If you haven’t yet heard of WordPress, it’s an open-source blogging and content management system that’s starting to dominate the world of web development. Three items of WordPress-related news from TAG today —
We’ve migrated TAG’s website from uofstechadvisory.wordpress.com to the University’s new, local WordPress instance — you can find us at sites.scranton.edu/tag. For right now, the site is publicly accessible, but like the old site it asks search engines not to index the content (so it’s not easily Googleable).
Moving to a local instance doesn’t just give us a scranton.edu URL – it also allows us to integrate with the University’s existing Active Directory authentication system, which means (among other things) that you don’t have to set up a separate WordPress account to log in. University community members can just log in with their R number and my.scranton password rather than creating a separate wordpress.com account.
Huge thanks to Phil Erb in IR for migrating our old content and for helping us set up the new site!
2) WordPress on Campus
So… did we mention that there’s a WordPress instance on campus now? We’ve already heard from a few faculty members who’d like to use WordPress pages for class projects, travel courses, and/or department news. Blog sites have already been set up for Admissions, the Library, and now TAG. Next up is possibly a site for the History Department, which would feed news stories onto their existing department website.
It’s not yet totally clear what level of access/service faculty will be able to get related to WordPress, but we’re excited about the possibilities. If you might be interested in using WordPress on campus, give TAG a heads-up so we’ll have a better grasp of faculty interest and needs.
3) WordPress off Campus
In their off hours, IR staff members and WordPress enthusiasts Phil Erb and Joe Casabona are organizing meetups for local WordPress users. The first one is scheduled for next Tuesday, February 19 from 7 to 8pm at the Vintage Theater on Spruce Street. Any users in Northeastern Pennsylvania, at any level of experience, are welcome (the meetup isn’t a University-affiliated event). If you’re interested, sign up at their Meetup.com page and/or follow the NEPA WordPress Facebook page.
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