UI Now offers Web buffet of Illinois news and information
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu
A plethora of information about the UI’s Urbana campus is available on the World Wide Web for people who take the time to browse for it. But the Office of Public Affairs is offering a new service that provides an easier way for people to keep up-to-date with Illinois. Whether people want to know about the hottest research, upcoming get-togethers for Illinois alumni, the day’s weather forecast from WILL AM-FM-TV, or the latest scores for Illini athletics, they can access that information and more by clicking on the UI Now link on the upper left-hand corner of the campus’s main Web page. UI Now provides a snapshot of the latest news and information from colleges, the Alumni Association, the University Library and other campus organizations, with headlines conveniently grouped in one place so that users can see an overview of campus news, then choose the information that they want to read, and follow links to the units’ Web sites. To receive the latest news and information automatically, users can subscribe to units’ RSS feeds through UI Now. RSS – shorthand for Really Simple Syndication – is an XML format commonly used for sharing news and Web content. Headlines are automatically sent to subscribers when new information is posted. Created by Web Services and Creative Services as part of Public Affairs’ public outreach mission, UI Now is a tool that enables alumni, members of the news media and other external audiences to stay in touch with the Urbana campus – and enables campus communicators to reach their audiences more easily. “It’s easy to get to and an easy way to connect people back to campus,” said Sharla Sola, coordinator of marketing and information in Public Affairs. “We really want to encourage everyone on campus who works with external audiences to share this.” “It’s important for this campus that alumni continue to feel like they’re part of this campus,” said Todd Wilson, coordinator of special projects for Public Affairs. “One way that we accomplish that is by giving them one place where they can come every day and see the news, so they retain the sense that this is a dynamic place and that they’re connected to it.” After UI Now went live on Aug. 15, approximately 100,000 users visited the site during its first week. About 25,000 people are visiting it daily, with the number of visitors increasing every day, said Jim Wilson, director of Web Services. “It’s overwhelming, the people that are visiting UI Now, although not that many people know about it yet,” Jim Wilson said. In addition, UI Now also provides an organizational structure for many of the RSS feeds that about 200 campus units are using to disseminate their information to the world through RSS Manager. RSS Manager allows students and faculty and staff members to create and manage RSS feeds on their Web sites. Released by Web Services early last November, RSS Manager quickly became widely used on campus, and Web Services staff members began investigating the feasibility of developing a news aggregator that would compile those feeds. “We contacted 300 media outlets – such as The New York Times and Fox News – and asked them if we pulled our campus news into one place using RSS feeds, would they be interested in this service?” Jim Wilson said. “Half of them responded, 75 of whom said ‘What’s RSS?’ and the other 75 of whom said ‘That would be fantastic.’ ” Since then, RSS has grown in popularity and more people are familiar with it, finding it a useful tool for gathering information, Jim Wilson said. Although aimed primarily at external audiences, faculty and staff members and students may appreciate UI Now as a convenient means of staying abreast of campus news. An “On Campus” desktop also is being developed that will provide dynamic content of interest to campus audiences, such as updates from Campus Information and Technologies and Educational Services and the Division of Campus Recreation. Additionally, UI Now may allow Illinois to claim another “first,” by becoming perhaps the first large, decentralized university to offer news and information to external audiences through a centralized service.
