Introduction
AUT’s Web Centre has a momentous year, with the launch of the new main site in early February and in excess of 65 projects managed throughout 2005. The former was the culmination of 18 months of consultation, development and usability testing.
AUT Web Centre staff of 4.5 fulltime 'equivalents’ currently monitor and maintain 3,638 pages in the content management system and 6,647 resources in total, within the DCMS. In addition there are several site sub-sections still in transition to the new AUT templates. This brings the grand total for web pages managed to 9,218.
This equates to 2,049 pages managed per Web Centre F.T.E. and is a +218% increase in AUT web pages when compared to 2004 (2,898).
Several, strategically important web systems were also built in 2005 under the facilitation and/or direct project management of the Web Centre. These included the Skills Exchange community volunteering system for Communications & Marketing and the AUT Experts & Expertise system for AUT Research Office.
Our web site received consecutive, quarterly, education category awards from an independent web marketing company - HITWISE - These awards were based on quarterly statistics provided by ISP's (Internet Service Providers).
A key role of the Web Centre is the project management of new web sites and systems. A total of 65 web projects were initiated and managed by our staff in 2005.
A total of 142,395,406 hits were recorded on the site for the 12 months. This represents a 44.3% increase compared to the previous year (2004 - 98,734,489 hits).
AUT Web generated 283, 654 hours of E.V.E. (Estimated Virtual Exposure) for the university in 2005. A 60.5% increase in E.V.E., compared to 2004. It also equates to 63,035 hours per Web Centre F.T.E.
The AUT Image Reservoir - now houses 3,569 images in 213 albums. This represents a 297% increase in the number of images stored in this online system (2004 - 900 images).
Several new templates were developed for the Content Management System (DCMS). These included a commercial template, Zine template and a dedicated Library template. HTML email templates were also developed for several entities including the Summer School.
The Web Centre recorded many of the key university events and activities throughout the year. These included staff photographs for new or revised web sites.
Subsidiary sites such as AUT Campaign sites, The Science Site, InsideAUT and Weekly Global were maintained on behalf of directorates and faculties.
The AUT Web Policy was circulated, reviewed and subsequently signed off by the Vice Chancellor.
XML news feeds for AUT were introduced and changed out regularly.
Regular monthly reports were produced by the Web Centre for key sub-sites and strategic campaigns.
More than 80 'conduit’ staff were rostered into a timetable of onsite visits and training by the Web Centre Supervisors.
Performance
52,426 AUT Web pages were viewed on average each day (2004 - 28,151pages)
Top sub-sites in order of rank for the year were:
- The Library site
- Staff web sections
- MyAUT
E.V.E. (Estimated Virtual Exposure) of 283, 654 in the calendar year equates to 777 hours of E.V.E. per day.
Growth in Annual Main Site Visitation – past four years
Hits per month - 2005 and the previous year
34% (32) of site users were on-campus, 46% (45) New Zealand and 20% (23) International. This demographic segmentation fluctuated throughout the year. (Note - previous year is in brackets)
Demographic Breakdown of Visitation
Final Word
The writer of this report wishes to pay tribute to all AUT staff that content-managed or commissioned websites in 2005.
As I have often stated, the strength of our site is that is a moderated and single entity, underpinned by the core philosophy that the owners of the content manage the content’.
Each site in its own way made a contribution to the whole and conduit staff members (those given the role of maintaining their respective sub-sites) were instrumental in ensuring the overall success of AUT Web and its importance to the university.
I record my appreciation to the staff of the AUT Web Centre who met every challenge with enthusiasm and dedication.
2005 was a very intense year and the busiest recorded since the Web Centre’s inception in 2000.
None of the above milestones would have been achieved without the professionalism of my Web Centre colleagues.
Roger Smith
Manager – AUT Web Centre
6/1/2006 | 
