Spring Break
SGA Key developer explains delay
Issue date: 6/28/07 Section: Opinions
Editor's note:
The following is a response to Josh Weiss' 6/21 column, "A year later, SGA Key sits untouched."
I should go ahead and put much of this to rest. I take most of the responsibility for The Key not being updated.
I was the Webmaster for the Student Government Association this past year. The method for updating The Key is a bit of a pain. The president must go to meet with OIR - the Office of Institutional Research - to get a simple text file with over 20,000 lines of data. The SGA webmaster is responsible for uploading that information.
It takes one or two hours to get the text file to a point when it can be entered into the database. We are not allowed to post information for classes with less than 20 students in an effort to keep grades confidential, so those must be edited out. After that, the text file is uploaded to the database and it is a two to three hour ordeal to make it into a new page on The Key.
I received the data for The Key last fall and was given two days to get it done before the end of drop/add. During those two days, I had a close relative pass away and was not able to complete it. I took a look at the data the following week and realized that it was a compilation of two different semesters - spring and summer 2006 - one of which was already represented in The Key.
I e-mailed then SGA President Jamie Peper and told her I wanted to wait until the following semester to get some fresh data into The Key. Since then, I have become less involved in SGA and have not been asked to do any more work on The Key.
I have been asked to meet with one of the new senators or committee chairs to discuss The Key, but we were never able to work out a time to do it this past semester.
Perhaps the new president was not informed of the process that she needs to follow concerning The Key, or they do not have a new Web person to update it. Perhaps they want me to but are scared to ask. I don't know at this point.
I am not paid hundreds of dollars per year, although I have not looked at the budget and am not aware if someone else is being paid to be the webmaster now. Mine was a one-time payment for the initial site design and setup.
I did not ask to be paid to be the Webmaster. I had been updating the old site for three semesters with no pay, but it was getting very out-of-date and was coded terribly. I planned to build a new site for SGA last summer.
Peper offered to pay me to build it, and I accepted. I did not ask and was not really even aware it was being discussed. She specified the amount, which was to be $1,000.
I spent roughly 50 hours on the initial design, as well as another 30 on various updates, The Key site and the SGA reports. The average professional Web designer makes around $25 to $50 per hour. For this project, I made somewhere around $12.50 per hour ... which is about average for an amateur from my experience.
If you believe I was paid too much, go to any Web designer in Athens and ask them how much it would cost for a 30+ page Web site plus a custom Key site built in php or ruby. I'm nearly positive you'd be looking at more than the $1,000 I was paid. You'd probably be closer to $2,500 at minimum, although I could be wrong.
- Cory Watson is the former Webmaster for The Key, SGA's online grade database.
He is a senior from Jasper majoring in business management, non-profit management and Spanish.
The following is a response to Josh Weiss' 6/21 column, "A year later, SGA Key sits untouched."
I should go ahead and put much of this to rest. I take most of the responsibility for The Key not being updated.
I was the Webmaster for the Student Government Association this past year. The method for updating The Key is a bit of a pain. The president must go to meet with OIR - the Office of Institutional Research - to get a simple text file with over 20,000 lines of data. The SGA webmaster is responsible for uploading that information.
It takes one or two hours to get the text file to a point when it can be entered into the database. We are not allowed to post information for classes with less than 20 students in an effort to keep grades confidential, so those must be edited out. After that, the text file is uploaded to the database and it is a two to three hour ordeal to make it into a new page on The Key.
I received the data for The Key last fall and was given two days to get it done before the end of drop/add. During those two days, I had a close relative pass away and was not able to complete it. I took a look at the data the following week and realized that it was a compilation of two different semesters - spring and summer 2006 - one of which was already represented in The Key.
I e-mailed then SGA President Jamie Peper and told her I wanted to wait until the following semester to get some fresh data into The Key. Since then, I have become less involved in SGA and have not been asked to do any more work on The Key.
I have been asked to meet with one of the new senators or committee chairs to discuss The Key, but we were never able to work out a time to do it this past semester.
Perhaps the new president was not informed of the process that she needs to follow concerning The Key, or they do not have a new Web person to update it. Perhaps they want me to but are scared to ask. I don't know at this point.
I am not paid hundreds of dollars per year, although I have not looked at the budget and am not aware if someone else is being paid to be the webmaster now. Mine was a one-time payment for the initial site design and setup.
I did not ask to be paid to be the Webmaster. I had been updating the old site for three semesters with no pay, but it was getting very out-of-date and was coded terribly. I planned to build a new site for SGA last summer.
Peper offered to pay me to build it, and I accepted. I did not ask and was not really even aware it was being discussed. She specified the amount, which was to be $1,000.
I spent roughly 50 hours on the initial design, as well as another 30 on various updates, The Key site and the SGA reports. The average professional Web designer makes around $25 to $50 per hour. For this project, I made somewhere around $12.50 per hour ... which is about average for an amateur from my experience.
If you believe I was paid too much, go to any Web designer in Athens and ask them how much it would cost for a 30+ page Web site plus a custom Key site built in php or ruby. I'm nearly positive you'd be looking at more than the $1,000 I was paid. You'd probably be closer to $2,500 at minimum, although I could be wrong.
- Cory Watson is the former Webmaster for The Key, SGA's online grade database.
He is a senior from Jasper majoring in business management, non-profit management and Spanish.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Parker Morgan
posted 6/29/07 @ 9:57 AM EST
So this means The Key has now been updated?
mfoxtrot
Matt Farmer
posted 6/30/07 @ 6:41 PM EST
I understand where he's coming from. Importing plaintext into a database can be a real pain the buttox... but why couldn't he just write a simple PHP script to break all of the data up by line breaks and spaces, then have the script compute everything. (Continued…)
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