Many of the campus web development problems have been caused by the lack of recognition of the 

roles necessary to establish an effective web presence.  Too often a person who should be (by skill set 

and job description) in the role of system administrator or content expert is responsible for all facets 

of a unit's web development.  

This role based scheme can be thought of as a complexity hiding mechanism.  The person filling each 

role only sees the items they are expert in without having to worry about the other parts.  This allows 

people to use and build skills in their areas of core competency without spending time and resources 

on other roles in the web publishing effort.  For example, it should be theoretically possible for a 

content expert in a unit to see a published web page, notice that something is incorrect on the page, 

very simply put that page in  editing mode,  and make the change immediately. Currently, it is 

common for the content expert to email a description of the edit or change to the web 

developer/system administrator. 

This role based scheme is not intended to imply that everyone needs at least five people to publish 

effectively, but rather that each of the five roles must be effectively filled with someone who has the 

skills to adequately perform the functions of the role. For example, in a smaller unit the same person 

could fill the role of system admin and web developer, provided they had the skills to do both.  Many 

units will also find it useful to outsource the provision of one or more of these roles to other units on 

campus.  While in almost every case the content experts should reside in the unit (although an outside 

editor could be called in), most units don't need their own system administrator and should instead be 

able to rely on centralized or divisional server hosting services. 

The understanding of supervisors for people acting in each of these roles is also crucial. Supervisors 

need to be aware of the level of resources that it takes to establish and particularly, to maintain 

current information on the web.  

In is clear that for many units it will take some effort over time to migrate to this role based strategy.  

Understanding this role based model should inform allocating resources, writing job descriptions, 

training required for those filling the roles in web development, and an assessing outsourcing needs. 

Information Architect 

The role and skill set of the Information Architect is important enough to merit special mention. This is 

probably one of the most neglected and crucial roles.  It is also a difficult role that requires specialized 

and rare skills.  The value of having someone who understands how information relates to other 

information, and how to organize your content cannot be understated.  Many issues concerning user 

interface, ease of finding information, interoperability with other campus web sites, etc. can be greatly 

improved by an information architect.  However, information architects have a specialized role and are 

especially needed in the planning phases of projects.  Many units may choose to outsource this 

function, perhaps from a centralized web unit. For more information about the role of information 

architects, see Appendix 3: Information Architect.  

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Web Services Committee 

Page 11 

May 28, 2002