One of the best decisions of my life was accepting my current job with the Web Strategies Implementation Team. A committee within Penn State, the Web Strategies Implementation Team is a group of about 25 managers and executives that were charged by Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson to implement the 20 recommendations contained in the Web Task Force Final Report.

Essentially, the job of the committee is to make the web better at Penn State. According to the Web Task Force, "Without a University-wide systematic strategy for a coherent Web presence and for the future development of Web-based initiatives, the University will lose an extraordinary opportunity to shape its future infrastructure and services to address the rapidly changing needs and lifestyles of our diverse constituents." The Web Strategies Implementation Team is in the process of identifying the problems related with the web, and then leading the way to develop solutions in these areas, which range in breadth from a appointing an e-Business officer, to creating a 24/7 call center, to institution of an office for web services, to providing training and career ladders for Web Professionals and much more.

I was hired by Dr. Fred Loomis, who served as the Executive Director of the IST Solutions Institute before being elevated to Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President and Provost. Chosen by Provost Erickson, Dr. Loomis is currently acting as the director of the Web Strategies Implementation Team. He asked me to come on board and serve as his assistant and as a committee member. According to my business cards, my official title is: Special Projects Leader.

My work with the Team started in February of 2001. I worked part time during the spring semester to develop the foundations for the committee. We (Fred Loomis, Ann Dodd, Ken Cox, and I - the four core members of the committee) met every Friday for four months to harmonize all the internal workings of the committee and steer the Team in the proper direction. In addition to that, I also worked on some special projects for the committee, such as developing a marketing plan that we used during the annual Center for Quality and Planning Exposition. We had a table at the expo so we could present what we were working on to the rest of the University.

In the summer my part time job turned into a full time internship. I spent my summer in State College, working primarily out of the Rider II Building. In addition to serving as an overall committee member, I also had the task of coordinating all of the newly formed sub teams. I served on three of these subcommittees: Communications, Metrics, and Infrastructure.

The summer was a very productive time for both me and the Team. I produced one of our first deliverables, the results of a survey taken by Penn State Web Professionals. Essentially, I wrote a 10 page survey to find the wants and needs of the Penn State Web Professional community. We distributed 350 copies at the Web 2001 Conference; over 115 surveys were returned. I then spent the next month tallying all the results, analyzing the results, and then forming the statistics into a document that ended up being about 40 pages. It received critical praise and interest from many groups within the University and helped push the mission of the Web Strategies Implementation Team forward.

I also took part in a series of interviews with the budget executives at Penn State. The purpose of these interviews were similar in nature to the Web Professionals Survey - only this time we were gathering information on the wants and needs of the executives at Penn State. The interviews were kept confidential - in fact, I had to be approved by the Office of Regulatory Compliance Human Subjects Board before we started the talks. From these meetings we gained a lot of insight and great suggestions for the direction of our Team.

Now into the fall semester, I am returning to only part time work with the Team, but I still am serving as one of its core members. The majority of my semester's work will revolve around four projects: Developing a video marketing tool highlighting the importance of the web; Writing a report on the process involved with redesigning a website; Completing a benchmarking report with other "peer" universities, which will include questions based around web strategies implemented at their schools; and lastly, assisting in the reports for the infrastructure subcommittee and our briefing to the Provost.

I have been incredibly pleased with my internship. It has given me the opportunity to learn many business skills first hand and the chance to meet a lot of key people at Penn State - contacts that I will no doubt rely on during my next three years at the University. Working with the Web Strategies Implementation Team is by far more enjoyable than classwork. I would be more than willing to accept a 120 credit internship for my work so I could graduate now, thereby having the ability to work full time on the project. Unfortunately, I don't think the Provost would agree. Despite that, I am planning to work part time on the Web Strategies Implementation Team for the remainder of the school year until the charge expires in June of 2002.

Web Strategies Implementation Team Deliverables:

Web Strategies Implementation Team Charge
The challenge, vision, charge, and team members of the Web Strategies Implementation Team.

Web Strategies Implementation Team Guiding Principals
The six guiding principals which the committee follows.

Web Strategies Implementation Team Innovations
A list of innovations that the committee is highlighting.

Web Strategies Implementation Team Strategy Roadmap
The strategy roadmap that has been implemented to divide the Team into subcommittees. The roadmap includes the list of subcommittees and a list of subcommittee members.

Web Strategies Implementation Team Website
A screenshot of the Web Strategy Center, the official online home of the Web Strategies Implementation Team, http://www.web.psu.edu.

The 20 Recommendations
A detailed list of the 20 recommendations that were made by the Web Task Force in the Summer of 2000. It serves as the basis for the work of the Web Strategies Implementation Team.

Developing Web Strategies
A diagram I developed to help show graphically how units should develop their plans regarding web strategies.

Web Readiness Scorecard
A metric I helped develop that units can use when working on strategic planning. They can take the survey now, then again in six months, then in another six months, etc. to show continuous improvement.

Web Professionals Survey Results
The report that I wrote than summarizes and analyzes all of the data I received from the Web 2001 Conference. It was one of the Web Strategies Implementation Team's first deliverables.

About Me | Portfolio | Résumé | Sounds and Multimedia | Pictures
Scheduled Tasks | Read Me First Before Setup | Contact Information | And More . . .

©2002 by Ben Eisenberg. All content is the propery of its respective owners.
Please read the disclosure, privacy, and copyright policy.
Please refer all questions to the site's content manager and webmaster.