Short Bio    
                   
  last updated 01.02.08                
                   
 


What I really do
for a living


gray 120

 

10x10

Director, The Duderstadt Center (formerly The Media Union)
North Campus, University of Michigan
(January 2002 to present)

Together with the director of the Art Architecture and Engineering Libraries, and the Executive Director of Information Technology for the College of Engineering collaborate on the management of the James and Anne Duderstadt Center.

  • 250,000 square foot integrated media complex
  • Emphasis is on collaboration between the three units to balance resources for student individual and collaborative study, library access, high-level (to 10Gb) network connectivity, 400 public-site desktops and more than 40,000 square feet of experimental labs and project development space.
  • I report to the Vice Provost for Academic Information.


Executive Producer, Digital Media Commons
at the Duderstadt Center
(2002 to present)

The Digital Media Commons (DMC) is a two tier-program that 1) provides software development and infrastructure development (the Sakai project is one), and 2) provides more than 40,000 square feet of collaborative multimedia-equipped spaces for exploration, creation and performance.
More than 50 full-time staff and faculty, and more than 30 student employees, are working in the DMC to help students and faculty stretch their creative horizons using collaborative 3D visualization, video and audio tools.



Lab Director, Digital Media Tools Lab
in the Digital Media Commons
(2003 to present
)

The Digital Media Tools (DMT) Lab is responsible for maintaining the high quality and 24-hour-a-day availability of spaces heavily used by students and faculty for experimenting with multimedia resources.

  • Video and Performance Studio
  • Audio Recording studio – (40 channel recording/tracking/mixing capability)
  • Electronic Music Studios (2) – multiple synthesizer and 5.1 audio environments.
  • Multimedia Work Rooms (4) – for advanced video editing projects. 24-hour availability
  • GroundWorks – lab for fully-automated media conversion and editing - 24-hour availability
  • Video Conference Suite – multi-cast conference capability
  • Computer Training Labs (4)

The DMT is also the home of projects that share the goal of demonstrating new uses of rich media in teaching, learning and research:

  • DAMS: The Digital Asset Management System - infrastructure to aid in the creation of rich media assets (especially audio, video and VR files) with automated encoding, derivative creation and metadata extraction, multiple search capabilities.
  • GROCS: Grant Opportunities and Collaborative Spaces is a competition-based program that funds inter-disciplinary student research teams studying rich media applications for collaboration in learning, teaching and research.

 

Current UM Service Responsibilities (partial list)

IT Commons Stewards                                                                           
Begun in 2001 as a team to roadmap the possibilities for increased collaboration among IT units across the highly decentralized UM IT environment. The original team has evolved to a team of stewards who assist the Associate Provost, AIITA, in promoting common IT infrastructure, opportunities for shared capabilities and planning for future environments.

CTAC
CTools is the UM instantiation of the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment. It serves 50,000 Ann Arbor Campus users for learning management and reserach collaboration. The CTAC team coordinates development, production, support and personnel resources for CTools at the UM.

UM Gateway Redesign Team
In 2001, led two teams created to provide input and manage the redesign of the five-year old UM Web Gateway.

 

Previous UM Positions

Director, Web Resources
Office of The Vice President for Development (2000-2002)
                                                                                                  
Responsible for the information architecture, development and ongoing publishing of multiple Web sites used for the activities of  Central Development and the larger UM development community. These included:

  • The Development Intranet for internal communications and volunteer coordination
  • The “Giving” site for donor information at UM
  • “Michigan Online Giving” – secure transaction site for annual giving into unit annual giving programs (embedded in most unit sites – centralized transaction processing)
  • “Leaders and Best” – a Web version of a quartelry print publication designed for major donors


Previous Work Experience
                                                                                                    
Peterson Williams and Bizer, Inc.; Ann Arbor Michigan
Creative staff of 10 designers and writers and technical team (total staff of 20). Firm specialized in information design – consulting with clients needing  complex communications, corporate identity and related marketing programs After the development of the graphical web browser much of our work included web site information architecture, prototyping and production.

separator

Representaive clients:

Ann Arbor Transit Authority: First complete corporate identity program and implementation.

Townsend and Bottum: RFP support and complete corporate identity programs for parent company and multiple subsidiaries, one of five largest energy construction firms in the U.S. and Middle East (peak work force in excess of 20,000 craft labor).

Georgia-Pacific Corporation: Intranet prototype for headquarters of global operations (Atlanta, GA) - 1995 One of the first comprehensive corporate intranets.

GE Plastics - Automotive/Americas: PWB created the information architecture and content for construction by GE corporate Web developers

Detroit Diesel Corporation Intrane: Enterprise intranet for 2,700 end-users in a large enterprise splintered by multiple operating system, network protocols and physical separation.

Butzel Long, Attorneys: Information architecture for one of Michigan’s largest law firms. Used for both web-based and print communications.

University of Michigan Health Systems (UMHS)
User-friendly navigation umbrella site which began as a simple container for approximately 120 independent clinical and research sites. Now in its fourthe generation of development with PWB consulting.

Ronald McDonald House of Ann Arbor: First web-based information center for parents, volunteers, patrons. A child’s touch in a highly usable interface.

UMHS - Comprehensive Cancer Center: Web-based information center for one of five major NIH centers of clinical care and cancer research, In the University of Michigan Health Center.



Education

Graduate, The Frye Institute
Emory University
2005

B.S., School of Architecture and Urban Planning
(now the A. Alfred Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning)
University of Michigan
1969 – 1974


Personal Information

Married, five adult children
Designed and built existing home 1984-1987

Resident of Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Twp, since 1969
Personal interests: Tinkering (formerly woodworking), nature study, motorcycle touring, and motorcycle roadracing.

 

Contact Information

jmerlinw@umich.edu
734-576-5879 (cell)
734-615-7633

John Merlin Williams
Executive Producer, Digital Media Commons,
Director, The James and Anne Duderstadt Center
Duderstadt Center, Suite 2161
2281 Bonisteel Blvd.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-2094

 

  140x10 10x10              
         

 

  Previous      
End of Bio
     
  Home