The “Maties” branding is very important to creating communal identity on the campus.

The E-campus initiative had top management buy-in and the objective was to created a networked campus.  The project had participation from many different sectors of the campus, from the IT dept tothe student body.  TheMaties brand was extended across multiple media platforms: maties.com, mymaties.com and matiesalumni.net, posters, bags, card books for student cards.  The three web sites service the students through the life-cycle from prospective student, current student and alumni.

The strategy seems very sound and well thought through.  I wish Rhodes had done this properly.

The lecturers are podcasting, the results are online and look very user friendly, lecture notes, exam venues, a staff portal not covered in this presentation, your academic history [how depressing], student account billing that can be paid online via credit card. Hot damn.

Some of the fun stuff: citizen journalism on the campus, job searching and advertisements.  They also have a system called the career mentoring system though which students can request mentorship in a particular field of work and alumni can volunteer as mentors. Students can also book their meals online.  There is a classified ad system internally which is great for finding digs etc.  Maties stuff can be bought from the online shop, hoodies, caps that sort of stuff.  They used MWeb Safeshop system for this. Students can vote for the SRC.

Okay I am over listening to a list of features, its awesome but I can’t actually follow anymore.  45 mins is up.