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Launched in September 2003, the redesigned sjsu.edu website was the result of a project that started in 2001 and required the collaboration of dedicated individuals from on and off campus.

In 2001 SJSU hired Civic Resource Group to perform a needs assessment and user analysis on the now previous version of the sjsu.edu website. The group held in-depth individual interviews with 38 important stakeholders including:

• President Caret
• Provost Goodman
• Academic Senate Chair & Vice-Chair
• Associated Students’ President
• CEO, Chamber of Commerce
• Director of Research Center
• Sr. VP of Communications, IBM
• Business Partners
• Prospective Students and counselors
• Seven focus groups with 52 participants
• Online web site survey with 850 respondents
• Intercept interviews with 48 students
• Analysis of site usage and hosting environment

In addition to these in-depth interviews the following tools were also used to gather valuable information:

• Seven focus groups with 52 participants
• Online web site survey with 850 respondents
• Intercept interviews with 48 students
• Analysis of site usage and hosting environment

This discovery phase resulted in the following requirements for a redesigned sjsu.edu website.

• Make the sjsu.edu "experience" showcase Silicon Valley's Metropolitan University hallmarks:
  • Gateway to career opportunity in Silicon Valley
  • Engine to economic growth in nation's high tech corridor
  • Partner with leading dynamic corporations
  • Continue a tradition of community service
  • Celebrate diversity and international scope
  • A large University with a personal feel
• Create a graphic look to highlight the dynamism, diversity, culture and community of Silicon Valley.
• Begin implementation of a content management system to speed the production process, empower university departments, and produce cost savings.

The next step was to hire a University Webmaster and develop an RFP (Request For Proposals) to be sent out to industry leading design firms.

SJSU was able to hire Paul Nozicka as the new University Webmaster. Previously the University Webmaster at CSU Sacramento where he served as an instructor for the College of Continuing Education, Paul brings with him a rare combination of skills and talents and the added benefit of being a system expert in web accessibility.

Additionally, the university was also successful in hiring Harish Charkravarthy to serve as the university's web applications developer and the second member of the Web Services Unit. Harish's unparalleled knowledge of programming and systems administration compliments and balances the skill set provided by Mr. Nozicka.

Another success for the University was the partnership formed between SBI.Razorfish and SJSU to identify new internet solutions and design a new web site for San José State.

The redesigned sjsu.edu web site went through numerous and intensive product development workshops and technical enhancements before launched. The top-level pages and new hosting infrastructure were delivered by Razorfish to the University in April 2003.

The new site implements a dynamic JSP solution, uses open-source technologies and is hosted on four Sun Servers. Some of the technologies used in the new sjsu.edu solution are:

• Apache
• Jakarta Tomcat
• OpenCMS
• MySQL
• UNIX

The resulting front-end solution was a web site that has:

• enhanced user-centric navigation
• persistent top-level navigation
• standardized page layout
• content rich landing pages
• database driven News and Calendar of Events sections
• easy-to-use Spartan Faculty Web Wizard
• complete Section 508 compliance
• a new digital identity for the university with a hi-tech feel