TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE
Carolina's multiplicity of paper and electronic calendars of public events
united as one on the World Wide Web April 5.
Campus users can visit the new Carolina Calendar at http://www.unc.edu/calendar
-- a link from the University home page -- and click "Select a Calendar" for
links to 24 major calendars -- one for each school, for example. Within many of
those are calendars for different departments.
Also available: a master calendar with events of broad interest to the public
and major importance to Carolina, such as commencements.
"The web calendar is intended to provide one easily updated source of
information on all the wonderful concerts, lectures and other public events
here at Carolina," said Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Marian
Moore, who chaired a committee planning the new calendar.
Although anyone with web access may use the calendar now, the committee aims to
gather feedback from campus users and refine its operation between now and next
fall before promoting it to the media and the public. The site includes a link
for feedback via e-mail.
"The Carolina calendar will be a wonderful tool to help students, faculty and
staff plan their attendance at events," said Nancy Davis, associate vice
chancellor for University Relations, which helped plan the new calendar and is
designing its look. "It also helps us illustrate to people off campus that this
is a vibrant intellectual community."
Currently, some parts of the calendar still are under construction. For
example, while searches of the master calendar and some departmental calendars
are possible, eventually the site will add a search function that will scan
every calendar in the database.
Therefore, someone who hears through the grapevine that a speaker is coming to
campus could search to find the time, date, place of the talk.
Another feature expected soon will allow users to subscribe to email lists
notifying them when certain types of events are posted to the calendar -- a
feature suggested by outgoing Student Body President Brad Matthews.
The web calendar grew from a 1997 Chancellor's Report on Intellectual Climate
published by a campus task force. One of two committees appointed to implement
the report recommended wider pub- lication of events that enhance Carolina's
intellectual climate.
The committee co-chair, Elizabeth A. Evans of Carolina's Academic Technology
and Networks staff, convened frequent event sponsors through 1999-2000 to
brainstorm about functions a web calendar should have.
The group agreed that Carolina's Information Technology Services (ITS) group
would search for software that could accomplish the University's calendar
priorities. As a result, ITS bought software last summer from Groveware
Technologies Inc. of Toronto. Since then, Groveware and ITS have refined the
software and trained calendar publishers for all units.
The College of Arts and Sciences began testing the calendar last fall.
"Calendar administrators across the college have found it easy to publicize
their events this way and to check the calendar before scheduling a major event
to avoid conflicts," said Dee Reid, the college's communications director.
Ashlyn Woolley of University Relations will oversee the master calendar, to
which calendar publishers may promote major events. To avoid a digital divide,
Arts Carolina will continue publishing its printed events lists, and News
Services still will issue news releases about major events.
"It's imperative that publishers in all schools and departments begin posting
events, and that everyone begin using the calendar to learn about events,"
Moore said. "We've added a link for users to give us feedback. And we're
depending on their input to help us correct any problems and ensure that the
calendar is easy to use. We think that having all events listed in one place
will be a tremendous asset for everyone."
For more information
To learn more about issues, events and online resources referred to in this
article, go to the following web links:
Bobby (free software that evaluates web sites for usability by the disabled)
at http://www.cast.org/bobby/
Webaccess (the campus listserv for on-line access issues at
http://listserv.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter= webaccess
Web Accessibility Workshop (May 14-15)
"From Your Lips to Your Computer" (an Atlantic Monthly writer's experiments
with voice recognition software) at
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/12/fallows.htm
Web Access for the Disabled (Internet resources) at
http://servercc.oakton.edu/~wittman/find/disabled.htm
How campus units can get involved
Campus units that have not participated in the campuswide web calendar effort
and wish to may e-mail campuscalendar@unc.edu
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE