Finally, the CMS is migrated to the latest version of Plone and on to new hardware. The actual transition happened two weeks ago Friday but it’s been several days of testing. Anyone visiting the site should notice a huge speed improvement and a generally large increase in reliability.

In collaboration with the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, we are now providing local weather data on the UW home page.  Two standout features: The temperature is taken directly from the Atmospheric Sciences building rooftop, and an in-depth Seattle/UW forecast is available by clicking the weather tab (top right, just above the search box).

he new UW home page has been live for two full weekdays now, and about 200 of you have taken the time to share your thoughts. Some of you love it, some hate it.  We’ve read every word you’ve shared — or YELLED. And we  have already made some adjustments in response.

We know you’ll want to explore the site to see what’s new, but here’s a little cheat sheet to guide you through some of the changes…

The UW soon will launch a redesigned home page that features stronger audience-focused navigation, new interactivity, social networking options and many more opportunities to explore what the university has to offer. We’re in the final stages of dotting i’s and crossing t’s. We’ll announce the launch date here and on the current home page, so check back often!

Check it out! Here’s a screenshot of a mockup of the top of the new UW home page, coming to a Web browser near you in 2010. Note the light tan horizontal bar at the very top. That’s the standard utility navigation.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be sharing more detailed information on changes to the UW home page when the redesign is launched in 2010 (exact date TBD). Starting on New Year’s Day, we’ll give you a sneak peek at the new page.

Our regularly changing stories/features are always popular, but some of the permanent links are consistent winners day in and day out. Here’s a quick rundown of five of the most popular…

The redesign of the UW home page is part of a multiyear Reputation Building Initiative. The goal of RBI is “to reach our many audiences and enhance their appreciation for the UW’s essential value in the state, region and beyond.”

The UW’s home page will get a makeover in the New Year. Over the next few months, we will post redesign updates and info on this blog to keep the UW community apprised of the changes that are in the offing. Among the planned enhancements: better on-page navigation, more “top stories” to choose from, the ability to “share” and much more.