The Integration Challenge

Bringing Web Management

Systems Together

Eric Behrens
Swarthmore College
 Web Archaeology

Archaeology … is the peeping Tom of the

sciences. It is the sandbox of men who care not
where they are going; they merely want to know
where everyone else has been.
--Jim Bishop
 The <Angle Bracket> Age
• The creation of the initial hierarchy of
interrelated pages
• Focused on content presentation/distribution
• Essentially libertarian
• Big challenges were user training, design, and
organizational buy-in.
• Emblematic tool is the WYSIWYG HTML
editor
• Emblematic product is a department home page
 The Submit Button Age
• Scripting & dynamic content development
• Focused on information transactions
• Essentially bureaucratic/administrative
• Big challenges were meeting client demand,
technical staff recruitment/retention, ROI,
scalability
• Emblematic tool is Cold Fusion
• Emblematic product is online registration
 The Age of Industrialization
• Proliferation of commercial and open source
applications to manage and manipulate general or
specialized content databases on the web
• Answering scalability
• Essentially egalitarian
• Big challenges include funding, project
management, customization and integration
• Emblematic tool is Blackboard Learning System
(with developer API’s)
• Emblematic end-user project is a Blog
 Blackboard, WebCT,
Sakai

Ingeniux, WWW Presentation

RedDot, .NET
Portal(s)

ContentDM, Course Management

Luna Insight,
DSpace Content Management Information
Digital Asset Management Management Systems
End-user Administrative Applications
Library Management

One-Card/
Information
ERP Directory Services Scheduling Commerce Infrastructure
The Challenges At Hand
Strategic Planning vs. Reactive Thinking
• Integration requires strategic planning
• Adapting to the flavors-of-the-month and
disruptive technologies
• Responding appropriately to distracting
ideas
• Importance vs. urgency
 Communication
• Connecting projects to core mission(s) for
senior staff and other decision makers
• Few aware of full extent of project
relationships & interdependencies
• Disagreement, competition (What? Never.)
• Marketing: before or after implementation?
 Staff
• Job splintering
• Sharing the load
• Alignment of the stars’ stars
• Retention and/or knowledge transfer
 Best of Breed vs. Single Vendor
• Maximizing the value of web management
systems
• Risk scenarios
– Vendor lock
– Customization lock
– Opportunity Cost
• The finality of product selection.
 A Very Little Advice
• Strategic planning takes time
• Strategic planning takes place at and between
multiple layers of organization
• Our institutions rely on our stewardship
• A lot of small goods can equal excellence
• Wait for the Ideal? Speed/agility are also virtues
• Mind the store
Now for the pep talk…
Go, team, go!
Fight, Fight for the inner light,
Kill, Little Quakers, Kill!
-Traditional Swarthmore cheer