OUR NEW WEBPAGE

Our new Departmental webpage (http://www.psych.umass.edu) is *finally* up in more or less complete form. Please let Aggie Mitchkoski or Chuck Clifton know of any problems you encounter.

Besides being attractive, the new webpage has a large number of new functions that are described below. Many of these functions are driven by the Departmental Personnel Database, which is actually part of the webpage program. These functions include password-protected and secure e-mail distribution lists, automatically-generated personal (individual) webpages for everybody, the possibility of creating "micro-site" websites for your lab or program, a calendar of events, etc., etc.

The pages on the website can be modified by a built-in "content management system" which is accessible to people who have administration privileges. These people can log in to http://www.psych.umass.edu/admin and edit the pages they have access to. If you have a need to edit parts of the webpage and don't yet have admin privileges, see Aggie in Tobin 441.

You will also be happy to know that we now have printer-friendly pages built in.

Every member of the Department will have a login name and password. If you don't have yours yet, hang on... Aggie will be sending them out via email over the next few days. In the meantime, you can use [the login name and password that was sent out via e-mail] to access the web's For Dept. Members functions, including the distribution lists.

A very important point: the Department Personnel Database, which drives distribution lists, directories, etc., is now part of the website. New Department members will need to see Aggie Mitchkoski (Tobin 441) to set-up their record on the database and get a user name and password. This will allow them to be included in distribution lists and directories and to have their own Departmental website/profile page.

It is equally important that existing Department members review and update their information. You can do that by editing your own Departmental web page (profile page). Open the page (via the directories), sign in (top right of page), and edit. Any questions, contact Aggie Mitchkoski or Chuck Clifton.           

FOR DEPT. MEMBERS

One Section ("For Dept. Members") is password protected. There are two ways you can access these pages. One is through [the login name and password that was sent out via e-mail]. Anyone who is a psychology department member can use this username/password and have access to very general information in the Department Members area such as distribution lists, room request forms, etc.. The other way is that each Department member has been assigned an individual login name and password - which will be sent to you under separate cover. Unfortunately, you can't change your password yourself and it may not be possible to get your browser to save it (see the "enhancements" message for more information). This user name and password will give you access to your own web page, and to any other sections of the website that you have been given authorization to see and/or modify. If you do not have access to an area of the website that you think you should, contact Aggie to review your permission level.

This section also contains subpages for Departmental Staff and for administrative functions (e.g., Personnel Committee matters). Access to these pages is limited to people with appropriate password privileges. If you think you should have access to these pages and do not, contact Aggie to review your permission level.

The type of password protection used on the "For Dept Members" page can be extended to other pages, e.g., subpages of the "microsites" (see the "microsites" message).

PERSONAL WEBPAGES

Every Department member has had a personal webpage automatically generated. You can see yours by opening up a directory on the Department webpage, finding your name, and clicking where it says "website." This personal webpage reflects information on the Departmental Personnel Database, and you can use your personal webpage to change some of this information.

You can edit your own webpage by signing in (top right of the screen) using your login name and password (which you will soon get from Aggie). Then click the faint gray "edit" link to edit your home page, or go to one of the subpages and click edit, or simply click the "new page" link. Be very careful editing your home page. The information you enter goes directly into the Department Personnel Database. You'll find a place to write a "short" and a "long" description for yourself. The long description will appear on the home page of your webpage. The short description may show up in various places, e.g., in a Division's list of faculty (if the Division uses the automatically-generated list). The long and the short descriptions can be the same. You can put in links to up to three additional websites (e.g. a lab website) and you can upload a picture of yourself (it does have to be 150 x 150 pixels, 72 dpi). You can even change the top banner photo (see Aggie for samples and size specifics).

You can also edit the "contact information" page [n.b.: at the moment, you have to put a number, any number, in the "sort order" box, or you'll get an error message]. You can control what information is viewable on your contact page. Just click "yes" or "no" above each section (office, home, lab...). If you select "no" the information will not show on your web page but it will be viewable by Aggie. This might be good for home information that you don't want the world to know but do want the department administration to know.

And you can create whatever other pages you like - recent publications, current students, advisor, job history, etc. The page does have a way to upload pdf's (e.g. your CV) (see the Webpage Manual on the "For Dept Members" page for instructions).

Although your e-mail address is visible to a user who looks at your personal webpage (and is linked so people can send you e-mails), it is *not* visible to "spiders" searching the web. Wherever an e-mail address seems to appear on the web, it is actually either generated via code that accesses the Departmental Database or is encrypted/obfuscated in the HTML webpage code. We should be well protected from spam.

E-MAIL LISTS

We're experimenting with a new email distribution system. The old e-mail distribution lists (except for, perhaps temporarily, psychall@medusa.sbs.umass.edu) will be retired and replaced with lists that are available on the "For Dept Members" page (see the note about that page). We are retiring them because it proved nearly impossible to keep them accurate and up to date, because they were never complete, and because they were vulnerable to spamming.

The new lists will be automatically updated from the Departmental Personnel Database, which drives many functions of the new Departmental webpage, so they will be accurate (so be sure you check your webpage and make sure your email address listed there is correct, that your position in the department is correct, that your division is correct, as all these areas will be used to generate the distribution lists.) The lists are also protected from spammers. To send a message to any of the lists, just click on the list name (note that the larger-print names, e.g., "All Department Members," are also list links). You can cc your message to additional recipients.

There are some disadvantages to the new lists. Most notably, you cannot use them to forward e-mails you receive and you cannot have attachments. (Please see the "enhancements" note for additional information.) For the time being, we are keeping psychall@medusa.sbs.umass.edu if you need one of these functions, and will try to keep it up to date (and Joe Bergman will maintain spam protection). If you use the new lists, however, you can include links to places (e.g., UDrive, and perhaps even the Departmental webpage - see the "enhancements" note) where you have stored files you want to make accessible to people, and you can always copy and paste the content of e-mails you have received and want to distribute.

EVENTS CALENDAR

The "About Us" page of the Departmental Webpage contains an Events Calendar (there's also a "quick link" on the Home page). We hope that people in the Department will post all events of interest on this calendar - colloquia, divisional brownbags, thesis defenses, workshops, parties, and on and on. A number of people in the Department have administration privileges that allow them to log onto http://www.psych.umass.edu/admin and enter calendar information directly. These include Division Heads, Graduate and Undergraduate Directors and staff, and a number of others. If you have a recurring need to post event notices, please see Aggie in Tobin 441 to get the appropriate permission. If you want to post a one-time event, please go to the For Dept. Members page and submit the "Events Calendar" form you'll find there. All appropriate events will get posted.

MICROSITES

Department members can create their own websites for the labs or other programs, using the format of the Departmental website. You can see examples at http://www.psych.umass.edu/adoption/ http://www.psych.umass.edu/eyelab and http://www.psych.umass.edu/VCAlab   If you would like to create such a site, see Aggie in Tobin 441. Aggie or Chuck Clifton can help you get started.

Your site will be listed on the main Department webpage. Of course, if you have already set up your own lab or program site separately from the main Department webpage and would like to have it listed on this page, please let Chuck or Aggie know (check the subpages of http://www.psych.umass.edu/research_and_training/ for examples).

ENHANCEMENTS

The designers of the webpage were not able to provide us with everything we might want given our budget. However, the Computer Committee plans to identify possible enhancements to the webpage that department members want, and to see how much they will cost. The enhancements the Committee is considering include the ones in the following list. Please let Chuck Clifton or Aggie Mitchkoski know what you think of these, and suggest others.

1. Integration of the Departmental key database into the Personnel database (so that Laurie and Aggie can keep good track of who has keys and what rooms everybody is in

2. Incorporation of the Graduate Database into the Personnel Database (to allow the Department to keep track of the progress and placement of its graduate students)

3. Enhancement of e-mail distribution lists to permit attachments and forwarding of e-mails

4. Revision of Personnel Database structure to permit multiple divisional affiliations (so that people can appear on multiple directories and division lists

5. Add a function to permit Aggie to get database reports

6. Allow calendar events form to directly populate events calendar (vetted by Aggie)

7. Permit Aggie to change multiple banner pictures at one time

8. Link the Personnel Database to SPIRE with an LDAP system

9. Change the directories so that we can filter as well as sort by category, and add an incremental search function

10. Add the ability to change your password and to allow your browser to remember your password.

11. Add pdf's to personal websites (done!)

12. Add an invisible page where any department member can upload a file to distribute to others (probably should be time-limited).

13. Add the ability for users to check a box to opt out of being on any distribution lists (now they can simply choose not to put an e-mail address into the database, but there may be minor bugs)

14. Add HTML formatting to e-mails, especially to preserve formatting on forms that are submitted via e-mail

15. Revise search functions so that page returns to where it was before the search rather than to top of page

16. Make "types" on Event Calendar more flexible - so e.g. a type is available even if no events of that type currently exist.