New Computing Web debuts

June 1, 2003 :: Celeste Stewart, ISC Communications Group

The new Computing Web debuted on Sunday, June 1. In addition to acquiring an attractive new look modeled after recent changes in the Penn Web style, several new features and resources have been added. These enhancements highlight and improve access to the computing information at Penn developed and maintained by both Information Systems & Computing (ISC), Penn’s central IT organization, and other computing groups across the University:

• Expanded coverage of the site’s content via new topical and audience categories. The new site structure that now consists of 9 major topical categories found in an expandable pull-down menu. Additionally, a “Focus On” section accommodates the information needs of special audiences, such as prospective students who want to learn about information technology resources at Penn or about academic programs that have a computing or IT focus.
• A new Computing A-Z feature that give visitors another method for finding information and browsing the site’s contents. Computing A-Z also contains special collections for glossary of common computing terms, acronyms commonly used at Penn, and policies.
• An improved News headline feature that provides links to recent inidividual news stories from the main home.
• A new Hotlinks feature that raises visitor awareness about important and timely topics of special interest to the Penn community.
• More direct access to Penn’s Human Resources from the main home page.
• Direct access to School computing sites at Penn from the main home page, giving visitors an added access point to the School computing web sites found on the Campus Computing Organizations menu page.
• A new calendar feature allowing visitors to view information about computing-related events open to the University community, such as user group meetings (PCNet, SUG, WebSig), and information the implementation of new services that will affect the Penn community at large. The Computing calendar is available from both the home page and the News page.
• Improved search capabilities that allow users to enter queries directly from most Computing Web pages. The Computing Web search is made up of a large index of pages that provide computing information on various servers within the upenn.edu domain, including the Computer Connection, the Library, and School-based computing pages and directories.

Due to the addition of new topical categories, some second-level pages have been renamed, removed, and new ones created, which may cause browser bookmarks to no longer function. Members of the Penn community are invited to participate in the Computing Web by providing feedback and suggesting relevant links to pages to editors@isc.upenn.edu.