In honor of my first blog post a couple weeks ago, my boss presented me with a silky smooth milk chocolate Dove bar, which I spread out and savored over a 3-day span. (I did not blog because I was motivated by this chocolate bar. I had heard mention of a chocolate-y incentive but for some reason I had assumed it was more of a metaphorical chocolate bar, which made it all the sweeter when it turned out to be very, very real).

I hope my boss realizes that, now that she has set the bar (pun intended), I will expect chocolate in increasing qualities each time I blog. Over the next few months I expect to receive the following in this order: chocolate chip cookies, a chocolate bunny, a three-layer chocolate mousse cake, a chocolate fondue feast complete with fresh fruit for dipping, and—eventually—my very own chocolate fountain to reside permanently in my office.

Also after my last blog post, my co-workers started feeling sorry for me for never getting mail. So the next time I passed my mailbox, it looked like this:

If you think you’re looking at a toy car, an IU promotional mug from the 80’s, and some kind of nut that has been spray-painted metallic for reasons I cannot even begin to imagine, you’d be correct. Mail at last!

I’m still having a lot of fun working here and I continue to learn a lot about writing, marketing, and IU. Our office has been working hard to develop a YouTube channel for Indiana University. When we all arrived at our weekly staff meeting a couple weeks ago, we were told to go out on campus to interview students about what they watch on YouTube and to come back an hour later to report our findings. (The student I ended up interviewing told me that he watches YouTube videos to learn military tactics, which I found slightly frightening…) But I think we received a lot of interesting insights that day and started developing some really innovative ideas. I also got to spend some time surfing YouTube to see what kinds of videos IU students have made and posted that we could link as favorites on our channel.

I’ll leave you with a few of my personal favorites:

IU’s Straight No Chaser—Stand By Me

Why I Like IU: Squirrel Cam

Jordan River Junkies

I got a video Flip Video for my birthday last year. You know, to catch those “special” moments with my two little girls, mainly for the grandparents and for posterity. (Who knew that a video of my husband swinging our two-year-old by her ankles would get 1,810 views?) This was big for me. I’ve never had a video camera. Never been videotaped. It’s just not me—at least that’s what I thought.

But ever since I created my own YouTube site, I’ve discovered something about myself: I like watching other people’s videos. I like to see the funny things people do, their little domestic habits, what they love and hate about the world.

So, naturally, when I was back at work and thinking of ways to get the word out to IU students about the Celebrate IU festivities, how to get 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds engaged and excited about all of IU’s accomplishments, it occurred to me that a video contest might be the way to go. Let IU students from all eight campuses tell the world—with their own words, music, images (G-rated because this is a family site, you know)—what they love about IU. That is how the Celebrate IU Student Video Contest was born.

We here at IU Creative Services got the word out around IU, and 55 students posted their unique video response to that age-old question, “Why do you love IU?”

Here are the winners:

Third Place

Second Place

First Place

On Thursday, October 25, my colleague Jane Below and I presented Branding Takes All at the 2007 IU External Relations Retreat. Our session focused on successful Web site branding through the use of new trends and technologies, and the important role research plays in successful branding. We reviewed and discussed high quality brands on the Web and reviewed case studies of some of our own branding projects. We are offering the presentation for download including our notes.

• Download PowerPoint File (11MB)
• Download PDF (2MB)

One evening last year on my way home from work, I listened to a podcast of an interview with Tiffany Shlain, the founder of the Webby Awards. While she talked about the awards ceremony, I wondered what it would be like to win a Webby and spend an evening with the Web’s most accomplished visionaries and creative pioneers.

A year later, the Indiana University Office of Creative Services received notice that one of our Web sites was among the top five finalists in the “School” category. For nearly a month, we wondered about our chances of winning. Then, the day the winners were announced, I got a call just after 7:00 a.m. No, it wasn’t the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. It was Jane Below, the information architect for the project. We had won. She had checked the site twice before calling me.

The Webby Awards ceremony is held in New York City on Wall Street, the financial center of the world. It was fitting for David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards, to speak about the financial impact of the Web, especially to an audience that included Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay, and Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, co-founders of YouTube.

Whitman accepted her award along with a few hand-picked eBay millionaires, Chen and Hurley joked about their billion-dollar deal with Google, and after the ceremony we walked outside to see Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz conducting one of their Diet Coke and Mentos experiments. It’s mostly how they are making a living now.

The Web has certainly affected the U.S. economy and culture in the past decade. (Did I mention that David Bowie and the Beastie Boys were in attendance to receive awards for their pioneering methods of connecting with fans?) In fact, it’s even difficult for me to remember a time before the Internet (but I do remember Gopher). My first job after college was writing a newsletter for the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System about how new technologies such as BITNET and even e-mail were being used to foster communication among researchers in higher education. We’ve come a long way since then, and I’m proud that IU has been at the forefront since the beginning.

No one knows what the future of the Web holds, but I have a feeling we’ll be ready. We really liked being part of the Webby crowd.

Webby Coverage:

• Video Coverage
• Webby Awards Official Photos

Our Webby Photos:

If you are a Web professional at Indiana University, you might want to attend the June IUMMUG meeting.

We will be discussing a new committee tasked with investigating and recommending solutions for the following issues: accessibility, creative commons licenses, IU web servers, IU search engine, visual identity, RSS feeds/multimedia, privacy/disability information, vision/outlook/Web 2.0, integrating institutional data, calendaring, and intranets. This committee will be launching a Web site in fall 2007 with resources for IU Web managers. Visit the IUMMUG site for details.

And yes, Bob will be giving away prizes :)

Wednesday, June 20
1:30 to 3 p.m.
Kelley School of Business Room CG1034

Help us write our acceptance speech!

By now you’ve probably heard that our office won the Webby for the best school Web site. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences gave us the nod for our work on the IU is Red Hot Web site. The awards ceremony is on June 5 in New York City. The Webby Awards are famous for their five-word acceptance speeches. One idea is “IU is red hot,” but we know there are lots of creative people in the IU community. Please send us a comment with your idea.

Last week, it came to our attention that we—gasp—had no set style regarding punctuation usage in links. Now, this might not seem like a huge deal, but “to punctuate or not to punctuate” (like right there, for instance) actually is important from both usability and editorial standpoints. It can affect the semantics of your Web page, the way readers scan text, and how screen readers treat the text for visually impaired users. Taking all of these aspects into consideration made the decision a tricky one.

But we were up to the task. Armed with our Chicago Manual of Style, various examples from other Web sites, usability recommendations, and of course, our geek pride, we discussed the issue at our editors’ meeting this afternoon.

After a lively debate, we, the editors, have set a new style regarding punctuation usage in links. I’d like to thank our two honorary editors—Jane Below, our information architect, and Ashley Callahan, our interactive technologist—for their input and expert opinions on the matter, as well as Margaret Londergan at Adaptive Technology Services for her usability recommendations. I’d also like to thank the Academy. Well, not really. But see what I did there?

Now I know you’re all wondering, “So what’s the rule? Do I ever use punctuation in the link?”

Check out our updated style guide for the answers. If you’re also wondering, “What the heck are jots and tittles?” you can e-mail Linda Stephenson, senior writer-editor, and beg her to write a blog about her expertise on the matter. Or you can just check it out on Wikipedia. That’s what we did.