The University of Barcelona launches its new website

(09/12/2009)
Today, the UB is launching its new website which will significantly improve the way the University presents information and news to the rest of society.
09/12/2009
Today, the UB is launching its new website which will significantly improve the way the University presents information and news to the rest of society.

As well as a new design, the web displays the contents under three broad thematic headings (Studies and Teaching; Research and Innovation; and the University). All the texts will be presented in three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. The new web will include regular videos on subjects of interest, and integrates the new technological tools to maximize users' participation and collaboration.

The web includes tag clouds, the Rector's blog, and commentaries on the videos, and will soon be present in various social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The new web embraces the web 2.0 philosophy, which encourages a two-way flow of communication between the web's authors and its users.

One of the most important features of the new web is that it will be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. The web has the accessibility level AA established by the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative, http://www.w3.org/WAI/). This accessible design will also make the UB's web pages easier to index and is likely to boost the University's position in the web rankings: currently, Google's PageRank (a link analysis algorithm that measures the relative importance of a web page) gives the UB's web a score of 8/10 − the same score as the website of theGeneralitat, the Catalan government. In the Alexa ranking which measures the most visited webs in Spain, the UB's web is 391st (behind gencat.cat, the Catalan government's website, in 189th position), but ahead of bcn.es, the city's website (613th) and Catalonia's three other main universities, upc.edu (661st), upf.edu (976th) and uab.cat (1155th).

Another important novelty of the new web is the use of OpenCMS, a free code program which can used by any UB member who needs to modify or introduce new contents in the web. The aim for the future is to improve and support the University's intranets and gradually to introduce the use of OpenCMS and the new design in the webs of the faculties and departments.