EEB Webmaster

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The current EEB webmaster is Paul O. Lewis, an Associate Professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department.

Services provided by the webmaster

  • Maintain the computer hardware and software for serving web sites maintained by EEB department faculty, staff and graduate students
  • Create computer accounts for faculty, staff and graduate students wishing to create a personal web page or manage a course web site
  • Provide password-protected access to specific course or project directories as needed
  • Create and maintain the PHP programs that manage the database supplying information about courses, events, people and publications to web pages created on the fly
  • Ensure that nightly backups are performed so that data housed on the web server can be fully restored in the event of hacker intrusion or hard disk failure
  • Maintain a second server mirroring the main server so that in the event that the main server goes down a replacement can be put in place within minutes
  • Note that creating web pages for individuals is not part of the job description of the webmaster. If you are new to creating web pages, start by making an EEBedia page (click Help in the navigation menu on the left to find out how to get started)

Improvements made to the EEB web site

  • Static web pages were replaced by PHP-driven dynamic pages that utilize information supplied by a MySQL database to ensure consistency and accuracy of information (the old web site often had conflicting and/or out-of-date information about courses and people because in order to update information, numerous static web pages had to be edited)
  • Administration pages were created allowing Kathy Tebo and Jen Murphy to easily update the database. Kathy manages information about people, events and publications, whereas Jen manages information about courses
  • The EEBedia was created in January 2007 to allow easier creation and editing of web pages. The Central Authentication Service CAS was implemented for authenticating users. This allows authorized users to login using their UConn NetID, removing the need to remember yet another username/password combination, and has the additional benefit of preventing vandalism (a common problem with Wikipedia). This is the first such "CASsified" Wiki to be created on the UConn Storrs campus.