Wollongong community web portal becomes a reality

Sep 17, 2004

The Wollongong Community Website that has been in development for over a year, has been successful in its application for a new domain name: wollongong.nsw.au Now that the official 'go ahead' has been given, the Wollongong Community Website (WCW) is running a competition for University, TAFE and local high school students to design the look and feel of the new site.

The WCW project first became public in December 2003, when the Decisions Systems Laboratory at the University of Wollongong presented the community portal idea at a 'Uni in the Brewery Presentation'.

The community portal will serve the needs of, and bring together, all members of the Wollongong community and provide an online space for them to interact. It also serves to support the needs of small businesses in the region.

This innovative project, which is co-ordinated by the University of Wollongong together with the One City, One Site (OCOS) working party, will result in one of the first community web site portals in the world.

Two staff members from UOW behind the scheme are Ms Lejla Vrazalic (Economics and Information Systems) and Associate Professor Peter Hyland (Information Technology and Computer Science). Professor Hyland said that a number of researchers at the University have played a major role in testing and evaluating the web portal's procedures.

"The 200 page report prepared by the University for the Australian Domain Name Authority (auDA) will simplify the application procedure for both auDA and for local communities all over Australia," he said.

"And this WCW design competition will be another opportunity for the community to take part in this exciting project".

The winner of the website design competition will receive a prize of cash and software which will be presented during the Viva La Gong festival on Saturday, October 23. The design will be incorporated into the current website and the new website which will be launched in late November.

For further information contact: Associate Professor Peter Hyland: 4221 3759.

-RP

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128