Build a user-centric, service-oriented Web site.

The mandate was to rebuild with the help of a specialised company the top layers of the IT site to make it user-centric.

The initial project consisted of three phases:

1. Information gathering
2. Setting up a user-friendly, service-oriented site architecture
3. Implementing the site in form of static html pages

After successful completion of phases 1-2, the project was put on hold to evaluate the proposal of the Web consultancy to use for the site a content management system. Their arguments were:

• Without a content management system a site of the size of the IT site (30,000+ URLs) would be basically unmanagable
• A static implementation would deteriorate rapidly (within 6-12 months).

We initially followed this advice. But as the quality of the implementation delivered was considerably below the required level, and for maintenance reasons, the decision was to go ahead with a static implementation. Templates have been created for the authoring tools DreamWeaver and Frontpage. To ensure visual continuity the site uses a (linked) style sheet.

Acknowledgements:

• IT Management
• Steering committee:
  M. Dimou, S. Paoli, A. Pace, L. Pregernig, J. Richards
• IT contributors:
  D. Davids, C. Delamare, J.-D. Durand, D. Foster, M. Goossens, E. Grancher, L. Guy, P. Hagen, R. Hagen, F. Hemmer, N. Hoimyr, J. Karlsson, A. Khodabandeh, N. Seguro, T.Smoliakova, F. Trevisani, A. Wagner
• CERN:
  R. Cailliau, W. De Cat, P. Jurcso
• Users:
  Ball C., Barroso M., Baudic Y., Bornand M., Bray R., Briard F., Bruno L., Bugge L., Buttner M., Chudoba J., Closier J., Costa F., De Metz-Noblat N., Elyn J.-M., Epting U., Falciano S., Farthouat P., Goossens L., Guy L., Hagen R., Haug S., Hayes M., Helpdesk1 , Helpdesk2 , Hrivnac J., Jones R., Jonsson O., Jouberjean F., Khodabandeh A., Klem D., Mato P., Menet H., Muller J., Neboux S., O'Neale S., Parkman C., Ranjard F., Raymond G., Rey-Mermier R., Schinzel J., Skaali B., Sorensen C., Stickland D., Tuura L., Widegren D., Wildish A., Witzeling W.
• Non-CERN:
  D. Mayotte (Level 9 Web consultancy), T. Winkler (Switzerland Tourism)