Content Group-First email to Preston
Preston:
Hi, we're the content group for the reconstruction of the O'Neill Website. We received your name as our central contact. Because we want to rewrite a large portion of the site, we have a lot of questions to ask. Our group has some general questions that you may be able to answer and redirect us to the people who have the answer.
1. Who can I talk to about Eugene O'Neill? We want to write a biography of him and we need to find a person who can tell us some more information other than what the internet tells us.
2. We want to designate a part of the site for special alumni. It will be a "hall of fame" for the O'Neill Center. Who can we contact about the alumni? Who can tell us about some famous people who may have went to your center?
3. Who can we talk to about places of important on the O'Neill campus? The Monte Cristo house is included but we want to include more information about the campus.
4. Have the directors featured in biographies on the site changed?
5. What is the best method of contact? (phone, email) When is the best time to contact? Who do we contact?
6. What is the cost of each of hte conferences and institutes?
7. Whenw as the O'Neill Puppetry Conference started?
8. Did the Music Theater Conference start in 1978?
9. What are the specific awards given to the music theater conference?
These are just some questions we have regarding our rewriting process. If you don't know the answer, is there anyway you can direct us to a person who would? We really appreciate your time and we understand how busy you are. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Kelly Valaitis and the Content Group
Design Questions for Preston
Preston,
Good afternoon! I am the representative from the website design team of Dr. Fishman's class here at Clemson. Our group is responsible for the aesthetic design elements of the site and for the actual building of the site. I know that you are receiving emails from other groups, and we appreciate your time, but we do have a few questions for you...
The first two groups of questions, regarding forms and photos, are the most important regarding specific and timely feedback. The overall questions are helpful for the overall design.
Forms
1. What existing online forms need to be on the website? How, if at all,do the existing online forms need to change?
2. What type of online form or submission process would you like theO'Neill website to have?
3. What standards or uniformity is desired for items that are submittedelectronically?
4. Will individuals that submit items electronically also be required tosubmit hardcopies via the mail?
Photos
5. Would we be able to contact the O’Neill photographer directly? (inorder to compare shot list, obtain additional photos)
6. We have a preliminary shot list that we can send, who is the bestperson to receive this list?
Overall
7. How would you describe the institute in using 1 to 2 word adjectives?
8. What is the vision for the future of the institute?
9. What are the desired goals for the website?
10. Do you know who your typical visitors to the website are?
11. Do you have a mission statement?
12. Can we access any of the content on the current site, especially the images?
13. What do you think is the most common misunderstanding about the institute?
14. What could we design that you would absolutely not like?
15. Are there any particular websites that you really like or don’t likeas examples for us?
Your time and effort is greatly appreciated and we look forward to hearingfrom you soon!
Respectfully,
Shawn Haney
flowchart and site map
The Organization Group has completed the latest version (since the focus group last Sunday) of the flowchart and the site map for the new O'Neill website. If anyone wants these for any reason, you can email me at
lwelch@clemson.edu to request it. I'm not exactly sure how to post either to the Blogger, so email will be much easier for me.
Because the flowchart is in Egde 32 Diagrammer format, you will need to download the program. But, the site map is in Word. Here is the website where you can download the flowchart program:
http://www.globalshareware.com/Multimedia-Design/Image-Editing/EDGE-Diagrammer.htm
I hope these two documents can really help us begin to put together our website and see where all the information will be organized.
Thanks everyone,
Lucia
Focus Group After-Action
Lauren and Shannon did a great job of summarizing what went on during the focus group so I won't be redundant here. But I will say that we did get useful information and since there were only three participants, it opened my eyes as to other things that can be done even in a one-on-one interview that is more creative than simply a Q&A session. The best part of the event was the validation that we received about our initial thoughts of the site.
I know that Dr. Charney suggested contacting other individuals for further input; however, I'm hesitant to promote pursuing this for a few reasons. I'm sure this topic will come up in class so I'll wait until then...
SDH
Our Focus Group
I feel that Sunday's focus group went very well. We did make modifications to the agenda as necessary, but everything flowed together and I go the results that I expected.
As a group Lauren, Lindsey, Ashley, Shawn, Reyne, and I were very organized (except for some soda frustration haha) and worked perfectly together. I wish that more students would have attended besides Mike, but Mike, Dr. Charney & Mr. Goodstein served as great participants! The two professors especially were very talkative and into telling us everything they were thinking which is rpecisely what we were looking for.
The participants and student leaders had great dynamics together and I think we all felt very comfortable in the environment we were in, or at least I did. Some comments made were quite interesting, such as one of the first ones by Dr Charney, "The website does not represent the O'Neill at all. Especially with the bright blue background." Good thing we chose different colors crew!
In class tomorrow we need to wokr on re-prioritizing/ re-organizing our schedule based on some of the comments made by our participants. I believe Dr. FIshman is going to allow time for those of us who conducted the focus group to speak to everyone as a class about some of the happenings that cannot be captured on paper through transcribing the notes.
Until tomorrow................! Shannon
email from Dr. Charney
Hey Everybody,
The following is an email Dr. Charney sent on Monday after attending our focus group session on Sunday. Just thought you all should see it. (I'm sure he would have sent it to all of you, but he only had my email address & Dr. Fishman's email address.)
In it he recommends that we try again to talk to some "theatre folk" maybe at another focus group meeting during school hours at the Brooks Center. He also mentioned on Sunday that we might have better luck if we went to people's offices individually to talk to them about the site.
Thoughts?
Dr. Charney's Email:
Gang: I just wanted to tell you how impressed I was with the work you did
preparing for theatre folk yesterday, and to tell you how much I
appreciated such professionalism. I'm sorry that more folk didn't show up.
If you want to try again, and I recommend that you do, I'd do it during
school hours and try to set things up at the Brooks Center. Rick Goodstein
said he would help, and he's at regst@clemson.edu. Thanks, though, for your
good work and all of the preparation it took to put together such a strong
endeavor, Mark
focus group on sunday
For those of you who weren't able to make it on Sunday, here's what went down at the focus group:
We had three attendees: Mark Charney (chair of the English department)
Rick Goodstein (chair of the Theater department)
Mike (student currently applying for internship at the O'Neill)
Class members present were: Reyne, Ashley, Shannon, Shawn, Lindsey, Lauren, & Dr. Fishman
We started out with some preliminary questions in which we asked for descriptive terms for the O'Neill, what the O'Neill is actually like, what they would expect to find on the O'Neill website, what they would specifically go to the site to find, etc.
Then we asked the participants to look around the current website and give some feedback. They, like us, had lots of confusion in trying to navigate the site. We also gave them some specific tasks from the list that Lucia made, and they had lots of trouble finding what they needed then as well.
Finally, we asked the participants to group post-its of the information currently on the site and add any information that seemed to be missing.
The participants we had gave us some really great feedback and suggestions, and we learned that focus groups, like most everything else, often don't run exactly according to plan, but with flexibility, you can gain more information than you would have expected.
I have posted a text representation of the card sort grouping, and we will give more details to you on what was actually suggested after the tape recordings are transcribed and the notes are compiled.
Lauren
card sort groupings from sunday
This is how our three focus group participants grouped the information in our card sort on Sunday:
Card Sort – O’Neill Focus Group
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Mark Charney, Rick Goodstein, Mike ?
News & Events (by category)
Schedule
About Us
Program Overview
People
Artistic Director
Executive Director
Board Chairman
Trustees
Founder
Staff
Eugene O'Neill
History of the O'Neill
Monte Cristo Cottage
Conferences & Institutes
Musical Theater Conference
Director’s Bio
Faculty & Staff
Alumni
Application Info
Online Application
Puppetry Conference
Director’s Bio
Faculty Staff
Alumni
Application Info
Online Application
Critics Institute
Greeting to Prospective Critic Fellows
Director's Bio
Faculty & Staff
Alumni
Application Info
Online Application
*Tuition Grant Application (
Is this only for the Critics' Institute?)
Playwright Conference
Director’s Bio
Faculty & Staff
Alumni
Application Info
Submission Guidelines
Online Application
National Theater Institute
Director’s Bio
Faculty & Staff
Alumni
Application Info
Online Application
Get Involved
Volunteer Opportunities
Internships
Application Info
Educator's Observership & Application Info?
Trustee Residencey & Application Info?
Become A Member
Membership Benefits
Membership Form
Make A Donation
Annual Fund
Online Donation Form
Photo Archive
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1965-1999
Visitor Info
Area Info & Links
Driving Directions
Contact Us
vice presidential debate
By the way, did anyone watch the Vice Presidential debate last night?
It was a complete role reversal from the Presidential debate! Cheney was the one who was calm and collected and in command of the facts, and Edwards was the one lashing out and spouting off empty emotional appeals!
I was very disappointed.
And even though there were several potentially damning charges made by each side that were never addressed, I think they may have been somewhat smart to avoid further discussion on issues that could only provide fodder for media writers looking for incriminating "soundbites." I mean, I would like to hear how Cheney would attempt to defend his dealings as CEO of Halliburton, and I would also like to hear Edwards' explanation of his excessive absences at Senate sessions, but I do think that further discussion of either of these relevant issues would have hurt both candidates in their public portrayal.
Anybody else a big enough dork to write about this?
By the way, Edwards was much meaner than Robin, and Cheney was much too gracious to be Darth Vader. (Although he did wear the midnight black suit...)
List of Who's Coming on Sunday
Hey Everyone-
I will keep an updated list here of invitees to Sunday's focus group who have responded to the invitation.
Class Members Who Will Attend
Shannon Campbell
Lauren McLaughlin
Lindsey Robbins
Reyne Mitchell
Possibly Lucia Welch
Dr. Fishman
Invited Guests Who Will Attend
Mark Charney (Chair of the English department)
Rick Goodstein (Chair of the Performing Arts department)
Chelsea Mylett (student/production supervisor intern at the Brooks Center)
Invited Guests Who Will Not Attend
Carol Collins (But she welcomes emailed questions. She worked at the O'Neill for 4 years!)
Presidential Debate
My overall impression of the debate is that it was not really a debate, more of a staged question and answer. Also, it did not seem that President Bush was prepared and he continued to say the same things over and over again. Before watching the debate I did not pay much attention to politics so I am not sure if these are things that he said before, but he continued to say that Senator Kerry thought that this war was the wrong war at the wrong place during the wrong time, and that one that thinks like that cannot lead the United States. Senator Kerry stayed more to the topic and seemed to answer the questions more completely.
The most important claims made by Senator Kerry were that President Bush went to fight the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and wound up fighting a war in Iraq, which in turn misled the American people. Senator Kerry also claims that he can do a better job of protecting our country and insuring homeland security.
The most important claims made by President Bush were that fighting a war is hard work and it is hard work to protect America, and that everyone knows this. He also claims that he misled no one, and told everyone what he intended to do. President Bush also insisted that the Iraqis want to be free and once they are trained to get their own freedom the war will be over.
In conclusion, this debate helped me better understand the stances these two candidates take. Since I am slightly biased I will not pass judgement, but overall I think that Senator Kerry did a much better job answering the questions posed to him.
Help That I Am Seeking
I have looked at other theater sites to see how they portray the members of their staff and the different programs that they offer. I also looked at the different ways that the theaters voiced the information that is included.
What I am Interested in Proposing
I would really like to work on editing the biographies of the staff members. A better vocabulary and various adjectives will make the information more interesting. I also would like to add information that may be available for new staff members.
Impression of the site
Overall, the website seems to be somewhat boring, it has no artist content included to make it interesting. My first complaint is about the blue background. It gives the site a very dull appearance. I think that we could work on getting a brighter color that will bring more appeal to the site. Also, a neater text will help the appearance since there are a lot of biographies and written text to be included. The slideshow that is currently on the site moves extremely too fst. If we work on organizing, formatting, and the speed of each picture, we should produce a very good slide show. Each of the biographies for the O'Neill staff are very boring. A lot of editing needs to be done to make the material more exciting.
copy of focus group invite
Hello, Friends of the Theater!
As you may or may not know, Dr. Teddi Fishman’s class is designing a new website for the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. We are designing this site from the ground up, and we would like to have some input from people who are involved with theater and/or familiar with the O’Neill as we plan for the design and building phases of the site. Dr. Charney has recommended each of you as a potential resident expert for our project design, and I would like to invite you to participate in a focus group we are holding to determine effective informational and design elements for our site. (We want to bounce our ideas off of you and hear your ideas as well.)
We are holding our focus group this Sunday at 2:00 in the Class of 1941 Studio on the first floor of Daniel Hall. This session will last no more than an hour, and we will provide pizza and other delicious homemade treats for you. (How can you resist?) Dr. Charney will be participating, and Dr. Fishman is directing a small team of graduate and undergraduate students who will lead our discussions. We will provide computers for everyone, as well as the opportunity to influence the content and the design of the O’Neill website.
If you are able to devote an hour of your Sunday afternoon to this project, we would love to hear your opinions on what works and doesn’t work on the current site, what information should be added to the new site, and what design schemes could best convey the essence of the O’Neill Center.
Please contact me, Lauren McLaughlin, to let me know if you can make it. I also welcome any questions or suggestions you may have, and we encourage you to look over the current O’Neill website before coming. (
http://www.oneilltheatercenter.org) Your input is extremely valuable to us, and it will help us to create the innovative, comprehensive, and informative website that the O’Neill Center deserves.
Thanks for your time, and I hope to see you all on Sunday!
Lauren McLaughlin
Instructional Technologies Mentor
STI BGCA Leadership Institute
lmmclau@clemson.edu
656-7429
Focus Group Time Change & Invites Sent
Hey Everybody-
Dr. Charney has requested that we move the time of our focus group up to 2:00 on Sunday. He has spoken with several of his directing students, and eight of them said they could make it if we started at 2:00 instead of 2:30. So, I jumped on that! We asked for students, and we got them!
And I know I said I didn't want to be the invitation dictator, but I decided to go ahead and send the invitation out since we are running short on time. I hope I haven't left anyone out by doing that, but I will post a copy of the invitation email in a separate blog entry.
Thanks to everyone who is helping with this, and I will keep you all updated through the blogger as to who is coming.
Lauren
Presidential Debate
In watching the presidential debate, the thing that impacted me most was the visual rhetoric of the candidates actions. I've heard many of the things they have said before and even though some were new I felt I couldn't be objective about what they said because I am so against one of the candidates. So in watching them, I couldn't believe the stark contrast of their actions.
President Bush greatly surprised me at how unprepared he was on screen. He seemed to smirk, stutter, and even lean on the podium. He came across as unprepared which I know he wasn't. When Kerry was speaking he seemed to look off into space and make visual reactions against what Kerry said.
However, when Bush was speaking I saw Kerry making more appropriate reactions. He nodded when something agreed to him and he wrote things down to refute when it was his turn. He stood tall and never leaned on the podium.
I thought Bush took an early advantage when he came across the podium to shake hands but lost that lead early on. I still can't believe how much he botched up the performance at the end. He stuttered and stammered and didn't know what to say. It's like he was daydreaming and didn't realize it was his turn. Like someone said it looked like he thought it was a 9minute debate and was surprised to find it was 90 minutes.
I think looking at them visually is a new method I'm going to take into all debates since I am already so partial. I can't wait for the next debate. I hope to see more visual contrast between the two.
Lindsey
Comments on Presidential Debate
I thought that President Bush was very vague with his responses to each of the questions. It seemed as if he used the same three responses no matter what the subject matter was concerning. Senator Kerry did a somewhat decent job while trying to voice his true opinion about the War on Terror and his reasonings behind changing his mind about certain policy decisions. Overall, President Bush's presentation was exactly what I expected, hilarious. I can not wait until Friday's debate to see his next three responses.
The Presidential Showdown
Well, I was extremely surprised by the disparity between the two candidates in their debating skills. I knew that public speaking (or speaking in general) was not President Bush's strong point, but I did not expect him to be as ill-prepared as he was. I also expected John Kerry to be well-spoken and prepared, but I was surprised by his calm, commanding, and likeable presence. He really seemed to take control of the debate and the room, and he certainly came across as very "presidential." (Much more so than the current president, in my opinion.)
I was only able to catch the last hour of the debate live, so I will focus my comments on that segment until I am able to watch the first part on video.
I thought that the questions asked regarding North Korea were very appropriate and relevant, but I did not think that Bush made much of a claim to back up his choice of actions on this matter. It seemed that the only justification that he had for not opening bilateral talks with North Korea moderated by other nations was a broad villification of Kim Chong-il as some schoolyard bully just rubbing his hands together and waiting for the impending doom that he can create once the US agrees to bilateral communication. Bush's tagline in response to questions on North Korea was always "That's just what Kim Chong-il wants." No further justification of why that might not be something America and the world would want as well.
Kerry advocated opening talks with North Korea and enlisting support from other nations in resolving this conflict. No real substantive rebuttal from Bush.
I thought it was interesting to read an official comment from the North Korean government in a news article this week: "The US is the world’s worst violator of human rights as it is killing innocent civilians, including children, everyday after illegally igniting a war against Iraq,” said a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday.
Which leads me to the ever-present issue of the Iraq war. I think Kerry finally did a good job of articulating his stand on the war. His claim was that a good leader is flexible and always learning. Good policy decisions are iterative and recursive and always seeking the newest and best information. Thus, a president ought to be willing to adjust policies and specific viewpoints as new information is made available. Admit former misconceptions and mistakes and redraw your plan as necesary. President Bush's claim, conversely, was that a good leader makes a concrete decision that will never be amended or redirected no matter what.
After all, he did say that if we fail to elect him as our strong and resolute (if bull-headed) leader, the world will "drift toward chaos." How can we argue with that.
And was anyone else infuriated by the fact that whenever Bush didn't know what to say (which was often) he simply threw in some fear tactic line to remind us that terrorists are closing in on us from all sides? And when he was asked his thoughts on Russia and President Putin (his pronunciation of Vladimir was hilarious) that he admitted briefly the human rights violations and ethical misdeeds of the Russian leader but then threw in a "But he's a great ally in the war on terrorism" and felt very satisfied with this rationale for supporting the Russian government?
I was very pleased to hear Kerry assert that nuclear proliferation was his number one concern for the future. I was also somewhat pleased to hear Bush say the same, although I don't think that backing out of international agreements on nonproliferation is a good way to spearhead global progress on nonproliferation.
I could go on and on and may do so in another entry, but I will end this one here. Thanks for humoring me, and I welcome any comments to my obviously biased commentary.
Presidential Debate
I watched the debate on Thursday and had several observations on the candidates' veiws. First, Bush made the comment that our country must, "constantly stay on the offensive" (about 9:10pm). This comment scared me because to me, this sounds almost Hitler-esque in the mentality of staying militarily offensive. Kerry came back with a comment that our country should stay on Osama Bin Laden (about 9:12pm). This response by Kerry is more in line with how I feel, the idea that we should have a more defenite and clear objective (ex. Osama Bin Laden).
The next idea I felt like commenting on is when Bush said, "We have to be right 100% of the time...the terrorists only have to be successful once" (about 9:24pm). This comment built abosolutely zero confidence in me and made me more unsure than ever about our homeland security.
However, Bush had an idea that I really agreed with. About 27 minutes into the debate he made the statement that he cannot set an "artificial" deadline for leaving Iraq (as where Kerry says he could be out in 6 months). I agree with Bush's concept because Iraq seems to be such a complicated situation, that I don't think any leader could say an exact day that we could cease our occupation.
An idea of Kerry's that I agreed with is that our country must make allies realize their stakes in the war (about 9:32pm). I believe this because I think that success in Iraq is based on the entire world understanding and being involved. We can't just have our country acting as some authoritarian figure that bullies our allies into involvement.
Yet, later, Kerry made me feel uncomfortable when he said that he would go after nuclear weapons in North Korea (about 9:39pm). This view makes me feel uncertain about Kerry and his stance on military occupation in foreign countries.
By 45 mintues into the debate,
I was sick of hearing
if Iraq was necessary and I started to want to hear more of what each
will do.
Overall, the debate ran too long for me. The physical presentation of the candidates was interesting. I personally thought Bush looked better at the podium, he was slightly leaning forward, which I thought gave the impression of being personable, prepared, and comfortable. Kerry, on the other hand, was slightly leaning back. To me, this made Kerry seem less personable...yet, it also could have implied that Kerry was being more responsive to Bush's comments. By this, I mean that the leaning slightyly back could show he was taking in Bush's comments, thinking about them, and then planning the most relavant response.
Anyway, for me, these were the major themes and ideas of the first Presidential debate.
-Daniel Jeffrey Bassett
Presidential Debate -- Claim by Kerry
Okay, there was one big claim by Kerry during the debate that drives me absolutely crazy everytime I hear it, so I will post it here with the understanding that I am biased in this topic...
Kerry claimed that the President rushed into war without a clear plan and without a clear plan for the peace strategy. This really is not a dig at the current President, but a statement that negatively reflects on the preparation by the military.
First, I have a real problem with the word "rushed." The U. S. military has been actively preparing for a second invasion of Iraq since the Operation Desert Storm. Even during the Clinton administration Marine Corps units were practicing a movement from California through the desert to Arizona. Hmmm....wonder what we were preparing for? And part of the strategic preparation ALWAYS considers what happens after conflict. We have been changing doctrine for years that considers what we call the modern day three-block war where on one block we are engaging the enemy, at the other block we are defending military or civilian assets, and on the third we are involved in a humanitarian mission such as feeding a population.
Kerry then cited a statistic that was chilling in the way it was spinned. He said that we have now suffered 90% of the casualties in Iraq. Unless a viewer was really paying attention, the statistic seemed to indicate that we have lost 90% of the entire casualty count when he is in fact referring to 90% of the coalition casualty count where we were by far the majority of coalition forces. This seems extremely strange coming from someone who participated in then opposed a war that was lost and in which media "body counts" played a horrible role.
Finally, there was another common reference to the lack of attention paid to Osama Bin Laden and the operations in Afghanistan. I wonder how the individual soldiers and Marines stationed in Afghanistan feel hearing that someone behind a podium feels that they've lost focus? Oh but I'm sure they didn't hear it because they were out on patrol in the mountains.
I really just not a big fan of a senatorial armchair quarterback in this case. No matter what I or anyone else thinks of many facets of the last four years of presidency, as a Marine I believe in the calls made by Bush as the commander-in-chief, in large part because he delivered a clear commander's intent and allowed the military leaders to carry out the mission. That's all we need.
SDH
My thoughts on the Presidential Debate
I only have a few thoughts about the debate on Thursday. I watched it but I had to walk away a few times because honestly it was kind of boring. But there were a few comments I focused on specifically. Bush said, "On 9-11 I showed America I can lead." Then he said Kerry cannot lead war on terror if he keeps changing his mind about the war. I thought this was a a decent comment but it was confusing because I didn't know what war he was talking about. He said the war on terror but was he really talking about the war in Iraq? That bothered me. But on the other hand, Kerry had some strange comments too. He said "I believe to tell the truth." I cannot agree with any politican on that comment. I am a political science major and trust me from something I learned in the last 3 years at Clemson, Politicians never tell the whole truth, just parts. But basically he said Bush mislead the American people, etc., etc. It was a boring debate and I felt like all the topics they really debated were already discussed in Time Magazine. I just hope for the next debate, they come up with more issues to fight about rather than sticking to the arguments we already know. Let us choose who we want by showing guts and speaking minds. Instead, it seems our candidates are staying on the sidelines.
