BLINK Research Portal Project
Jason DeFay
Director, eResearch Administration
Office of Research Affairs
Project Objective
Move existing web content from multiple department
web servers & move to CMS
Benefits
Self-serve page maintenance by content owners reduces
stale content
Reduces site maintenance due to changing style guidelines
Easier to maintain content - IT staff don’t create
bottlenecks
Greater accountability for content ownership via metadata (last update date & ‘Author’)
Convenient staging environment!
Built in multisite redundancy for continuity planning
Requirements
Create a non-Blink public facing page for
external visitors
Create an internal facing Research Portal with
“life-cycle” focused content
Create Blink Sponsor pages for individual
departments/programs
Assign individual ownership to pages and/or
taxonomy parent areas to run reports on
content aging and/or direct content inquiries
Challenges
Process pages (research life cycle) maintained on multiple
department web sites and servers (OCGA, ORA, TTO, Health
Sciences, CMS, etc.)
Unclear and/or overlapping ownership of individual pages /
content areas
Content gaps / incomplete content
Overly detailed content
Old content
Redundant content
Needed to address and move beyond legacy conflicts
between ACT and VC over ownership/control of web content
Context
Leadership support from main VC office, 1 key department
and ACT
Small project team (1 CWO, 2 SME & 1 w/ copy editing and
technical writer experience assigned full responsibility for
page creation)
SMEs had power/authority to make decisions for a significant
portion of key content and create taxonomy for future
content
2 research 'Process Frameworks' established previously
helped accelerate project.
1 based on CWO card sorting process
1 based on VC level needs
Factors Affecting Project Success
Biweekly team meetings
Developed 2 phase strategy approach to first aggregate content into Blink
Sponsor sites, then move that content to research portal
Periodic consultation with key stakeholders to make sure project team
was heading the right direction - allowed for several minor course
corrections instead of major changes or 'no go' at the end
Used “Free Mind” Mind Map tool to develop and fine tune research
taxonomy. Revised frequently and made available to all team members to
use as project road map
Dedicated resource with available bandwidth, experience, skills and access
to create content was essential for project success
VC SME introduced Content Editor to potential "content owners" and he
served as their 'personal content facilitator'. During this process we
assigned area/topical/page ownership to that individual via CMS
Factors Affecting Project Success
Project took approximately 1 year to complete
Not all departments able to migrate content to CMS and/or
Research Portal. Reasons include:
No ability to filter by IP address or force user
authentication
No ability to host dynamic content
Lack of bandwidth / bad timing
Now that framework/taxonomy has been established, SMEs
have assigned portal improvements/updates/maintenance
responsibility to individual unit (eRAP)
Original SMEs and CWO remain engaged to help ensure new
content evolves appropriately & help facilitate/resolve issues
Factors Affecting Project Success
As of today, most VC Research sites are in CMS/Blink
including:
Office of Research Affairs
Office of Contract & Grant Administration
Conflict of Interest
Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholars
Export Control
Electronic Research Administration Program
Research Affairs information Technology Support Unit
IACUC Office (in progress)
Questions