University of Chicago Law School: The Electronic Projects Blog

Upcoming Web Site Maintenance

2009-10-23T15:26:44-05:00

Please note: the Law School website will be down for server maintenance for approximately 15 minutes between 8am and 11am on Sunday, 10/25. It will also be down for approximately 15 minutes due to software upgrades on Thursday, 10/29 at 8am.

New Podcast Landing Page

2009-10-20T07:37:37-05:00

The Law School has been podcasting for almost exactly four years now. We've now got a much handier way to keep up with new podcasts and browse the archives, as we're now using our Drupal-powered website to manage our feeds. At the new podcast landing page you can easily subscribe to our Faculty Podcast or the Open Minds Student Events Podcast, or take a look back through our previous episodes.

How to Manage Your Online Identity

2009-09-24T17:12:42-05:00

This morning I gave a presentation to our incoming 1Ls introducing them to some of the Law School's online resources and providing some hints and suggestions for managing their online identities as part of their professional careers. The presentation is online here.

Announcing the Attractively Alliterative Alumni Accolades & Achievements Blog

2009-08-20T12:05:31-05:00

Last week our Development and Alumni Relations department launched a new blog, the first hosted on the Law School's new website. The "Accolades & Achievements" blog is proud to recognize noteworthy events in the lives of its alumni. Information is gathered from newspaper articles, press releases, and alumni submissions. The blog is updated weekly and is a complement to the Class Notes section of The Record, which is published semi-annually. Have a look and see what our alumni have been up to.

Twitter in Higher Ed Communications

2009-07-22T10:40:47-05:00

This week I presented at the 2009 eduWeb conference here in Chicago. My talk, entitled "A Bird in the Hand: Twitter as a Higher Ed Communications Tool," presented some of the reasons why institutions of higher education might want to use Twitter and provide some tips and techniques for getting such a project off the ground. Naturally, it drew heavily from the Law School's experiences using Twitter. The powerpoint of my presentation is now up on Slideshare.

The New Website is Now Live!

2009-06-18T12:39:48-05:00

This morning we launched the new Law School website!

While the virtual champagne dries, the Communications office would like to extend a big thank you to all of folks who put so much effort into getting this off the ground, from our designers and developers to the folks at NSIT's Web Admin group and the many students, faculty, and staff who gave us feedback during the long and complicated process of bringing the new site to life.

Built on the flexible and robust open-source Drupal content management platform, the new site will allow staff from across the Law School to collaborate in extending the Law School's close-knit community onto the web. It encourages engagement from users by highlighting the our commitment to spirited debate, and brings to the fore our frequently updated collection of video and audio content.

The occasional bug, broken link, or misplaced file is inevitable in such a large move, so we hope you'll let us know if you find one, or if you just have comments or suggestions. You can leave comments here or on the site itself.

The Communications office is also, as a group, just beginning to unlock everything that our Drupal content-management system has to offer. As we learn the ins and outs of the system, you can expect improvements in the functionality and look-and-feel of the website.

Please let us know what you think! How can we keep improving the site?

The New Website Approacheth

2009-06-10T12:07:06-05:00

As you may know, the Communications office will be launching the Law School’s new website on Thursday, June 18. The website has been completely redesigned and reorganized with usability and convenience as paramount concerns. The site is also being moved to a new, more powerful and flexible software platform that will greatly enhance our ability to engage the Law School community.

In order to ensure that the content on the new site accurately reflects that of the old site, we will be instituting a content freeze on the current site as of 3pm this Friday, June 12. This will mean that no one besides the Communications office will be able to make any changes to the Law School’s website between 3pm on 6/12 and 9am on 6/18. If you have changes that must be made during that time, please contact me (or Jenni Fry or Marsha Nagorsky if I am unavailable). If you currently have editing privileges on the Law School’s website (or would like to have such privileges), we will be announcing training sessions for use of the new software over the course of the summer.

After the launch of the new site on June 18, we ask for your help in identifying any issues, bugs, or missing content that may have gotten lost in the shuffle (due to the platform change, some web addresses [URLs] will have changed in the transition to the website’s new platform, so it’s possible that your favorites or bookmarks may need to be updated). We will provide a space for your feedback here on the Electronic Projects Blog, and we would greatly appreciate your input. While the site will be fully functional as of June 18, we expect to continue tweaking the content, organization, and appearance of the site throughout the summer, so your feedback will be vital in producing the best user experience possible.

Student Events Podcast Starts Summer Vacation

2009-06-01T07:54:15-05:00

Last week's edition of "Open Minds: The Student Events Podcast" was the last one of the academic year; it will go on hiatus over the summer months and return in the fall. The Faculty Podcast will continue on its regular biweekly schedule.

A Law School iPhone App?

2009-05-27T12:57:31-05:00

Even as head toward the finish line in the relaunch of the Law School website, the Communications department is thinking about the next big project. We've been kicking around ideas for an iPhone application and found ourselves wondering what the members of the Law School community might find useful in such an application. Let us know in the comments below!

No Fooling: The Redesigned Website is Almost Here

2009-04-01T17:08:47-05:00

Last week the Communications staff got our first hands-on experience with the Law School's new website, as we received training on how to use our new content management system from our web developers at Palantir.net. The site looks great, and has now been set up on the Law School's server, clearing the way for us to begin migrating content from the current site.

While we could probably launch the new site within a matter of weeks, we've opted to be cautious with the launch. There are a lot of important events going on in spring quarter, from Admitted Students Weekend to Reunion to Graduation, and they all make heavy use of the website in order to keep people informed, register them for events, and so on. And since migrating content will require us to keep staff from making changes to certain areas of the website for up to a week, it makes sense to wait until the academic year has ended to ensure that our website's users have access to the most up-to-date information for all of the aforementioned events. As a result, we are now planning to launch the new site by the end of June. This plan also provides the added advantage of allowing extended beta testing, to ensure the best possible experience for all of our users.

We are all very excited about the new site and are looking forward to sharing it with you!