[thelist] Webmastering Advice?

[Hassan Schroeder]

John.Brooking at sappi.com wrote:

>    My manager just told me they were thinking about having me take on the
> role of webmaster over all of our North American locations, which we don't
> currently have. This is good news for me, but - I'm not sure exactly what
> that will entail <snip/>

..nor am I -- only your manager knows for sure. Seriously, *ask*
what your *exact* responsibilities would be.

At one time, the "webmaster" title covered pretty much everything
to do with a site, but at this point I'd guess that most people
associate it with infrastructure administration.

 > I suspect
> that my biggest lack of experience for true corporate webmastering will be
> in the areas of administration and security.

So I'd agree, but...

> Servers,
> security, and network administration are already handled by other teams here
> in Corporate, but it isn't centered around a central webmaster-type person.
> It is likely that as webmaster I would still continue to work closely with
> these other teams, since they have the expertise in each area. So I
> definitely wouldn't be making all the decisions myself.

..this sounds like someone's already got that area covered. You
need to get a handle on -- in corporate-speak -- the SLA, Service
Level Agreement, that exists between that group and yours.

Will those groups report to you? To your boss? Do you have your
own budget? Who is the decision-maker on Website initiatives and
policies?

As a refugee from corporate politics, my hackles go up when I see
the spoor of "responsibility without authority"  :-)

I'd say your biggest issues are political, not technical.

Best of luck,
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ----------------------------- hassan at webtuitive.com
Webtuitive Design ===  (+1) 408-938-0567   === http://webtuitive.com

                           dream.  code.