Connecting Campus Content
Executive Director
Staff Software Engineer
Product Manager
TypeScript
Web Components
Design System
PHP
YII Framework
CraftCMS
GraphQL
Tailwind
Figma
Linear
One Source, Many DestinationsAutomating Content Across 1,500 Websites
The University of Maryland has twelve colleges, six divisions, and over fifty departments. Each runs their own websites. That's 1,500+ sites with millions of pieces of content, and no way to keep them in sync.
We built API services that changed how content flows across campus. Write a news story once, and it shows up everywhere it belongs. Post an event, and every related site gets it. Send an alert, and the whole campus knows in seconds.
The Content APIs
Six Services That Power Campus
We broke campus content into six categories, each with its own API:
- News: Stories from across campus, aggregated and distributed
- Events: A unified calendar pulling from multiple sources
- Alerts: Weather closures and emergencies, campus-wide
- Academic Calendar: Deadlines and milestones for students
- People: Faculty profiles and research expertise
- President's Messages: Official communications
Each API has its own data model. Events need dates, locations, and categories. People need titles, departments, and research areas. We designed schemas that work across the whole university.
GraphQL lets sites request exactly what they need. A department homepage might want three featured stories and five upcoming events. A research center might want people filtered by expertise. One query, one response, no wasted data.
From Gatekeepers to Curators
Scaling Content Creation
Before, a handful of trained editors created all the content. Departments would submit requests and wait. The bottleneck was brutal.
We built tools that let anyone contribute:
- Simple forms with real-time preview
- Role-based permissions by department
- Approval workflows for sensitive content
- Templates for common story types
Now hundreds of people create content. When big news breaks, stories go live in minutes instead of days. During major events, we can spin up dedicated landing pages with fresh content from across campus.
The central team shifted from creators to curators. They focus on quality, consistency, and the big-picture stories. Departments handle their own day-to-day content.
The Network Effect
Value Grows with Adoption
Something interesting happened as more sites connected: the system got more valuable for everyone.
- More content sources meant richer feeds
- Shared events attracted bigger audiences
- People profiles became a campus-wide directory
- Consistency improvements propagated automatically
The design system components plugged directly into the APIs. Drop in a news feed widget, and it's already styled and pulling live content. No custom code needed.
We're now connecting hundreds more sites. Each new connection adds content to the pool and gets value from everything already there. The flywheel spins faster with each addition.
The Impact
Numbers That Matter
The shift to API-driven content changed how campus communications work:
- 85% less duplicate content creation
- 60% faster time-to-publish for announcements
- Hundreds of new content authors across campus
- Minutes to respond to breaking news
But the biggest change isn't in the numbers. It's in the culture. Departments that used to hoard information now share it freely. They saw that contributing to the common pool benefits everyone, including themselves.
Content sharing became the default, not the exception. That's the real transformation: technology that makes collaboration easier than isolation.