.
  • Linking to other Missouri State Social Media sites
    There is a new section called Missouri State Media that includes new icons and links to other University social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes U, and Blogs.
  • Tags
    All news releases and posts are now tagged with keywords. Users can use these tags to find similar articles with the same tags, searching for content with specific tags, or to see all posts with a particular tag. The most popular tags are shown on the front page of the News site, and every news release shows it’s tags at the bottom of the story. Users can also get an RSS feed of a particular tag by adding ‘feed’ to the end of the URL.
  • Multiple RSS Feeds
    There is an overall RSS feed which includes all news, as well as separate RSS feeds for each news category (News Releases, Hot Topics, and Accomplishments) and another RSS feed for podcasts.

This was a collaborative effort between the offices of Web and New Media and University Communications and could not have been accomplished without the help from all of the staff in both offices. I’d like to thank everyone in University Communications for all of their great recommendations and for coming along on the ride of taking the News web site to the next level.

iTunes U content available in new iPhone/iPod Touch OS

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With this week’s OS 3.0 update to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, users can now access Missouri State on iTunes U directly on their mobile device. The easiest way is to navigate to http://itunesu.missouristate.edu on your mobile browser and click on the ‘Open Missouri State on iTunes U’ button. This will automatically open iTunes on your device and go directly to Missouri State on iTunes U.

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Another option is to open iTunes on your mobile device and navigate to the ‘More’ tab, and then select iTunes U. Scroll down to Universities & Colleges, then scroll down to find Missouri State University. Here is what Missouri State on iTunes U will look like on your mobile device:

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UPDATE: Apple now has a great video online showing you how to access iTunes U on your iPhone or iPod Touch.