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news:
Former newsman
turns Web master
By Nathalie Brun
On-line Forty-Niner
After a long career
as a newsman for the Los Angeles Times, the last thing Cal
State Long Beach Web master Doug Cox expected is to find himself
the subject of a newspaper story.
But when Kaplan
Publishing and Newsweek cited CSULB's Web site as the best
of any college in America, Cox unwittingly found himself,
and the work he had been called to CSULB to do, in the spotlight.
Cox is quick to
laud the talent of the others at CSULB who helped him with
the Web site. However, conversing with the youthful-looking,
articulate Cox about his passion for using information technology
to serve the needs of the CSULB campus, reveals why the Web
master's work was lauded by the 400 guidance counselors from
public and private high schools in the poll who commended
the site for its easy-to-use features and relevant information.
According to Cox,
the old CSULB Web site, up since about 1994, was not intuitive
or practical, making it difficult for a person unfamiliar
with CSULB to navigate. But no one was maintaining the
site, and while various campus groups were updating and developing
their own, they could not obtain links to the main site.
When Cox was brought
on board in 1999, he set out to develop a structure that not
only would be user friendly to outsiders, but that would properly
link up the individual group sites already in place.
Cox explains that
the main CSULB site is unique in that it is the only one on
campus that does not produce content. It is like a giant
index, whose sole purpose is to get you to a home page and
to a Web site with content.
"In a nutshell,
my job is to get people there as quickly as possible, and
in a good mood," Cox says with the touch of humor that
often peppers his remarks.
According to Cox,
building a site with a user-centered design is of utmost importance.
If the guidance counselors in the survey were impressed by
the content (which he believes might have been based on the
content of the administration and finance site he said was
brilliantly designed by that department's Web master Jorge
Hurtado) "then something wonderful is happening. It's
the Holy Grail of Web design." he said.
"People should
not be coming to your Web site to marvel at the pretty pictures;
they won't be swept away by taxonomies of information.
They want content, information, and if they found it quickly,
well presented, [then] that is the highest achievement that
any Web site can ever aspire to. We are not here to put up
our graphics, we are here to serve people," .
Cox says the current
site is temporary, a "Band-Aid" hastily created
and put up earlier this year to replace the long-outdated
original. He plans to develop its user-centered structure
further (for example, creating indexes geared specifically
toward adult re-entry or international students), and is elaborating
an intuitive taxonomical system that will link all the campus
sites in the most user-friendly way possible.
Cox is aided by
a student assistant, computer programmer Gerard Greenidge,
and by graphic designers in University Publications. Although
he is officially a one-man staff, he works closely with other
departments' Web designers and with campus network managers.
To a campus Web
master, research is paramount. His main job is to listen as
he visits various CSULB groups, so he can understand what
they are about, and determine the best way to link them to
the main campus site.
Although Cox said
the CSULB community has been overwhelmingly supportive of
his efforts, any change is bound to ruffle some people's feathers.
"I wear a
lot of hats. Sometimes I wear a bull's eye," Cox chuckled.
He said he was surprised that most of the angry email he received
about the current Web site was directed towards pictures of
students displayed on the home page.
Someone complained,
"Why weren't real CSULB students used instead of models?"
(In fact, Cox says they are students who were asked to pose
as they were found walking across the bridge at Brotman Hall.)
That same morning,
another person wrote, "I can't believe CSULB students
are that ugly!" Cox said.
Cox said he loves
his current job so much he hopes to retire from it. As CSULB
Director of New Media Communications, he is excited about
other forthcoming CSULB Web projects, and his gray eyes light
up as he describes the possibilities that will open up to
the CSULB community when future programs such as PeopleSoft
(a software enabling students to do things such as register,
obtain grades and buy textbooks online); and Blackboard, an
online class program, are made available through the Web.
Working at CSULB
has allowed Cox to indirectly achieve a lifelong dream. The
son of a Los Angeles Times photo chief father and column-writing
mother, he grew up "pretty much in the City room"
at the Times.
Graduating in the
early 1970s with a degree in English from USC, he wanted to
teach high school English, but there were no job openings
due to a recession. He was already working in the composing
room at the Los Angeles Times and stayed on, moving to marketing
and public relations, then copyediting, and news editing.
After getting "seduced by the technology," he finally
settled on page design, he says.
At CSULB, "I'm
in Heaven," Cox says enthusiastically.
"Kind of in
a way I get to teach. I absolutely love working with students;
that is such a kick. There is sort of like a regular group
down there doing Webs that will come by; it makes my day.
I'll cancel a meeting any day to do Web stuff."
Students coming
to Cox for advice can find him just about any time. "[They'll
say] 'this isn't working.' 'Well, sit on down!' People will
call me at home, and off we go!"
As CSULB Web master,
Cox seems to have come full circle, blending his love of research
and information technology with teaching and mentoring.
"I've got
no time for hobbies!" he quips. He says he might, however,
one day take time to travel to Scotland to accomplish a mission
that sums up well his driven and passionate nature:
"I used to
be completely fluent in Gaelic. I wanted the discipline of
learning a foreign language, but of course it had to be weird.
I'd like to go out to the Hebrides and talk to the locals
to see how good I really am."
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