A Short Hiatus- Then a Relaunch
Several months ago we flagged that the system that currently hosts this blog was being decommissioned, and that we will be doing something different for our web based project news.Ìý That process is now well underway, and this is likely to be one of the last- if not *the* last post on the Movable Type system from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ R&D.
In the weeks to come you can look forward to a brand new R&D website, and within that a dedicated projectÌýupdates feed, where we'll take all the content that we have hosted on this blog over the last three and a half yearsÌýand integrate it with the project pages, departmental info, and the publications.Ìý All of this will have its own dedicated search function, independent of the wider ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ web search tool.Ìý From looking at the site usage data, and talking to a few key users, we have decided upon this pretty radical change as being the best way to get the information about ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ R&D in front of our colleagues in the wider industry and to the public at large.
Shutting down one tool before the next one is quite ready is far from ideal, but it's a minor miracle our colleagues have kept MT going as long as they have.Ìý We'd like to extend a huge thanks to all our colleagues in the Blogs Team, the iBroadcast team and across FM who have helped give us a platform for the blog.Ìý And while we are at it a massive thanks to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News (ne World Service) team who built and maintained our website CMS over the last few years.Ìý Consummate professionals all, they have given us a great platform to talk to you, and we are most grateful.
So, in a nutshell, here are the details- no more posts here on Movable Type.Ìý The existing content (though probably not this post) will be migrated to the new platform, where our web site content and blog type material will co-exist.Ìý No top level URLs will change, and we hope that all the existing URLs will map to the old stories migrated to the new platform.
This is a big step forward for us, and we hope for you.Ìý To have a dedicated search feature will help enormously, and to have news on projects part of the same system as the details and publications offers us huge flexibility in how we present our work.ÌýCrucially this is NOT a cost cutting measure.Ìý All these changes are specifically designed to get a more effective and better website for you- our users.Ìý
So, see you on the other side,
Ant