Topic One: Dartmouth Home

"Does the content featured on the Dartmouth Home Page get an increase in traffic?"
Absolutely! For example, this story from Dartmouth Life was recently featured and unique visitors to the site more than tripled.

"How does content get featured on the Dartmouth Home Page? What's the process?"
The features, news, events and other content that appears on the Dartmouth Home Page is carefully selected and prepared by the Office of Public Affairs in collaboration with the campus community. It's far from a solo effort, and we couldn't do it without your help. If you have suggestions for content, we'd love to hear from you!

"How do you handle exchanging links with companies outside of Dartmouth?"
Simply put, we just don't do enter into exchange agreements with outside parties. There's technically no policy on this, but we don't make a habit of promoting outside businesses. We're an academic institution, after all. Now, whenever relevant and appropriate, we certainly will link to the outside world, but never for profit or to improve web traffic.

"What about content for mobile devices?"
The current version of Dartmouth Home does indeed display on mobile devices. It's quite a challenge due to the wide spectrum of devices and lack of solid standards. We're excited about doing more with mobile content in the future!

"Who are the top audiences for Dartmouth Home?"
Since our range of audience is so broad, we try to be as inclusive as possible on Dartmouth Home and intentionally don't limit the site to certain groups of users. This may seem like a daunting task, but the response has been very positive so far.

Topic Two: Dartmouth Daily Updates (D2U)

Currently in prototype, Dartmouth Daily Updates is an electronic news digest sent to faculty, staff and students each day (if there are items awaiting publication). Dartmouth Daily Updates complements other print and electronic communication methods to Dartmouth faculty, staff, and students, such as department communiques, official bulk email messages, and the Dartmouth online event calendar. Have a look at the prototype in action.

"Some announcements will also be an event and vice versa... how to manage that overlap?"
When people submit events to D2U, we will redirect them to the Events calendar. But we agree that this is a confusing aspect of the system.

"Is this meant to replace blitz bulletins?"
Not intentionally, but it seems to be an incremental step in that direction. There's so much great information in Blitz Bulletins, and it would be great to move it to a more open environment.

"Any plans to implement authentication or authorization?"
Great question. We need to look into access more in depth. As with events/announcements, this is more of a policy decision than a technical one. We still need to decide whether the updates should be accessible only by Dartmouth folks.

"How long will the announcements live online?"
Currently they are available through the site for 90 days.

Topic Three: Dartmouth Web Template

Public Affairs and Web Services have just put the finishing touches on a new web template based on the recent redesigned Dartmouth Home. It's available to all Web Services clients, and should start being released soon. Keep an eye out for it!