Sometimes I save things I find online. Occasionally I come across them later and discover they have relevance to something else I've been reading or hearing about. One example is a posting by blogger (and BlogHighEd co-founder) Matt Herzberger from more than a year ago.
Matt is a web designer with Texas A&M Engineering. Writing on a now (apparently) defunct blog called Fuzzy Content, he wrote about job mobility for web experts in higher ed. But I noticed a follow up comment Matt added a day after the original posting:
The plight of the web professional is the plight of one caught in between; between the extremes of programming and data integration on one side to professional communication (copy editing, writing, marketing) on the other side...The language of IT [information technology] continues to grow in sophistication...and unless you step out of that culture on a regular basis, your ability to translate is limited. The webmaster, positioned in the middle, is likely to be more approachable and successful as a translator and advocate.
Matt's right about the importance of translation, in his example, from IT to marketing and communications. And IT language has to be translated into every part of the institution, including alumni relations, development, student affairs, and academic divisions.
So why am I still re-reading his comment more than a year later?
Because I've been pondering another question. Matt was writing about moving into the management ranks. But what if you're already in a management position? You have a different motivation for understanding IT language, culture and protocols: you need it to strategize, to request, and to negotiate for the services that will help you attain your program goals.
Advancement staff, from the assistant director right up to the VP, spend a lot of time complaining that IT people can't explain things clearly and can't communicate in plain language. But it's critical for us managers to understand as much about IT as we can. Why should the entire communication burden be on technical staff? If you can explain what you need to the web team, to development operations and to central IT in a way that they can understand, you gain at least two advantages:
- You will be more likely to get what you really need, and
- You will show that the alumni association is doing more than just filling fruit cups at garden parties: it's providing relevant, up-to-date tools and services to alumni.
If you're an alumni executive, a fundraiser or a communications professional, don't hide behind the excuse that you "don't know much about computers." These days, information technology is less about the technology, and more about the information.
