Today we bid farewell to an old friend, and welcome a new one. The three-year-old CityU Today website, a source of information and stories about CityU, has retired. In its place comes the new and improved CityU NewsCentre, which is committed to reporting “the University's latest and greatest.”

 

 

Changes in form, substance
Colours are more soothing to the eyes. The front page design is cleaner and more functional. The order of news stories, in the centre panel, is better structured to reflect their timeliness and importance; browsers and readers will find it easier to scan for top stories about CityU.

 

On the news pages, readers will find the stories better presented in the centre column, with an array of page-specific functions (email or print article, polling, etc) aligned on the right. An icon links to the Chinese version of the story, which will be posted shortly after the English original appears, or vice versa. The University Publications Office (PUO), which manages the new NewsCentre, is committed to an effective bilingual communication strategy. As in the past, readers can find the top stories on the University's Homepage.

 

The news is now flanked by a field of functional enhancements. We have added interesting “side dishes” to the main menu of news: student life, online publications, events calendar, talk of the campus, and the President's messages. There is more to explore, read and see, including a link to CityU's video and multimedia archive.

 

The indexing and search functions have been improved as well. In addition to accessing “news by category” and “news by date,” popular pathways for readers to find out what's been reported recently, there is an “A-Z” index, which links to a wide selection of CityU departmental pages and topics, arranged alphabetically.

 

The NewsCentre is the result of users' feedback and internal review, a process that started more than six months ago. The new venture, which kicks off today, is driven by a web-based content management system that allows better presentation of University news.

 

Meanwhile, users will be able to access the 'old' CityU Today site until 1 July, 2004, but CityU Today has become the nameplate of a new University magazine. The debut issue on the theme of “Quality Teaching and Learning” came out two weeks ago.

  

What remains unchanged, despite the new look and choice of new technology, is the commitment to bring to our readers the “latest and greatest” about CityU. We hope you like the new website. Your suggestions and comments are most welcome--e-mail: pupeter@cityu.edu.hk. Thank you.