environment.
If you want to develop...absolutely, they will work with you and the tools
are there. I'm part of that group that still prefers to write the raw HTML
myself in a simple editor instead of with the CMS. With FinalSite I can
write all the HTML I want. At the same time, our web content person doesn't
know HTML so she can use the CMS tools.
I'll defer to FinalSite's website for info about all the other tools that go
far beyond just developing.
On the professional labor and in-house talent, I've found FinalSite to be a
rare company in helping us improve our own talent. We now have a
marketing/PR person handling our website on a day-to-day basis and she knows
little about IT. However, she is a quick learner and FinalSite has been more
than willing to help her learn all she can, instead of pushing us to sign a
contract for consulting work. They see the benefit to us doing more on our
own. Companies like that are hard to find, but are the ones I look for.
I also agree on the sustainability. I've now been at 2 schools where my
predecessors had done enough customization to a few critical tools, that
they were the only ones who fully understood them. Yes, it gives those
people incredible job security because the administration is smart enough to
know that without that person the tool won't work right. On the flip side
though, what happens when that person leaves? Someone ultimately has to do
the cleanup work to make it all right.
It would just make sense to keep it simple and sustainable from the start. I
know that I'm not going to stay in my current position forever, so I have to
keep in mind that someone else will eventually have to take over what I do.
The other benefit to keeping it simple and sustainable is that it is easier
to delegate out because it is not so tightly tied to one person. I don't
think I'm the only one around with a nasty workload. Any chance I get, I
delegate. It also makes it easier to take a true vacation once every so
often, if someone else can handle it then it is less likely that I will get
called while on vacation.
+++Jeff
On 12/4/08 6:07 PM, "Derrel Fincher" <derrel.fincher@GRADED.BR> wrote:
> I have to disagree with Jonathan's assessment
> that FinalSite is a development environment. I do
> agree with the rest of his comments about
> creating unsustainable systems, which can happen with whatever you choose.
>
> I am currently in the middle of implementing
> FinalSite and Veracross to replace a custom
> solution, I had a WH site at my last school and I
> also structured an entire website with Frontpage
> at a previous school. I also have experience in
> corporations with design and development, and
> share Jonathan's concern with sustainability.
> Schools, including mine, have histories of trying
> to make-do with limited resources and the result
> is, predictably, one person's cobbled "solution"
> that worked while the person was still there, but
> as the person left, things fall apart. We intend
> to avoid that problem, which is one reason we
> chose FinalSite. (WH can also provide the same
> level of support, but FS provided a couple of benefits that we needed.)
>
> However, Jonathan really illustrates another
> issue when he mentions "professional labor or
> in-house talent" and that is professional labor
> is in for the short term, and in-house talent
> seldom is more than a talented amateur attempting
> to do a professional job. The result is that
> projects are developed for the present with only
> a limited consideration for the future.
> Communications are too important to be left to
> ad-hoc development and management.
>
> Derrel
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