The time has come. The committee was formed. The decision has been made. You're going to build a new website for your institution. Now . . . it's time to deal with the "elephant in the room." Do you go with the open-source option for "free" or do you shell out the "real money" for a commercial product? For many institutions, open-source looks like a great, cost-effective option compared to the investment of a commercial product. However, the convenience of picking up the phone to call a live person who can help you through a problem in the middle of the night in a crunch can be nice, too.
Tarrant County College (TCC), the sixth-largest institution of higher education in Texas, rolled out both types of systems for very different purposes over a 6-year period. When choosing a new system, cost considerations must include initial investment, implementation time, and support. However, these are only a few of the issues which should be thought about. There are numerous other long-term intangible costs that should also be taken into consideration when choosing the right system for an institution. In this session, individuals who played key roles during both implementations at TCC, will discuss the trials and tribulations of open-source and commercial solutions, providing insight and experience from both sides of the table.
Susan Ragland is the Web content editor at Tarrant County College District, the sixth-largest institution of higher education in Texas. She has nearly ten years of experience in Web programming. She co-lead the TCC Web team that selected and implemented the district’s new WCMS, and trained over 200 district Web content contributors in best practices for writing for the Web. She is responsible for maintaining a consistent voice for the district website as the final editor of all published Web content.
David Wissore is the manager of online services at Tarrant County College District. He has been working in the online environment for the past 14 years. He worked as lead technical administrator for 12 years in the district’s distance learning department, which has one of the top five enrollments in Texas. For the past two years, he has been the co-leader of the TCC Web team.
Tuesday, 3:30PM