internal pages

[Prentiss Riddle]

> From: Barbara Moore <BMOO at db1.cc.rochester.edu>
> Subject: internal pages
> 
> Does anyone know of a web site -- University or otherwise -- which
> makes a distinction between internal and external information?  Here
> at the University of Rochester we are debating the pro's and con's
> of having an internal and external home page or having a link from
> the home page that says something like "internal stuff of interest
> to the University community but may be boring to others."
> 
> This is not internal information that we want to restrict from outsiders;
> rather it is internal information that some outsiders may want to see but
> on the whole "clutters" up the page.

Here at Rice we're nearing the end of a major reorganization of our
university web site.  Early in the process there were voices calling
for multiple top-level views, not only for insiders and outsiders but
for students, faculty and staff.

I argued against this proposal because I believe there is a need for a
single, common arrangement of information.  One reason for this is that
people need common reference points in order to be able to describe to
each other how to navigate through the web.  While URLs are wonderful
when you're sitting at a keyboard, I don't think most people can
precisely remember the URLs of the pages they visit, and it's even more
difficult to pass a URL along to a colleague when you're away from a
computer.  When professor X meets professor Y at a conference, it's
good to be able to say something like:

    ``Start at the top RiceInfo page (you know, "www.rice.edu"), then
    select "Departmental Web Pages", scroll down to "English", then
    look under "Faculty Papers".  There you'll find my paper on Grass
    and Garcia Marquez in South Asian literature.  You might also like
    my colleague Jane Doe's piece on subaltern studies.''

(Needless to say, the example is made up. :-) )

What we *did* do was try to come up with clear categories that would
make sense for all the different sets of users we expected to come into
our system.  We ordered these categories with first-time and occasional
users in mind, putting visitors' and prospective students' information
at the top, and administrative information at the bottom.

Note that the "single, common arrangement of information" isn't a rigid
hierarchy.  When an item logically falls into multiple categories, we
list it in multiple places.

If you're curious, you can see our work in progress at:

	http://www.rice.edu/new

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle at rice.edu
-- RiceInfo Administrator, Rice University / http://is.rice.edu/~riddle
-- Home office: 2002-A Guadalupe St. #285, Austin, TX 78705 / 512-323-0708
-- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.