Get Where You’re Going
Today marks the start of something new and exciting: interactive maps of campus and other Cornell-related sites.
Using Google’s maps API, we now offer a dynamic view of the Cornell campus and its environs, as well as off-campus locations such as Geneva, New York City, Qatar, and Arecibo. In addition to the usual Google maps features such as zooming, panning, alternative views, and integrated driving directions, the new maps offer various overlays for quickly locating dining halls, cafes, libraries, bus stops, public parking, etc.
Furthermore, a search box and location list allow multiple ways to find specific buildings, features, offices, departments, and other points of interest. Enter specific building names, organization names, or concepts such as “movies” to learn where on campus they can be found. When selecting a given building, the map not only shifts and zooms to center a location in context, but also provides a text bubble showing (and linking) what departments or other organizations are found there (where relevant). For campus sites, a choice of driving directions is provided to the exact location, to the nearest metered parking, or to the nearest information booth.
For anyone who might want to show people a particular location, the new maps page accepts a URL parameter, which makes it possible to link a building’s name in a web page and have a result show an exact location on campus. To link a location, simply append “?loc=” and the name of the destination to the map’s URL. When linking in, the map will center on the building and fetch a list of organizational units found within it. In the near future it will be possible to specify other parameters such as map zoom and visible overlays. Full specifications will be published and linked at a later time.
The new maps will remain officially in beta mode while their effectiveness is analyzed, so changes may be made without warning. But we believe that their added functionality merits public access even if they’re not yet perfect. We appreciate comments on all aspects of the new maps and look forward to making them as useful as possible.
See the new maps at http://www.cornell.edu/maps/interactive.cfm and enjoy!
Ken Stuart
CIT Integrated Web Services for the Office of Web Communications
PS. A preview of the new campus virtual tour can be seen by clicking on the Virtual Tour Nodes overlay option. QuickTime will be needed to view these full-screen, high-resolution immersive panoramas.
If We Build it, Will You Come?
Lately, there has been a strange convergence in my work life. I find myself going to a series of three standing meetings. This, in and of itself, is not at all strange. The longer I work for Cornell, the more meetings I seem to attend. (Back in 1993, my meeting count per week averaged ZERO. Now it’s typically in the lower double-digits.)
But, these meetings are oddly similar to one another.
One to talk about re-vamping internal communications at Cornell through some sort of revisions/re-working of CUInfo.
One to talk about Uportal as a tool and assess whether or not it is the BEST tool for Cornell.
And one to talk about building community at Cornell through the use of internal communications.
Despite the fact that these meetings are in different locations and contain a small cast of rotating players, I find myself starting to realize that I’m having the same conversation three times a week. Or, rather, pieces of the same conversation. Because, while there is an eerie sort of synergy going on with this, they’re not quite all the same meeting.
Still. Close enough for government work.
So lots of smart people are gathering and talking (and talking)(and talking) about internal communications at Cornell and I’m wondering what Cornellians think about the issue.
What are YOUR internal communications needs, anyway?
Here are some questions to get you thinking:
Do you want to be able to talk to other Cornellians (and by “Cornellians”, I mean other people with connections to Cornell, be they staff or students, or faculty–ignoring Alumni, for the moment) about things? [By “talk to”, I mean something along the lines of community building–whether that comes in the form of a website, some sort of “social networking tool”, or a series of online bulletin boards on given topics (Ezra’s List?)….or something else entirely. Think…casual.]
Do you want information from ThePowersThatBe (translation: Senior Administration) about things like the Campaign, the items currently found in Safety Zone on CUInfo, HR matters, etc?
Do you want ONE place to do your business (the things you have to use Uportal for) AND your pleasure AND get your words from on high? Or is it best to separate these sort of things?
Chew, ruminate, digest, and get back to me?
Just…no regurgitation, please.
Lisa
Drive By Blogging
- The Lab of Ornithology is entering a redesign for the site and has started a blog to chronicle the process.
- we have recently re-vamped the Student Life, Alumni, and Outreach sections of cornell.edu with new photos and features. Carrie tells me that the President’s section is on deck.
- We also added a prominent link to the Campaign down in the middle column of the home page. Any thoughts?
- Somewhere in the not-too-diatant past, the Cornell Facebook Page crested 1000 fans, which is only noteworthy because I remember when we had five, three of which worked in my office.
Long time, no blog.
I know. I know.
I have no excuses. Well, no good ones, anyway.
Instead, I offer some brief updates about what’s been going on lately.
Events Calendar Upgrade
I wish I had better news, but the truth of it is that the project is delayed. As you may recall, our timeline initially had a September launch date.
There have been some issues with the server environment necessary for the latest release of Bedework and it’s going to take some time to get them resolved. We’re hoping to go live in January instead (fingers crossed, please).
Meanwhile, Ken and Zac have been working on skinning the public interface to be a nearly exact replica of the current calendar on cornell.edu. It’s pretty darn impressive, if I do say so myself.
We actually have a meeting this afternoon to discuss the administrative interface, which has been re-skinned and re-worked a little from that with which the current calendar users are familiar. All for the better, the easier, the more streamlined, I promise.
Life on the Hill Blogs
Here, we have good news! We finished hiring for the student blogging project last month and I’m pleased to say that there are two major firsts:
1. For the first time since we launched in 2006, we will have all of the undergraduate colleges represented.
2. And, for the first time ever, we will have a Freshman blogging from the moment she lands on campus.
Next year, there will be nine bloggers, total (up one from this year, which was up two from the pilot year of the program). I have been calling it “The Year of the Menfolk” because (another first, I suppose) we skew decidedly male in our demographic–six to three, in fact. Let’s hear it for the boys!
Zac is in the middle of a redesign for the Life on the Hill page on cornell.edu and early comps are looking great. Expect something fun and different from anything we’ve done before.
And I have spent a goodly portion of my recent days assiting one of the students in getting his blog set up early so he can jet off to a summer dig in Tuscany without worry. Jealousy does not even begin to descrivbe my feelings on this matter.
cornell.edu Changes
How strong are your powers of observation?
Notice anything different about the homepage, lately?
No? Go on, take a look. We’ll wait. [HINT: Scroll down. Way down.]
Look at that. The “Any person…any study” quote that used to be in the grey bar under the pano images has been not only moved, but expanded to it’s full glory.
Currently, it’s linked to the page for the University Mission Statement, but we are gathering content for a new page about the quote itself–both history and intent. You can expect that to launch sometime over the summer and I will, of course, make mention of it here.
Any blog…any tagline,
Lisa
[Superpoke] LC Norfleet has solicited your opinion!
Earlier this semester, we had a CU Web Forum Meeting about Social Networking (scroll down to February) and how people were experimenting around campus. One of the many things that came out of it was a request from my boss, Diane, for me to draft a position statement about Facebook.
Another thing to come out of it was a (short) list of what people are doing–please check that out and add your own links if you’re not already listed. Anyone with a Cornell net-id should be able to edit the page.
Anyway. The idea behind this was not to create a policy or to try to force people to use Facebook in any given manner. Rather, we wanted something that we could (possibly) pass around at the senior administration level–a brief cheat sheet about what Facebook is good at, what it’s not, and how Cornell might consider using the application as a communications tool.
I cannot even begin to count how many drafts of this thing I have written, but a relatively “final” version is linked below.
Facebook Position Statement MS Word file [50k]
I welcome any and all feedback you might have to offer.
Lisa
PS. I’m heading out of town for three days, so any delay you might experience re: return of comments, etc is not deliberate.
— keep looking »