B2: Web CMS and University Web Teams Part II - the Never Ending Story? Discussions - IWMW 2008

Chapter 3 – in which the Project Manager is impressed by the number of replies to the group and shares his experiences of presentation creation

2008-07-17T15:58:46.133Z

Firstly I want to say thanks for the activity in this group. Having an understanding about people’s requirements before the session is always helpful. Claire and I have been busy tailoring away to make sure the time you spend with us will be as focused and useful as possible. In fact, this knowledge has provided an additional spur to ensure that the presentation is ready ahead of time. I think that this is a first for me as we’ve now got a clear idea of what we’re going to say. In fact we’ve got so far as to fire up PowerPoint, debate at unnecessary length which theme to use, get writer’s block, create far too many slides, edit them, add some pictures, remove the unsuitable ones, realise we were trying to answer every single question, work out the presentation would take three days to deliver, fillet it and get it back down to a more manageable length and then agree that we had what we thought would be most useful. So, apart from the usual pre-presentation jitters (which can be dealt with sensibly by the application of neat whisky to the affected areas – never more than a pint though!) I think we are ready to go.
This is likely to be my last contribution, unless of course more people decide they want to add comments and contributions. That being the case Claire or I will gladly respond either by the power of the spoken or written word. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone next week and if you’ve suffered from an attack of Oracle Portal, I’ll willingly share my medicine with you.

Chapter 2 - in which the project manager startles himself by contributing twice in one week to the ongoing blog

2008-06-19T14:59:33.368Z

Claire and I have leapt forward in the creation of our presentation. Up to now we’ve had at least four team meetings in which we’ve agreed that we must get started and several meetings where we’ve entertained ourselves massively but actually produced very little. I guess to legitimise the activities we could call the previous meetings brainstorming but as Andy, one of the technical members of our project team would have it ‘the signal to noise ratio is very low’ or as a farming friend says ‘plenty of churn, but no butter’. You get the picture.
However, today was different. We’d arranged our meeting (which I thought was going to be about Highlight reports and risk logs – project manager that I am) but Claire adroitly suggested we should now, no really, now! Recognise that we’d better focus on producing something. After all, an hour and a half is a long time to sit and listen to someone dribble on. I know, I’ve sat through presentations, grinding my teeth feeling angry and resentful that someone is stealing my life from me and I’ll never get it back.
So we worked. The blessed relief of actually getting something done was balm to my fraying nerves. The outcome is that we have produced a decent skeleton for the presentation. We’ll continue to work on it over the next couple of weeks and I’m hoping that as the fateful day draws closer other delegates (that have so gamely signed up to attend) may ask questions or make contributions that will further clothe our skeleton with the meat and sinew of knowledge and purposefulness.
I’m beginning to look forward to this!

Chapter 1 - in which one of the co-presenters expresses his reluctance to engage in social networking but nevertheless is consumed by anticipatory excitement

2008-06-16T14:57:38.334Z

Good Grief! I'm glad I didn't pay to have that photo taken. However, it's a first in that I usually hide behind a set of carefully chosen, cultishly ironic/iconic avatars. But as I'm one of the presenters it is probably better that you get a facsimile of me, no matter how crudely executed rather than turn up expecting to hear from Samurai Jack.
Up ‘til now I haven't been fan of social networking. I've brushed with blogging, My Space, Face book and Second life amongst others, but the demands of real life with its rather more urgent reward/penalty structure means that like many others (having been poked once too many times by some 'genuine pharma meds' 'friend'), I withdrew; for the time being anyway. So why contribute to this piece of social networking? Well in no particular order of priority,
• It’s specific to the conference so doesn't need to go on and on to the point where I'm writing lists of my top ten favourite lyrics or my favourite colour cat hair or clouds that resemble celebrities.
• A space to say hello and welcome to potential participants of Claire and my presentation.
• It allows me to work in some Gartner phraseology that I heard at a recent conference which deserves a wider audience; knowledge wardrobe anyone?
• Ascertain by group consensus whether there is an actual number by which death-by-PowerPoint does occurs and if so, how we avoid it.
• Finally, whether anyone is prepared to share, ahead of our talk some of the issues they are currently facing or have had to overcome concerning implementing a WCMS. If information can be shared ahead of our talk, it will enable Claire and I to tailor our presentation and move it from a rough hewn Primark suit to an artfully designed, bespoke accessory that would complement all our ‘knowledge wardrobes’.

Sorry.
I look forward to your responses and contributions.