» Next Entries

Next WJ

Next WJ
The Next WebJunction: navigation tabs
June 30th, 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments
A new site is the result of a host of decisions both large and small. One of the more important decisions has to do with defining the top-level information buckets on the site. In the case of the next WJ, with so much new and exciting functionality, there are both functional and conceptual implications to these top-level nav decisions that, we hope, will give you insight into the possibilities for the new site. Here’s a preview:

The first thing to note is the My WebJunction tab–this along with the related Public Profiles (available from just about anywhere you see another member’s name) gives you a *social* view of information, based on what you and others have identified as important and interesting.

As before, there’s a Courses tab so you can easily get to e-learning resources.

Next you’ll see that we’ve pushed *subjects* (Library Services, Technology, Library Management) to the forefront: in the next WJ we’ve integrated documents and discussions together onto *topic pages*; while courses currently live in their own catalog (and people do like to search for them there), in the course of time we have plans to add course listings to topic pages as well. This means subjects are more visible, making it easier for you to get more quickly to what you want to know about.

Finally is the Member Center, the place to go for help and best practices for using WebJunction’s wide array of new interactive capabilities.

And to complete our Tab Tour, here’s the tabbed layout that appears on a typical topic page:
- Overview is the “home page” of the topic page, where page managers can keep you informed about key resources on the topic.
- Documents lists articles and uploaded files on the topic–and allows you to post your own.
- On Discussion you can view and contribute to discussion threads on the topic.
Our intent is that these design decisions will get you closer to the information you want in the most suitable format. We look forward to hearing what you think!
Next WJ
Just Submit, You’ll Be Instantly Rewarded
June 15th, 2008 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Got expertise? Need instant gratification? One of the most exciting things about the next WebJunction is direct-to-Web publishing, which will give members an immediate way to showcase content to advance the cause of libraries.

How will this work? You have an article or document that you want to contribute. You find a WebJunction page that is dedicated to the topic you’re interested in. Just click the Submit Document button on that page. Add your content—enter the text for your article, include images, add attachments/downloadables. Allow comments and ratings to encourage feedback and peer review. Click Post

Your contribution is now live on the site. You have added to the collective expertise on WebJunction. Bravo.
Next WJ, Online Learning
Next WebJunction: Changes Coming to our Course Catalog
June 9th, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?

As we continue preparing for the launch of our new WebJunction platform I am excited to share with you one of the changes we are making with our course catalog.

When we launch the new WebJunction platform we will be making a change in course providers for our Desktop Application, Web Development, Business Skills, and Server courses. WebJunction has been using MindLeaders for these courses, but after some extensive research, feedback from members and libraries we have decided to make a change to SkillSoft for these courses. After talking with library staff and trainers we identified a need for more modular course content covering a wider breadth of topics.

We feel that the content and format of the SkillSoft courses will benefit the library community and allow library staff to better fit learning into their daily work. The courses are modular in nature and on average are 2-3 hours in time since they are specific to a particular topic such as Forms and Functions in Excel. A WebJunction member will be able to identify a specific courses topic they are interested in learning about.

Once you launch the course you can choose to go through in a linear fashion through the content and tests or go to a specific part of the course where you are looking to increase your knowledge (click screenshot above for full-size example of the WJ/SkillSoft interface). This functionality will provide busy library staff with a more just-in-time learning experience, as well as make it easy to see where they left off in a previous visit to the course. Library staff will be able to start and stop courses while easily tracking their progress in an individual course.
Next WJ, Online Collaboration
Little boxes on the web site
June 6th, 2008 | Permalink | 4 Comments

There are a lot of new capabilities coming with the next WebJunction, that you’ll be hearing more about in the coming weeks. I wanted to tell you a little bit about the fundamental building blocks of our new site: “portlets.”

Despite the somewhat amusing name, they’re not what you might think. Portlets are actually “pluggable user interface components that are managed and displayed in a web portal” (See Wikipedia for more). In other word, boxes of functionality that can be added, removed, and moved around as needed to serve up the capabilities you need. There are portlets created by the Liferay community (the open-source portal environment we’re using), portlets we’ve created ourselves … and in the course of time we look forward to seeing portlets created by members of the WJ community. For our launch we’ll be offering a core set of portlets, arranged in consistent ways to help everyone get used to the functionality of the new site; in the course of time we have plenty of potential to make functionality available in a wide variety of ways.

The bottom line is that the next WJ will be a very flexible and extensible environment for displaying all sorts of functionality (content, social interaction, learning, and more) in all sorts of ways. We’ll be sharing a lot more about the details of that functionality in future posts, but it’s all built on a portlet architecture that opens up a world of possibilities for interaction that can evolve over time to meet the community’s needs.
Next WJ
WJ Advocates Sneaking a Peek
June 5th, 2008 | Permalink | 4 Comments

We’re just finishing up a webinar with our WJ Advocates that included a “sneak peek” at the next WebJunction!

Lot’s of excitement in the ‘room’ as Michael Porter gave a tour of the new tools and features that will be available later this summer when we launch the new and improved WebJunction. If you’re not a part of the WJ Advocates nows the time to join in the fun and be a part of the group who’s getting the inside scoop!

If you didn’t attend the sneak peek, rest assured, you’re going to be hearing much more about what’s coming. If you’re heading to ALA, they’ll be plenty of opportunities to hear more at the WebJunction ALA doings and if you won’t be there, be sure to come to the Public Preview on July 1, 11 PT/ 2 ET.

If you’d like to be a part of the WJ Advocates group, stay posted in the WJ Advocates Discussion and fill out the advocate contact form so we can connect with you in these exciting times leading up to launch later this summer!
Community Building, Next WJ, Online Collaboration, Tim
WebJunction Community Guidelines: Your thoughts please
May 22nd, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?

As we slosh around here knee-deep in preparation for the next WebJunction it seems like I can’t swing a toad without hitting something in the middle of a little freshening up. Aside from the obvious nifty factor of a brand new site, one elephant-sized byproduct of a culture of change is that it leads us toward innovation by encouraging examination of the things we maybe have been taking for granted.

For example, it recently occurred to us that our community guidelines haven’t been touched in quite some time. This is a document that has done a heroic job with little intervention. In fact no one here can readily come up with example of the guidelines failing to keep us on track.

That’s great news, but in our current climate it doesn’t mean the guidelines get a free pass. But we don’t want to change them just for the sake of change, either. Instead, we’d like to invite your thoughts on what maybe could use some updating. For example we don’t mention Creative Commons, embedded media, or user generated content in the guidelines. Should we? Let us know.

For all we know, you may think the current guidelines the perfect community fit. That’s fine. However, if you do have some feedback on updates you’d like to see, this is your chance.

I’ve copied the existing guidelines to the WebJunction Wiki. Once you login (yes, thanks to those dirty, rotten spammers you need to create a login; your WebJunction login doesn’t work on the Wiki), you can comment, edit, and change to your heart’s desire. And it’s not just about change. If you prefer to keep the guidelines as is, or you feel strongly about something remaining in the guidelines, please note that, too.

We look forward to seeing your input!

(Creative Commons photo credit: dawn_perry http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawn_perry/318923932/)
5th Birthday, chrystie, Community Building, Meet Ups, Next WJ, Online Collaboration, Online Learning
sneaky peeky
May 16th, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?

I thought it might be fitting to end the Happy Birthday celebrations this week with a link (right here? from the blog?) to a clandestine view of the new WebJunction home page. Cleverly titled “sneaky peeky” this is the view that WJ staff have themselves been playing with in our “sandbox” for the last couple of weeks. It’s not nearly ready for beta release yet, but as you can see, My WebJunction is right there at the top of the page, along with our fancy new brand, just waiting for me/you/us to populate it with whatever i/you/we care about. It’s gonna be rockin’ and we can’t wait to start evolving this with more than just a few of us with our eyes on it.

Next week we get together with all of our current community partners for some good old fashioned f2f training, and this will be our first chance to show off and gather input on the new system with people outside of the WJ staff. Next? Our WJ Advocates will get a sneak peek and they’ll tell us what they think. Then? Well, by that time I think we’ll all be ready for a broader audience. And that’s where we all get to tell each other what we think. And it will grow from there.

Stay tuned…