2015 Press Releases
UCC makes finals of Web Awards 2015
UCC has made the finals of the forthcoming Web Awards 2015 in two categories, 'Most Influential Irish Website Ever' and 'Best Education and Third Level Website'.
A previous finalist at the 2013 and 2014 Web Awards, UCC will attend the 2015 finals taking place at the RDS Concert Hall on 15 October.
The shortlist for ‘Most Influential Irish Site Ever’ is out http://t.co/ff0R48w9U3 pic.twitter.com/UDz8XdDZPR
— Irish Times Business (@IrishTimesBiz)
September 24, 2015
UCC’s successful web presence would not be possible without the UCC IT Services team, including Peter Flynn, the driving force behind UCC becoming the first website in Ireland and 9th ever in the world. An array of past and present web and social media moderators across the university can also take pride in the finalist nominations.
In the 'Most Influential Irish Website Ever', UCC will go head to head with Boards.ie, Irish Times, RTÉ, TheJournal, Done Deal, Revenue.ie, Broadsheet.ie and Boards.ie.
For the 'Best Education and Third Level Website' category, UCC takes on castleparkschool.ie/; clongowes.net; griffith.ie; itcarlow.ie; mathsgrinds.tv; msu.ie; smedias.ie; tcd.ie/visitors/ and wit.ie.
The full finalist list across all categories can be viewed here.
George Boole, whose bicentenary the university is celebrating throughout 2015, would surely approve.
Born in Lincoln, Boole was a mathematical genius who was largely self-taught. His appointment as the first Professor of Mathematics at UCC in 1849 provided the opportunity to develop his most important work, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.
A pivotal figure often described as the ‘father of the information age’, his invention of Boolean algebra and symbolic logic pioneered a new mathematics. Boole's legacy surrounds us everywhere, in the computers, information storage and retrieval, electronic circuits and controls that support life, learning and communications in the 21st century. For more on Boole’s legacy and UCC’s plans to honour it locally, nationally and internationally, see www.GeorgeBoole.com
Phew! Just got our @webawards entry in with 10 minutes to spare. Word counts are cruel :) http://t.co/4wIOJAhDAl #webawards15 #UCC
— UCC Ireland (@UCC)
August 20, 2015
UCC’s role in the World Wide Web
University College Cork had the first website in Ireland in 1991 (only the ninth website in the world at the time), serving transcriptions of Irish historical and literary documents for the CELT project converted from SGML to HTML. Other departments and projects soon followed, with early adopters having to hand-craft their own HTML.
UCC became the point of contact for other institutions in Ireland wanting to join the World Wide Web. In 1994, UCC took the lead in introducing graphical page editing with HoTMetaL, and early forms of server-side content management with SHTML and PHP in 1996. A campus-wide UCC layout was first adopted in 1999.
The IT Services Department in UCC has continued this tradition of leadership by being the first to use XML (1998) and XSLT (2000); learning management (Blackboard, 2002); enterprise-level content management (SiteManager, 2004); parallel multilingual page production (2005); on-site E-journals (2007); web-enablement of enterprise systems (2009, ongoing); the first Irish university with mobile-responsive website (2011) and live web-based interactive student dialogues (2013).
Exciting! UCC in #realexwebs15 finals for Most influential Irish website ever & Best Edu and Third Level Website :) pic.twitter.com/jxExkP6B4g
— UCC Ireland (@UCC)
September 24, 2015
Proud of you guys! I'll be rooting for ye from Canada :-) https://t.co/8IuDJGB7UV
— Maurice Ryder (@mushacles)
September 24, 2015
Most Influential Irish website ever? @UCC @IrishTimes @DoneDeal @boards @RevenueIE @rte @broadsheet_ie @journal_ie http://t.co/Qr9oGv46n5
— Web Awards 2015 (@webawards)
September 24, 2015