June 3, 2021
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, shares the latest news and notes from around the UW web as we close out the academic year. (10 minutes)
Healthy Huskies: Mari Tamiyasu, associate director of operational communications in UMAC, will give us an update on strategic messaging for our Stay Healthy Huskies campaign and the associated toolkit for communicators. (10 minutes)
Web Security Shorts: Keep an eye on your own supply chain — Tightening up web development processes in light of the SolarWinds hack. Presented by Peter Giles from the Office of the CISO. (25 minutes)
Showcase Your Website: Have a new site for the community to check out? Share with the group during this open forum. (15 minutes)
May 6, 2021
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us the latest news and notes from around the UW web. (10 minutes)
Zero Errors Accessibility Campaign: Terrill Thompson of UW-IT Accessible Technology Services will describe the “Zero Errors” campaign, a university-wide effort in May 2021 to use accessibility checkers to reduce – or eliminate! – accessibility errors from UW websites and other digital resources. Terrill will explain the campaign, unveil data that shows why accessibility checkers are a critical part of our risk management strategy, and provide an overview of several web accessibility checkers, including WAVE, Lighthouse, Axe, and Siteimprove. (30 minutes)
April 1, 2021
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us the latest news and notes from around the UW web, including Husky Giving Day. (15 minutes)
WordPress Theme Update: Lauren Caple, associate director for web development, will be joined by front end developer Teri Shelton to share a progress update on the new UW WordPress theme. (5 minutes)
Hosting Virtual Events: Livestreaming is more important than ever. Frost Keaton, live stream pro, will talk about the planning, logistics, promotions and of course the technical side of producing online events. (25 minutes)
March 4, 2021
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of Web Strategy in UMAC, will give us an update on more than the weather as we head into spring. BTW, he reports it will be “mildly nice” this week.
Overview of Planning Usability Studies: Learn about two key components–study design and artifact development–that are critical to preparing a usability study. Presented by UX designers William Washington, Hyunju Lee and Lauren Manes from UW-IT Academic Services.
Security Shorts: Pete Graff from the Office of the CISO will explore the details of browser encryption.
February 4, 2021
College of Arts & Sciences Virtual Campus Tour: Russell Yost, senior director of marketing and communication for the College of Arts & Sciences, and Corinne Thrash, marketing production specialist, will showcase the virtual campus tour that the team recently created and offer tips on creating your own.
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us an update on the latest news, notes and events happening around the UW web.
Security Shorts: Jeane Marty, software engineer with the Office of the CISO, will present on the topic of browser fingerprinting. We will get an introduction to the topic along with a look at its privacy and security implications.
January 7, 2021
UW in Your Community Website Redesign: Over a decade ago, the Office of State Relations created the website “UW in Your Community” to demonstrate the UW’s statewide impact to legislators. While functional, the site lacked visual interest and needed an upgrade. Last year, State Relations Associate, Maggie Yuse, partnered with External Affairs Director of Communications and Events, Natalie White, to completely overhaul and redesign the site. During their presentation, they will briefly recap the redesign process and share how they were able to leverage the new Storytelling modules to bring this 51 page website to life.
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe will bring us the latest news and notes from around the UW web world as we kick off the new year.
Security Shorts: Pete Graff will explore the mechanics of DOM-based cross-site scripting attacks, and what you can do to lessen the chances of getting burned by one.
December 3, 2020
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe will bring holiday cheer and the latest news from around the UW web world. Prepare yourself for a festive lightshow.
Get Smart: Jacob Kelly and Nick Bolton walk through how they create engaging content on social media, why it resonates with our audiences and the strategic importance of creating content specifically for social from the ground up.
Security Shorts: A new episode of Web Security Shorts: News Bytes, with a handful of quick-hitting items including –
- Notable new WordPress, Drupal vulns
- Cit0day breach affects UW accounts
- New features to mitigate “Zoom bombing”
November 5, 2020
Word on the Street – Not even the cold November Rain will keep Thom Thorpe, Director of Web Strategy, from delivering the latest news around the UW web.
The Dos and Don’ts of Email – UMAC’s Tiffany Sevareid and Cris Barajas will discuss how to remedy common problems with emails and make the most of Marketo templates.
Security Shorts – Pete Graff from the Office of the CISO will be taking a look at some recent UW-related cybersecurity news with an eye to how you, as a UW web professional, can continually up your security awareness.
October 1, 2020
Word on the Street: Thom “Brokaw” Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us the Word on the Street as classes get underway. He might even have some fancy new presentation techniques to demonstrate.
Security Shorts: Peter Giles from the Office of the CISO will give us a roundup of newsworthy items in the world of web security.
Atomic Design: Dan Druliner, UW Finance web developer in UMAC, will share what he’s been learning about Atomic Design — a methodology for creating an interface design system and Pattern Lab — a static site generating tool for implementing an Atomic Design system.
August 27, 2020
Word on the Street: In addition to the usual words on the street, this month Thom Thorpe will walk us through the monthly themes for the coming academic year highlighting the types of stories we will be looking to highlight on the homepage. This is guaranteed to the be the highlight of your academic year. (Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, UMAC)
Browser bookmarklet security: Bookmarklets can be helpful for professional work and productivity. However, they can also come with security vulnerabilities. In this security short, we’ll walk through how bookmarklets work and how to evaluate them before adding to your browser. (Jeane Marty, software engineer, UWIT CISO)
Back-to-School Messaging: We will get a preview of back-to-school communications from:
- Courtney Coster, director, brand marketing strategy (student experience)
- Genevieve Haas, director, executive communications (president’s office)
- Elise Perachio, director, digital engagement (social media and email)
June 4, 2020
Word on the Street – Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us a roundup of web activities as we close out the school year.
Powerful Photos: A good (or bad) photo can make a strong impression – Sasha Im, web content strategist, discusses how to select, edit and compose photos to enhance your digital communications.
May 2020
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of Web Strategy in University Marketing & Communications, will give us a roundup of all the virtual happenings around campus.
Secure Teleworking: CISO Information Security Analyst Melissa Albin-Wurzer will talk about the materials CISO has available on our website for guidance on secure teleworking.
Automated Web Accessibility Testing with aXe: Huiai Chan, Senior QA/SDET, UW Information Technology, will discuss how UW-IT Enterprise Document Management (EDM) added accessibility checks into their automated tests and how automation enforces a minimal level of accessibility on every code merge.
April 2020
Word on the Street: Tune in as Thom virtually delivers this month’s Word on the Street. Chocked full of canceled and postponed events, you won’t want to miss this socially distant presentation.
Browser extension security: Browser extensions, also known as add-ons, extend the browser’s functionality and provide tools for our professional work and productivity. However, they can also come with security vulnerabilities. In this security short, we’ll show you how to evaluate extensions before adding them, as well as review the ones you’re already using.
Remote work open discussion: Share your experiences and best practices for staying productive in a time of social distancing. Are there challenges you have had to overcome? What communication tools are you leveraging? What aspects of in-person work do you miss the most?
March 2020
An entire meeting dedicated to Storytelling Modules: Thom will enchant us with this month’s Word on the Street and then introduce us to the Web Strategy team’s newest offering Storytelling Modules – a new WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to quickly create media-rich stories like the ones we publish on the Boundless site. Teri will then give us a deep-dive into the new offering with a live demo, followed by a Q&A.
Powerpoint slides
February 2020
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe will give us an update on the latest web-related happenings around the UW.
Drupal Upgrade: In 2019, DEOHS (Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences) upgraded all of their web properties from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. In this presentation, we’ll talk about our strategies and some of the challenges we encountered along the way.
Credential Stuffing: You may have heard of it but don’t quite know what it means, or perhaps you are not yet aware of this type of attack that has unfortunately become so commonplace. In a few short minutes you’ll know exactly what it is, and how to be invulnerable to it.
January 2020
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us an overview of the new format for Web Council in 2020.
Web Accessibility Update: Terrill Thompson of UW-IT Accessible Technology Services will provide an update on recent revisions to Washington state Policy 188, a status report on changes to W3C accessibility guidelines, and a report on various upcoming UW activities, events, and services related to web accessibility.
Same Origin Policy: A Refresher: Pete Giles, senior developer & data analyst with CISO, will deliver another presentation in the Security Shorts series.
December 2019
Population Health: Derek Fulwiler, director of strategy and communications for the UW’s Population Health Initiative, will share how this is the “year of Population Health” for the UW, what that means and how you can get involved.
Plugins and 3rd Party Libraries: Pete Graff, senior developer and UX designer for the Office of the CISO, will look at some of the risks of using 3rd party code and what you can do to mitigate them.
Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, will give us his final word on 2019 and provide a preview of what’s on the horizon for 2020.
October 2019
E-Commerce at the UW: Melissa Hall will talk about the current state of web-based e-commerce at the UW, why it needs to change and what Merchant Services is doing to help. TouchNet Marketplace is one of those initiatives, and she will talk more about what that platform is and will be.
CSS Grid: Teri Shelton is a front-end developer on the Web Strategy team in UMAC. Her main focus is on developing the impactful stories and creating new WordPress themes and plugins. She’ll be talking about how you can put CSS Grid to work in your web projects right now.
Security Short: Root Certificates & Trust – If you attended our last web security short, you probably heard the term “root certificate”. So, what does that even mean? Have you ever added a root certificate to a host? Why might you do that, and then again why might you not want to?
Word on the Street: As always, Thom will regale us with information from the campus community and beyond. And, this month’s Word will be extra special as Thom will detail some important changes coming to Web Council in 2020. You won’t want to miss this!
September 2019
Looking for a little inspiration for the start of another school year? Courtney Coster and Elise Perachio from UMAC will share some ideas for how to welcome this year’s new and returning students. Let’s make it a great #HuskyExperience!
Campus climate survey: Meg Matthews will update us on what it is, why it’s a big priority for the University and how we need your help.
It’s about dam time: How three schools and UMAC came together to tell a story of hydropower and food security in Cambodia. Joe Eastham and colleagues from the College of the Environment will present.
Security shorts: You’ve seen the little green padlock on your browser’s address bar, but do you know what it really means? Pete Graff will take you on a quick tour of browser encryption, certificates, and how they make browsing safer (most of the time).
June 2019
Thom’s Word on the Street
Thom Thorpe will tantalize us with promises of a summer happy hour. Don’t get too excited, folks. There won’t be free beverages, but Thom does promise to buy us all fries.
DrupalCon 2019 Recap
Three members of the UW Drupal users group will summarize the top trends and takeaways from the annual conference held in Seattle last April.
CMS Update and Migration
Lauren Caple and Morgen Nilsson will give a brief update on the CMS upgrade project. The project will bring the UW’s main website CMS up to date running on current technologies.
“Storytelling with Data” by Cara Giacomini
This presentation melds content from a series of workshops Cara delivered for EDUCAUSE, a national Higher Ed IT organization, on “Storytelling with Data” and insights from her recent publication on how to “Start Smart with Data.” This presentation focuses on ensuring that the data you provide offer insights to enable organizational change. It will offer practical tips and candid lessons on how to align what you are measuring to a strategic plan, utilize storytelling elements to connect with your audience and build momentum to move forward.
May 2019
Prototyping websites in Codepen.io
Dan Druliner, web developer for UMAC, will demonstrate how you can build prototype websites and evaluate web technologies such as markdown, emmet, SCSS, Bootstrap, Boundless, Javascript and jQuery using the prototyping website codepen.io.
Wi-Fi hygiene
Peter Giles, senior developer and data analyst in the office of CISO, will provide tips to help keep your portable devices sparkling clean on the road and in the neighborhood.
Word on the Street
Thom Thorpe will give us a rundown of the latest and potentially greatest in the UW web world.
April 2019
Digital Storytelling: Preparing and Pitching Stories
Chelsea Yates, assistant director of publications in the College of Engineering, will cover digital storytelling from a unit’s perspective: where they find stories, how they include photography to make them visually interesting, how they consider strategic positioning, and how they successfully pitch them to the UMAC Editorial Board and other teams. She will be joined by Jamie Swenson, assistant director of content in UMAC, who will talk about the Editorial Board’s process for considering pitches for the many central channels it represents.
Security Short: An Overview of Password Managers
Pete Graff from the Office of the CISO will provide a brief overview of password managers—what they do, why you should consider using them, and some features to consider when choosing one among the many currently available.
Word on the Street
Thom is back with another jam-packed presentation filled with all of the information you could ever want. Well, that’s a bit much – let’s just say some of the information you might want. (Yes, he wrote that for last month.)
March 2019
The new Transportation Services website
The web team from UW Facilities will show off their new Transportation site, including what worked, what didn’t and why you can never go wrong with icons.
TechConnect sneak peek
TechConnect is right around the corner! Our colleagues from UWIT will give us a little insight into the day’s events and how you can participate.
Husky Giving Day
Jacob Kelly and Priscilla McGraw will present about the upcoming Giving Day and how you and your teams can help promote and participate in this event.
Updates to our platform
Lauren Caple and Morgen Nilsson will announce some work they are doing to update uw.edu‘s WordPress themes, plug-ins, and infrastructure.
Word on the Street
Thom is back with another jam-packed presentation filled with all of the information you could ever want. Well, that’s a bit much – let’s just say some of the information you might want.
February 2019
Making the School of Law Immersive with the Tulalip Tribes
Collaboration is an integral part to every immersive story we’ve produced over the past few years, but we wouldn’t have been able to tell this particular story without building a relationship with members of the Tulalip Tribes. Each step of the process was a lesson in developing our equity lens. Lauren Lee, associate creative director in University Marketing and Communications, will take us through the steps we took to ensure we were telling this story equitably and with the support of our partners in Tulalip and around campus.
WPCampus Online Conference 2019 Recap
Teri Shelton, front-end web developer in UMAC, will briefly recap the WPCampus online conference from January 31, including lessons learned and takeaways from two Gutenberg case studies, an update on the Gutenberg accessibility audit, and a really cool accessibility style guide.
Thom’s Word on the Street
Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy in UMAC, has persevered through endless meetings, listserv emails and other forms of information gathering to bring you a comprehensive roundup of current happenings, noteworthy endeavors and even a few job openings at the University.
Take a minute to get to know each other
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we will spend some time getting to know each other a bit better. In this speed networking session, we will pair off for two-minute sessions. Take a literal minute to introduce yourself and share the most challenging or fun project you’re engaged in at the UW.
January 2019
Developing An Equity Lens—The Images We Choose
Leilani Lewis from OMAD and Meg Matthews from UMAC on how visual messages can convey inclusion or exclusion to marginalized groups.
Web Security Shorts: “A Healthy Skepticism for Browser Extensions”
Zephyr McLaughlin from CISO presents the next installment in the series.
Word on the Street
Including a recap of the 2018 Internet Trends Report
December 2018
Crisis communications at the UW
Victor Balta, senior director of media relations, will give us an update on UW Alert and crisis communications at the University of Washington.
Scroll-stopping videos on social media
Jacob Kelly, UMAC’s social media digital strategist and community manager, and Rebecca Gourley, editorial assistant in UW News, will share best practices for creating scroll-stopping videos for social media.
UW Insider case study
Caitlin Grady, UMAC’s internal communications specialist, will share insights from the launch of UW Insider — the UW’s flagship weekly newsletter to all faculty and staff. Learn how the newsletter was developed, how they’re using Marketo’s advanced features and what’s next for the publication.