Thomas Richardson named director of university's Web communications

By Bill Steele

Thomas Richardson, formerly director of the Cornell Web Production Group, has been named the university's director of Web communications by Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations.

Richardson

Richardson's job will be to provide leadership and oversight for the development of the Cornell Web space. He will advise and assist the university's many webmasters, help them obtain the resources they need and strive for consistency and ease of navigation through Cornell's online resources. He will act as supervisor of the Cornell home page. A senior-level Web Advisory Committee will be created to identify goals and provide strategic input.

"The new director of Web communications will play an important role in achieving the next level of development of Cornell's Web space," Grace-Kobas said. "We are fortunate in having an individual with Thomas' high level of creativity and wide range of experience to fill the role of the university's principal Web architect."

"Cornell University already has an amazing Web presence," Richardson said. "Visitors to Cornell's Web space, sites ending in cornell.edu, are thrilled by the small slice of Cornell's world-leading research making its way to the rest of the world.

But, he says, there is a long way to go in improving navigation through that space. "These sites are absolutely amazing ... but why should one have to spend five years in Ithaca to discover them all?" he said.

Richardson has an extensive background in visual communication. He graduated in 1989 from Indiana University with a degree in philosophy and film studies, and after some practical experience with the U.S. film exchange program in Thailand, he went on to earn an MFA in experimental film production and screenwriting from the Ohio University School of Film in 1994. Before coming to Cornell, he worked for two Bay Area Internet startups, including Internet Travel Network, where he developed over 100 major corporate travel sites, and as a freelance Web consultant in San Francisco and New York. He also wrote and directed several short films and is working on feature-film screenplays.

In 1998 Richardson became founding director of the Cornell Web Production Group, then a unit of Media Services and now a part of Cornell Information Technologies (CIT). The group is responsible for the diverse Explore Cornell site and has developed sites for the Cornell Genomics Initiative, CU Library Alumni Access, the Department of Education and the Biomedical Engineering Program, as well as the site for President Jeffrey Lehman's inauguration.

"I believe that responding to the communications goals President Lehman has for Cornell is what I look forward to most," Richardson said. "I am hoping that Cornell can slingshot forward with his support and energy. Cornell can have the best university Web presence in the world in one year."