VMC Web Development

I want to introduce myself and tell you what I am thinking regarding this blog.

My name is Terry Smith. I am working on my twentieth year at VMC. You can read my bio for more information, especially if you have insomnia. I am charged with overseeing all Web development for the medical center.

Part of ‘overseeing’ Web development includes being a resource to all VMC Web developers. I may not know the answers to your questions, but I will do my best to find them for you.

I am also charged with developing the main sections of the VMC Web site, or at least my team is. I have been fortunate to put together a team that is awesome. They include Jonathan Dees, Jason Coles, and Ryan Huber. Besides being awesome professionals, they are a hoot to work with.

In the near future you will be receiving links to our new VMC “Consumer’ Web Site. It was developed to simplify access to medical services by our patients, potential patients, and their families. We know that we, VMC staff members, are also our patients from time-to-time, so we want your input as well.

We will continue to maintain the main .edu Web site, but will refresh it later this year (2007). This is a huge undertaking and will be done in stages. There are many questions still to be answered and I will use this blog to give you all the answers we come up with, but don’t hesitate to give me your input. I may be sorry for saying this, but I know it will improve VMC. So, have at it!

I also want to use this blog to get and share your input with other VMC Web developers. I feel we, VMC, will be successful because we asked several consumers what they wanted of a consumer web site and now we want your input about the VMC.edu site. I can’t guarantee we can make them all happen, but we will continuously gather your input and do what the majority of staff members says is important to them.

For our SiteBuilder users, the Web Team will create a template similar to the new consumer and .edu sites. It will be just a matter of selecting the template and your site will be automatically converted. In the future there will be an advanced SiteBuilder tool developed. It will allow developers to move content modules with some other custom features. The consumer SiteBuilder tool will be built first.

As with SiteBuilder today, the new SiteBuilder’s base features will be free. We will have pricing schemes for us to build and maintain sites as well. Sites will be migrated to the new look over several months beginning with the consumer side. This will not be a forced migration, so don’t panic. Stay tuned for more information.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and I’ll look forward to working with you all in the future. Oh, I want to keep this blog informal, so please feel free to do the same.

Thanks!

Terry