•New
The new website is accessible to everyone and uses Web 2.0 tools
The UPC digital press room has renovated its design and added more research, content and services
At the beginning of this academic year, the Media Office of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) launched a revamped digital press room, with more sections, multimedia content and services for journalists in three languages.
Disseminating the science and technology developed at UPC and streamlining the relationship with journalists specializing in university research are two of the main objectives of the new digital press room, which has been online since the beginning of this academic year. It is available for the first time in three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) and has been developed with technology that is accessible to everyone.
The new website is aimed at local, national and international media and provides information on the current state of the teaching, research and institutional affairs of the University. As a complement to this information, there are image galleries and multimedia content that is in line with the needs of the media today and with the new ways of sharing information over the Internet that are characteristic of the Web 2.0.
The Web 2.0 press room has received funding from the Spanish Science and Technology Foundation (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, on the occasion of the 2007 Science Year, and is one of the actions of the Media Office as a Science Culture Unit in the framework of the network promoted by the FECYT.
The new press room consists of three large sections of content and services. The Update section is updated daily with the News and Press Clippings. It also contains a new section, The Best Images, which is a selection of the best photographs and videos of the latest events.
The Information section provides access to Cognos: research (only in catalan), which gives a monthly selection of news and reports on research, technological development and innovation carried out at UPC; journalists can subscribe to receive this information by e-mail in the form of headlines. This section also features Monographs on specific topics, the Media Kit, which provides journalists with basic information on the University, and the electronic version of the magazine Informacions.
The Experts Guide (only in catalan) will shortly be made available in the Services section. This is a database of specialists in the UPC’s areas of knowledge who are willing to respond to journalists’ requests for information. Currently, journalists can access specific sections to request information and images or to subscribe to university news, which can also be followed day by day on the RSS news feed.
Open-Source Software and Accessibility
The new digital platform was developed by the Media Office and UPCnet, the UPC Group company created by the University to provide ICT services, using the Plone open-source software system for managing Web content and environments.
This open-source software, which runs on the Zope applications server, facilitates webpage creation, content management and editing text for intranets and extranets. It is a flexible, practical and collaborative program that allows for the immediate visual processing of content from any operating system, a standard feature of Web 2.0 environments.
The software also has a powerful module for managing translations into different languages that monitors the production of materials (drafting, revision, publication and withdrawal) in the languages in which one is working.
This constantly evolving technology makes it possible to develop applications that adapt to the requirements of any system using the protocols of software engineering. Technicians from UPC and UPCnet contribute knowledge and solutions to the international community of Plone developers so that all types of users can use this technology to publish and share information and digital content in any format and work in networks in collaborative environments.
The new press room was designed to be fully accessible and usable in accordance with the W3C guidelines on the accessibility of Web content. For validation, XHTML 1.0 and CSS were used in accordance with the specifications dictated by the W3C, and the site was optimized for a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.
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