This session will cover Georgia Tech’s exploration, selection, development, and processes behind Professional Web Presence, a self-hosted and self-maintained WordPress Multisite hosting over 350 faculty and staff websites maintained by over 700 campus accounts (as of March 2016). This session will detail: The exploration process – What issue are we solving? Why solve this issue? What do websites across campuses look like? The evaluation and selection – What systems exist to serve this need? Pros and cons of each? What led to our selection? How do you decide? Develop, and develop some more – What is needed for a rollout? A phase one? Phase two? Long-term growth and feature-sets? What tools exist to aid this scaffolding? What can the community provide? Processes and onboarding – How do you bring in community? Build in comfort? Low-level PHP or web development knowledge is not mandatory for this session. What you’ll learn: What opportunities Self-Service web gives your smaller, independent, research units on campus How to initialize a project to kickstart self-service tools What directions to go in to help scaffold development of your self-service assets (themes, modules), if you're not a subject matter expert in all things code What we've seen from self-service, adoption, and hesitation Opportunities in self-service for brand compliance, brand flexibility, and customization

1. Hosting and Administering Multiuser
CMSs for Higher Education
Eric Scott Sembrat
October 2016
edUi Conference
SaveUs,SelfService!

2. Eric Sembrat
Web Manager at Georgia Tech
Graduate Student at Georgia State
Lives in Atlanta, GA
Ziggy.DOGHubble.DOGSara.FIANCEE
@esembrat
webbeh.com

3. edui@edui: ~$ ./agenda-for-today
1
Common Problems with Web
The issues we all face on a daily basis -
documentation, best practices, and security.
2
Self-Service Web 101
Get the details on what self-service is, who is
leveraging it, and the benefits.
3
How do I Self-Service?
A quick synopsis of the project plan for
selecting a self-service application.
4
Growing Your Application
Now that you have an application, how do
you maintain and extend it for your unit?

4. Oh,OurCommon
WebProblems

5. Whenlookingatlarger
decentralizedorganizations,
there’sacommonthreadin
issuesandproblems
facingwebdevelopment.
thewebisn’talright

6. Branding
Experience
Security
Technology
4areasofconcern:

7. Branding

8. branding
education
ismoreimportant
thanever.

9. branding
however,mostDIY
attempts
are
dreadful

10. examples
let’sseesome

15. Typicallyrequiretechnical
expertisetoaccurately
implement.
brandingresources
Tendtolagbehind
centrally-maintained
trendsandbestpractices.

16. Experience

17. webeditors
smallscaleunitshave
whicharen’tregularwebusers
orwhichhavemanymorejobduties.

18. teachable?
CSS,Javascript,PHP,CMSAPIs…
or,isthereabetterway?

19. Security

20. security
today,we’reforcedtoconfront
fromallareasofweb.

21. ServerLayer
WebApplicationLayer
WebApplicationPlugins
UserAccounts
DDoS
Phishing

23. experts
doweforceourwebuserstobe
inupdatingandsecuritymanagement?

24. access
or,moreimportantly
tosecurityandupdates?
shouldweevengiveend-users
whynot
centralize?

25. Technology

26. websites
howdowekeep
uptospeedonbest-practices?
strictforlegalrequirements?
readyforupcomingtrends?

27. responsive
takethelastbigseismicshift:

28. mediaqueries?
doyoursmallwebsiteownerswrite

29. https
whatabout
?

30. Self-service
totherescue

31. once
wouldn’titbegreatifthese
challengescouldbefixed
forallwebsitesunderan
umbrella?

32. self-service
enter

33. self-service
whatis
anyways?

34. self-serviceseparatesthe
setup&configuration
fromthe
sitemaintenance

35. Sets up configuration.
applicationmaintainers:
end-users:
Selects and configures appearance.
Creates and edits content.
Enables features and plugins.
Applies security + app updates.
Adds new features and plugins.
Develops campus-specific features.
Conducts training.

36. provisioned
websitesare
notconstructed.

37. user-created
contentis
usingcurated/approvedassets.

38. whousesthis?

48. (andmore)

49. SelectaCMSfor
development

50. planning
thekeychallengeis
and
logistics

51. planning
whoisthisintendedfor?
whatismyend-goal?
whatismysuccessmetric?
wherewillthissystemlive?
whatsystemsareavailable?
whatframework/systemwillIuse?

52. logistics
whatfeaturesareneeded?
whatpluginsarerequired?
willIneedatheme?
willIneedcustomplugins?
whatabouttraining?
whataboutdocumentation?

53. cost
and,aboveall
(whatcanweafford?)

54. productprice
costiseitherdeterminedby:
development
price
or(usually)

55. eachhavetheirprosandcons.
productcost

56. eachhavetheirprosandcons.
development
cost

57. howtofind
afteransweringallthequestions
possiblesolutions?

58. 1
talktopeerinstitutions
researchtheirsolutions,
challenges,projects,and
futureoutlook.

59. 2
initiateabetatestgroup
findtestusersinyour
primaryaudiencestoserve
aspristineguineapigs.
theirfeedbackisgenuine.

60. 3
findpotentialsolutions
afterresearch,cometothe
tablewithoptionsfora
solution.
(cost,features,flexibility,etc)

61. 4
test,react,andanalyze
letyourbetatestersexplore.
letthembreakthings.seeif
whatyourgoalsarematch
reality.
makenotes.interview.keep
metrics.

62. 5
touchbasewithreality
lookatresultsand
summarizeallmajorkey
points,challenges,and
successesforeachtool.

63. 6
takeabreak.
you’vedonealotsofar.

64. 7
weigheachoption.
scoresolutionbyits
strengthsandweakness.
comparewithcurrenton-
campussolutions.

65. 8
fin.
younowhavealist
ofsolutionsthatfit
yourrequirements.

66. customization
armedwithdata,nowit’sallabout

67. Customization
andgrowth

68. campus
integration
thetime-consumingcreature

69. development
usuallyinvolves
work

70. thingstoconsider:
whatcustomservicesexist?
whatarethebrandingrequirements?
whatunitswillneedtoworkwith?
newcampusinitiatives?

71. whatcustomservicesexist?
considerfacultydatabases,news/
eventservices,userauthentication,
etc.

72. integrating
thevalueof
shouldoutweighresources

73. standardize
theseserviceswould
practicesandworkflow.

74. buy-in
andcreatethealmighty
forprospectiveusers.

75. whatarethebrandingrequirements?
legalrequirementsforaccessibility.
brandingcampaigns,logousage,and
header/footerrequirements.

76. edge-cases
keepinmind
fortheodd-balls.

77. whatunitswillneedtoworkwith?
thinkaboutorganizationsthathave
complementaryservices,suchasthe
domainregistrar.

78. partners
thinkof
andaffectedunitsoncampus.

79. newcampusinitiatives?
lookaheadtoupcomingtrends,
policies,campaigns,initiativesand
planaccordingly.

80. Casestudy:
GeorgiaTech

81. pwp.gatech.edu

82. goals:
OutletforLab/Center/PersonalWebsites
StandardizeandExtendBranding
MitigatelegacyCMSsecurityvulnerabilities
Meetneedofabloggingplatform
ProvideeasierCMSthanon-campusDrupal

83. whodidwelookat?
GeorgiaStateUniversity
OpenScholar
DrupalMultisite

84. howdidwechoose?
Ourtestusersandtheirresponses.

85. whatdidwedevelop?
GTtheme(GTBoilerplate).
GTbrandingplugin.
GTCASplugin.
GTSiteMaintenanceplugin.
GTnews/eventsplugin(WIP).
GTdirectoryplugin(WIP).

86. currentchallenges
Maintainedby0.2FTEtimeover3staff.
Enhancedsecuritymeasures.
Back-portingDrupaltoWordPress.

87. questions?

88. Eric Sembrat
Web Manager at Georgia Tech
eric.sembrat@coe.gatech.edu
@esembrat
webbeh.com