Web Resources and Services

The Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) encourages and supports freedom of expression and an open environment for the pursuit of scholarly inquiry. The contents of all electronic pages under University jurisdiction (i.e. on BUMC servers or other servers funded by University budgets) must, however, comply with University policies, rules, and regulations, as well as local, state, and federal laws.

Benefits to the BUMC Web Model:

General
1. Websites housed within the BUMC framework are easily searchable.
2. Individuals do not need to be experts in web design media to use the model.
3. A web presence can be established and maintained quickly and easily without cost.
4. Web editors can access and edit webpages from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection and IE 7.x, Safari, and Firefox 2.x or greater.
5. Free training sessions take place on a weekly basis.
6. Centralized back up and file restore are both available.

Design
1. Trouble free design features including access to institutional logos and images providing a unified campus wide user interface
2. Access to centralized campus map, directions, BU directory, and other university information
3. Centralized location of webpages, images, and PDFs
4. Ability for users to give immediate feedback
5. Simplified process of ordering content

Content
1. Ease of adding News and Calendar items
2. Ability to easily build department content
3. Ability to consolidate and disseminate and link to department information
4. Ability to restrict webpages to be viewed by the Medical Campus community or by the Boston University community
5. Ability to unpublish webpages that are under development, while there is work in process
6. Ability to insert images (apart from University logos)

Navigation
1. Easy navigation, including an institutional header and footer
2. Ability to provide user-friendly URLs for all webpages

Special Features
1. Standardized reports for each webpage within the BUMC web model
2. No need to work with FTP (file transfer protocol) and wait to download/upload files
3. Flexibility in using HTML tags – there is no pre-requisite of HTML knowledge to be a web editor and no knowledge of editing applications (i.e. Frontpage or Dreamweaver) is required

BUMC Website Goals:

bullet in the shape of a diamond Maintain university standards, policies and quality that reflect the BUMC environment
bullet in the shape of a diamond Manage webpages easily. (Departments, schools, and organizations are able to update and manage information with little or no HTML or web experience.)
bullet in the shape of a diamond Access University logos and graphics with ease and speed
bullet in the shape of a diamond Able to post through the BUMC web model architecture and infrastructure up-to-date news, events, administrative, academic, clinical, and research information, which are accessible by data management forms
bullet in the shape of a diamond Navigate quickly to department information to related projects, people, schools, affiliations, and other institutions
bullet in the shape of a diamond Use institutional, centralized, and authoritative data sources, which includes but is not limited to campus maps, building lists, etc.
bullet in the shape of a diamond Deliver diverse information, relative to departments, for example, university resources, such as CourseInfo.

Web Editor Training:
For a complete listing of upcoming training sessions, please visit the Calendar section of OIT’s web site. Training sessions are free of charge and offered to assist web editors in further developing their webpages.

Web Editing Services:
BUMC entities have the option of contracting with BUMC OIT for web editing services for sites that are hosted within the BUMC web model.

Web Editor Skills: (those who join the BUMC Web Service are greatly encouraged to attend the Basic Web Editing Training). The prerequisites for this training are listed below:

bullet in the shape of a diamond Understand basic computer functions, for example how to right click the mouse;
bullet in the shape of a diamond Understand basic operating systems;
bullet in the shape of a diamond Understand how to use a browser, for example toggling between multiple browsers and multiple tabs;
bullet in the shape of a diamond Understand how to manage folders and files in folders;
bullet in the shape of a diamond Understand how to use a word processing application, including cut and paste functions;
bullet in the shape of a diamond Little HTML or no Internet skills are necessary to create a department site.

To meet the prerequisites, learn more about Web based training.

Questions regarding the BUMC website should be directed to: BUMC Help Desk.

Primary teaching affiliate
of BU School of Medicine