This paper reports the result of an online survey of Webmanagers of Australian University Web sites. A profile is presented in terms their individual characteristics (including gender, qualifications, organisational position), nature and management of the University site, It discusses their perceived needs for staff developments and constraints faced in their work as Webmanager.
The study finds that Web managers are well qualified and experienced. Their role as Webmanager is in most cases, marginal as it forms only a relatively small proportion of their work responsibilities. For a significant number of the respondents, the Webmanager role was not part of their formal job responsibilities. The paper concludes by noting that on the basis of an overall review of the responses, only two of the fifteen universities could be identified as pursuing a fully fledged Web strategy with an appropriate allocation of financial resources.
Keywords: Australia, Universities, Higher Education, World Wide Web, Web management, Internet, University management, Campus Wide Information Systems, CWIS
In the space of just four years, the World Wide Web (Berners-Lee & Cailliau (1990); Berners-Lee, Cailliau, Groff, & Pollermann (1992); Berners-Lee, Cailliau, Luotonen, Nielsen, & Secret (1994)) has permeated Australia's universities. From individual academics developing course materials to administrations which are designing Intranets for financial and human resource management down to individual students building their home page, the Web now increasingly defines the public face of "the University". Every university in Australia has a presence on the World Wide Web. There is no sign of the rapid changes of the last few years diminishing. The evidence points, in fact, to the reverse with a significant number of major teaching, research and administrative systems being converted to the Web or built from scratch (see, for example, the papers at recent ASCILITE (http://www.ascilite.org.au) and AusWeb (http://ausweb.scu.edu.au) conferences).
These developments have created a new position - the University Webmanager. The more widely used term for this role is Webmaster which is, of course, not gender neutral. A variety of plainly silly attempts have been made to make the term seem more acceptable including "Webmeister". It is the view of the authors that Webmanager more accurately depicts the role and function of the people who currently are to be found behind the ubiquitous webmanager@alma_mater.edu.au "mailto:" tag on University Web pages.
There is no published research on the role, tasks, functions or characteristics of the Webmanager that can be identified. A search on the Web and on a variety of databases including ERIC, ABI-Inform and Current Contents did not identify any study on the nature and role of the University Webmanager. This paper attempts to, at least in part, redress this deficiency. It presents the results of a survey of the Webmanagers of all Australian universities.
The remainder of the study proceeds as follows: in Section 2 there is an analysis of the of the nature of Web management in universities. Section 3 introduces the survey and discusses the methodology adopted for its "distribution" and "collection". An analysis of the results of the survey is made in Section 4 and some conclusions are presented in Section 5 along with the description of a research program which flows from this study.
From humble beginnings, where the position demanded some HTML tagging skills to maintain purely text-based descriptive information, the role of Webmanager now requires a multi-skilled manager who combines elements of computer programmer, graphic artist, multimedia designer, journalist, communicator, promotional and marketing manager, evangelist and censor. From a few pages on a spare computer, University Web sites now encompass thousands of pages. Many of these pages have complex user interaction and call on a variety of databases. Whilst at one time a site might be served from a central UNIX computer it is now common to use many distributed servers - both at the centre and at the periphery of the institution.
At the heart of the management of these issues on a day to day basis is the Webmanager. The role of the Webmanager varies between organisations. At a minimum, the Webmanager has control over the look and feel of the "top level" pages that are reached at a URL such as http://www.university.edu.au and to receive email queries. Such a Webmanager is likely to have other responsibilities. At the other end of the spectrum are Webmanagers who control multi-person teams and who manage many pages, databases, standards and other tasks.
The Web management role in universities is arguably more complex than in for-profit organisations. The Web can be divided into external and internal elements. The external function of the Web is to enable faculty and students access to the wealth of knowledge resources on the Internet. The internal role of the Web does not directly translate to so-called "Intranets". University Webs may, of course, incorporate Intranet functionality. Universities, however, do not have the relatively well defined Internal/External dichotomy of for-profit organisations. The broader constituency that Universities serve means that the role of the Web will be less clearly defined than for corporations. Stakeholders may include current, potential and past faculty and students; parents; teachers; researchers; funding agencies and journalists. The relatively diffused management of the University also means that the concept of a Web "site" for a University has much less meaning than for a corporation which can enforce a standard approach to Web management.
A Web form was used to "distribute" the survey. The survey can be seen at http://saga.scu.edu.au/webmaster (The username and password is mas). The email addresses of each Webmanager was gleaned from the home pages of each University. Including the two private universities, the total potential population of institutions was 42. A total of 15 responses were received as of the time of writing this paper (35%). These returns were received over little more than a two week period from the distribution of the survey. The data is in electronic form ready for analysis. This is in comparison with print-based surveys where there is a considerable delay in the receipt and subsequent processing of results. The results reported in this survey are, then, completely current.
The responses were received from a cross-section of Australian universities, which can be represented in a 2x2 matrix. Universities in Australia are either metropolitan or regional. With perhaps the sole exception of the University of New England, there is no tradition of large universities in regional locations as is the case in North America. Regional universities primarily service their regional communities. The second dimension relates to the divide between long established universities and "Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE)" and "Institutes of Technology" which were from 1987 onwards awarded the status of university. As Figure 1 shows, each sector was represented in the responses:
Figure 1 Types of University
Before turning to the background and work of the Webmanagers, we first consider the nature of the sites that they manage. The sites vary widely in complexity. Figure 2 shows that the number of pages on sites which are under the direct control of the Webmanager are bi-polar. Two sites reported that they had are only between 1 and 50 pages with a further 5 having less than 100 pages. At the other end of the spectrum, six sites reported that they had more than 250 pages with one site having 21,000 pages of information of which more than 80% had been originated by the Web management team. This is a heroic level of output from a slimly resourced production and maintenance team.
Figure 2 Pages Under Direct Control of Webmanager
Only a limited amount of this information is subject to frequent updating. Figure 3 shows that most sites have only between 1 and 10 pages updated at least weekly.
Figure 3 Pages Updated Weekly by Webmanager
These statistics belie the complexity of the sites. Figure 4 and Figure 5 indicate the range of services that are provided either under the direct control of the University Webmanager, or elsewhere in the University. Figure 4 shows the core contact information that is provided by many Web sites.
Figure 4 Primary Contact Information
Figure 5 shows what is termed "deep content". These information services are of the sort that have usually been produced in paper format by the Registry, Research Office, media services or public relations:
Figure 5 Deep Content
It is revealing that only 1 of the 15 universities does not produce a prospective student guide but equally interesting that for most universities the guide is maintained by the Webmanager. Figure 5 also demonstrates relative adoption rates of Web technology within the Universities - teaching and learning units would seem to have been more aggressive in developing their own Web services than research groups.
Figure 4 and Figure 5 together indicate that a very wide range of information is now being provided by the typical Web sites in Australian universities. They also show that the Web sites have moved into a second generation of information provision, where core University information is now provided on the Web.
The previous sub-section disclosed core features of the final output of the Webmanagers' work. In this sub-section, we consider the background, skillset and experience of the Webmanagers. All but one of the 15 respondents were male. Given their preponderance in information technologies it might have been expected to have a majority of males but, the near total absence of females was a surprise.
While traditionally the Webmanager position has been resident in Information Technology organisations, it was expected that there would be a move of responsibility into other areas of the university such as public relations. There was no evidence of such as move with 12 of the 15 Webmanagers working in IT organisations. The balance were located in the library, a teaching school and in the Registrar's office.
We asked who received email sent to the ubiquitous mailto: addresses found on University Web home pages. In most cases, it went directly to the Webmanager. There was, however, quite a diversity in email handling: in the case of one university email surprisingly goes to the Director of IT; for others it was handled on a round robin basis by up to six staff. The large volume of email received was somewhat surprising. Nine of the respondents reported that they receive from 1 to 50 emails per week; 4 received between 51 and 100 and two universities reported that they received 101 - 150 emails.
The Webmanagers are highly experienced. As Figure 6 shows the median time in their current position is nearly two years. Six Webmanagers had been working in that role for more than three years:
Figure 6 Time Spent in Position
They are also well qualified. Nine respondents have undergraduate or post-graduate degrees in information technology; four have degrees in other disciplines with only two not having formal post-secondary qualifications. We asked the respondents to describe the skillset that they brought to the job. Most (11) reported that they were programmers or systems analysts, although a couple reported other skills including graphics and network management. Other skills brought to the task including lecturing in computer science, librarianship and information engineering. In essence Webmanagers in Australia have come from an IT stream.
Their role as Webmanagers seemed more than somewhat ad-hoc. Only six of the fifteen respondents reported that their work as Webmanager was part of their formal job description. The nature of reporting by the Webmanager to his or her supervisor varied very widely. In one case, a respondent noted that there was no formal or informal reporting. At the other end of the spectrum one Webmanager replied that there was daily reporting of Web activities and issues.
We were keen to learn how long the Webmanagers spent on their work, how long they felt they should spend on these tasks and what is was that they did during this period. These issues are, of course, closely linked to the amount of support that the Webmanagers receive. Figure 7 shows that most Webmanagers battle along on their own without other staff (two respondents did not answer this question).
Figure 7 Number of Staff
We asked what proportion of time that the staff shown in Figure 7 spent on Web maintenance and development. For most respondents, it was less than 25% -- only for one university did the number of staff weighted by the time spent on the Web exceed two full time equivalent staff members. Perhaps reflecting the ad-hoc nature of their Web management roles, Webmanagers did not indicate spending many of their hours on the task. As Figure 8 shows, there are three groups of Webmanagers. The first group are the "part-timers". These Webmanagers (6) spend up to 10 hours per week on their management role. The second group (4) are those that spend up to half their week on the Web. The last group (5) were effectively full time, with one reporting that they spent more than 40 hours per week on Web management. Only one Webmanager reported that he acted full time in that position - other responsibilities ranged from network design to full campus computing support.
Figure 8 Time Spent on Web Management
We then asked what was the appropriate number of hours that should be spent on maintenance of the Web site? The lowest number of hours that was considered appropriate was between 0 and 5 and six of the respondents considered that the number of hours that should be spent was no more than that currently being expended. The highest number suggested was 150 hours per week, or the equivalent of two more staff than currently employed for that university. The average number of hours suggested was 36 per week or, on average, or 19 more hours (120%) than currently being allocated to the task.
The respondents were asked to provide a list of three tasks that were the major contributors to their work programme. Each response was placed into broad categories and Figure 9 shows a summary of these categories. As might be expected, writing Web pages and undertaking site maintenance were important tasks. What was more surprising was the amount of time taken in organising in organising access to the University Web site for other content producers. Equally surprising, this time for the absence of mentions, was the single time that training and answering email was mentioned. As discussed above, a large volume of email is generated by University web sites but seemingly is quickly disposed. It might have been thought that a key role for Webmanagers would be training content providers in the provinces, but again, training received only one mention.
Task |
Times Mentioned |
|
| Pages | 8 |
|
| Maintenance | 7 |
|
| Research | 7 |
|
| Access | 6 |
|
| Standards | 6 |
|
| Development | 1 |
|
1 |
||
| Evangelist | 1 |
|
| Programming | 1 |
|
| Queries | 1 |
|
| Staff | 1 |
|
| Training | 1 |
Figure 9 Tasks Undertaken
The level of professionalism of Webmanagers is clearly important in the furture development of University Web sites. Ten of the fifteen respondents reported that they had access to staff development in their role as Webmanager. Most of the development was by attending conferences or seminars. We asked the Webmanagers what they perceived as being their top development needs and received a long and suprisingly disparate list of suggestions. Apart from areas such as programming and design skills and techniques which could predicted as being an ongoing development need, Webmanagers considered they needed development in areas such as:
Contact with other Webmanagers was seen as being an important development method. Two Webmanagers specifically mentioned the need for development in supporting the Web community on campus by "centralised support group for Web authors" and the "education of staff in use of publishing and loading of materials".
Over the last year, there has been the development of a sense of professionalism amongst Webmanagers. A number of associations of Webmanagers have been established, ixncluding International Webmasters Association (http://www.irwa.org) and in Canada the Institute of Professional Webmanagers (Burger (1997)). There is also a move to develop certification programs such as Learning Tree's "Internet/Intranet Certified Professional" (Korzeniowski (1996)). Only two of the Webmanagers had joined professional organisations. The reaction from other Webmanagers was mixed. Three did not see that they would derive any benefit from membership. Two asked for further information on professional organisations.
Finally, we asked the respondents for a list of the constraints that they faced in their work. In essence the major constraints listed were resources and "politics". One respondent noted that there was an "inability of management to recognise that to present an effective face to the world requires significant resources on an ongoing basis". Another noted that there was "no ongoing funding - and no funding for acquisition of software or hardware tools". These concern were repeated on multiple occasions. Another respondent noted that a major constraint was "politics that consume excessive amounts of time and restrict the production [of Web resources]". Another said a constraint was "too many people with competing ideas about how a web site 'should' be. Sometimes difficult to balance opposing views". Yet another saw that a constraint was the number of departmental servers which gave rise to problems in maintaining consistency of information within the University.
Webmanagers at Australia's universities are well qualified and experienced staff who have been "working the Web" for a considerable period. There background is, however, relatively limited with a preponderance of technical programming and systems analysis background rather than management or information distribution skills.
It is clear from this survey that the role of the Webmanager has not yet been clearly defined or managed. For a significant number of Webmanagers, not only is the Web management task only a small proportion of their work, it is not even formally stated in their job description. Overwhelmingly, Web management is located in the Information Technology area within universities. This is indicative of an early stage of development in the use of the Web in institutions - evidence perhaps of the mixing of production method with content.
Only two of the fifteen institutions would seem to have clear directions on the role of the Web in University management and have dedicated appropriate levels of resources to the task. It was an exceptional Webmanager indeed that was able to report: "[t]his University places high priority on its web services and therefore I am provided with high quality resources". The absence of direction and planning was arguably the cause of the high degree of frustration expressed by Webmanagers, particularly when they were asked to state the constraints that they faced in their work.
The role of the Web in University management has been the subject of very limited research. It is clear that much research is needed on the alternative approaches that have been adopted in the development of this new communication medium. This paper has concentrated on the management of production and distribution of information. Research is needed on the use of Web-based information by stakeholders.
Berners-Lee, T., & Cailliau, R. (1990). WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a Hypertext Project. Geneva: CERN.
Berners-Lee, T., Cailliau, R., Luotonen, A., Nielsen, H. F., & Secret, A. (1994). The World-Wide Web. Communications of the ACM, 37(8), 76-82.
Berners-Lee, T. J., Cailliau, R., Groff, J.-F., & Pollermann, B. (1992). World-Wide Web: The Information Universe. Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy, 2(1), 52-58.
Burger, D. (1997). Institute to bring order to chaotic Webmaster jobs. Computing Canada, 23(12), 39.
Korzeniowski, P. (1996, August 5). Mastering the Webmasters. InfoWorld, 18, http://www.infoworld.com/.
| Allan Ellis School of Social and Workplace Development Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore NSW 2480 Australia |
Roger Debreceny School of Commerce Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore NSW 2480 Australia |
| aellis@scu.edu.au | rdebrece@scu.edu.au |
©1997. The authors, Allan Ellis and Roger Debreceny, assign to the University of New Brunswick and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive license to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive license to the University of New Brunswick to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.