Juggling skills required

Much time is spent trying to juggle schedules and rooms and equipment for audio recordings I'm hoping to post online. The cart definitely is before the horse in this process, because I know what I want the end product to be but getting the pieces together has me running for the Nice 'n Easy box.

Several hours last week were spent coordinating a professor, a student, a room, a facilities work order and procuring a digital recorder from a neighboring department for a photo gallery/slide show project. The house of cards came tumbling down when my professor needed to reschedule. I've been able to get the student, the professor, the room and the facilities work order but I don't have a digital recorder because the one I was going to use is not available.

Our photographer is planning on ordering a digital recorder for our office but I don't know if it will be here by Friday. Borrowing a recorder from the communications department may be possible but I understand through the grapevine that this is similar to infiltrating Fort Knox.

Other universities must also be feeling this frustration as we scramble to pull together interesting things for the Web with limited resources.

Hurry up and spit it out!

I was reading copy for a magazine story and felt myself getting really annoyed. Working in the Web world for the last 12 months has made me an impatient reader. When I pick up my night-stand novel before bedtime, I am happy to relax and enjoy the slower pace of Bleak House. In my day life, however, there is a definite aggravation factor involved in reading the longer piece. I read and read (two whole paragraphs) and still did not discover the point of the article. Why is the writer doing this to me? It felt like the author was disrespecting my time. This is not a good thing when I put on my print-publication editor persona. To resolve, I think I'll need to put the alumni magazine printout on my nightstand and read before bed!

Faculty glimpse

Last night I put together some Q and A pages on faculty members. The original idea was "short and sweet"-quick somewhat personal glimpse into the real lives of faculty members. I had three in the hopper. Two of which really are short and sweet and one longer version where a professor spent a good deal of time responding to questions. I have a feeling that the longer one will be the one that gets the most interest because it has more words and "looks" better but in my web mind, it's the short, quick Q and As that are more fast and fun. The shorter ones are more like what I imagine I'd have the time to look at. Quick questions, quick answers, in and out, know a bit more than I did, finished. The longer version, just says too much. I have to read to find answers. Again the dichotomy between what I'd like to think my reader is interested in and how much time she has to devote to the page and the truth that my reader has about 10 seconds before having to move on.

Campus blogging for collaboration

If communication is a problem on campus--the right hand not knowing what the left is doing--would a blog help? My newest brainchild is creating a blog where people on campus could write about their ideas, plans, events, with the end result being that faculty/students/staff around campus might be able to lend resources or help with making an idea a reality. There might be possibilities for cross-campus collaboration that would not have been discovered through the normal route. But I'm wondering how to create a blog that people want to contribute to...one that is vibrant, lively, and used. Will need to research this!