In Tune with Technology - The University Intranet Homepage

Maria Chin

With the overwhelming tide of the Internet, lots of applications and systems nowadays are becoming Web-based. To be in tune with this reformation, the CityU Intranet is going to give a fresh new look soon. The new Intranet interface, to be detailed below, is now being pilot run and campus-wide implementation has been planned in the coming months.

When a CityU colleague boots up his/her office networked computer, instead of the text-based University Message Board followed by the Windows-based application selection menu which is the current default user environment, a new Web-based CityU Intranet Page will appear. To get the best out of this new interface, the following recommended computer hardware configuration is suggested:

As most information under Intranet is for staff access only, the Intranet password protection mechanism is in place. Taking this opportunity, the Message Board and menu structure have been re-organised to incorporate users' feedback on the Windows-based menu. Now, let's take a brief look at the prototype of the Intranet page as shown in the diagram on the next page.

1. The Message Board Area is at the top of the page and consists of "Today's Event", which is a flip-board displaying all events of the day. When you click on the "CityU News" button, which is on the left of "Today's Event", news and announcement issued by various departments will be shown. To see messages from your own department, click on the "Dept. News" button. In this Web-version you will notice that the Departmental Message boundary no longer exists, i.e. colleagues can view staff messages of whichever department they like. In addition to the above messages, University Events, Press Clippings Summary, University Press Releases, etc. can be found under "News and Events".
   
   
2. "Council, Senate, Committees" collects all the Web sites related to the University management and administration such as Council News, Management Board Meeting Report, and Committee on Staff Performance and Development.
   
   
3. The "Faculties & Departments" and "Admin./Support Centres" pages branch departmental homepages of all departments/offices/centres.
   
   
4. Without having to search through different departmental homepages for the needed information, the "Policies & Procedures" page provides staff with a single access point to the University internal guidelines, rules and procedures which are being maintained and administered by various offices and centres.
   
   
5. "Yellow Pages" is the Web-based staff telephone directory with content being maintained by individual departments.
   
   
6. "Admin. & Communication" has combined the Administrative Services Menu and Information Services Menu from the old Windows-based menu. It contains links to Central Administration System, Leave Administration System, Marks Processing System, Eudora Pro, PolyLink, etc.
   
   
7. The "Dept'al Applications Menu" collects all software and application packages installed on your departmental server.
   
   
8. "Utilities & Tools" has brought together the Network and Environment Settings Menu and Device Driver Setup and Patches Menu from the old Windows-based menu. It contains links for connecting to network drives and devices, installation of network drivers, and virus scanning software, etc.
   
   
9. "Personal Web" links to Personal homepages of the CityU staff and students.
   
   
10. "Library" links to the homepage of our Run Run Shaw Library which provides connection to INNOPAC and other library electronic resources, plus access to on-line catalogues of other institutions.
    
    
11. VideoNet is a collection of video/images services which consist of:
    

CityImage	a photo collection of CityU's places and events provided by Media Production Service (MPS) and other departments. It consists of images in various resolutions to fit the need of different applications for use by all staff and students.
CityOLA	an Internet-based on-line learning resources.
CityVideo	includes four different services and they are listed as follows.
	CityLive	an Internet-based live broadcast service.
	CityTV	a TV broadcast service within the campus network.
	CityVC	a local and overseas videoconferencing service.
	CityVOD	an on-campus Video-on-Demand service.

12. Unlike the Search facility on our Internet homepage which can only search public Web pages, this Intranet "Search" facility can also search password protected staff-only pages.
    

The Intranet homepage is at its preliminary stage. Staff member who has queries or comments is most welcome to send them to cc@plink.cityu.edu.hk.

   Computing Services Centre
   City University of Hong Kong
   ccnetcom@cityu.edu.hk