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5/10/2005</title></head><body>
<div>MIT EDITORS' CLUB<br>
<br>
*Meeting Notes from May 10, 2005*<br>
<br>
This meeting was so jam-packed with interesting discussions from the
importance of Q&As to the media assault on a robotic clock that I
felt as if I'd only just sat down when the hour was up!<br>
<br>
Here are some highlights:<br>
<br>
*Cool Outreach Programs*<br>
</div>
<div>This Friday the Plasma Science and Fusion Center will host some
80 middle-school kids and their teachers from across the state. From
9-1 they'll attend a demonstration by Mr. Magnet, get personal tours
of experiments toward new forms of energy, and otherwise get immersed
in the world of plasma physics. Although the program has been held
since the early 90s, for some reason this year the PSFC got almost
twice as many responses as in the past, said Paul Rivenberg, PSFC
communications director and organizer of the event. Why? Paul's not
sure, but guesses that perhaps the list of MA middle schools on the
Department of Education web site was recently updated.....At any rate,
this year he actually had to turn away a few latecomers, which made
him sad.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Sarah Griffith, manager of educational initiatives for the
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology is equally
enthused about HST's Summer Scholars program for undergraduates from
around the country. This year's program will include an exceptionally
diverse group of students, with a large percentage of women and
underrepresented minorities.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*New Newsletter*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Emily Ranken of the<font face="Times" color="#000000">
Environment, Health, and Safety Office</font> brought along several
copies of her office's new newsletter, as well as a fluorescent green
brochure about EHS and how to work with them. Next April MIT and the
EHS program will undergo a third-party audit to see how well we're
doing in this area. To that end, EHS is hopeful that the newsletter
and brochure will help educate the community about the office and its
services.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Coincidentally, one article in the current newsletter turned out
to be quite relevant to our discussion of outreach programs. The piece
discusses how EHS can help make such programs, with their associated
lab tours and more, safe as well as educational. For a copy of the
newsletter, send a note to Emily at emranken@MIT.EDU She would
also LOVE your feedback.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ALSO: drop by the following website to complete an EHS Awareness
Questionnaire. Once you do so you'll be eligible to win a gift
certificate.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Q&As*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In discussing the EHS newsletter, Susan Curran, who helps run the
MIT homepage Spotlight, noted that the addition of a simple Q&A
might help draw readers. I, for example, noted how readable
Q&As are. I am especially fond of the Q&A Robyn Fizz puts in
her newsletter, i/s. Alexandra Kahn of the Media Lab mentioned that
longer Q&As on specific subjects are also helpful in media
relations. The spokesperson for her lab's $100 Laptop project is often
traveling, so they put together a Q&A with him to answer
many key questions about the project (go to
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I've done the same for especially important research stories. For
example, in addition to creating a press release on the atom laser, I
had the researchers pull together a Q&A in their own words.
Together the documents were quite popular with reporters, especially
those from more technical publications who were able to get their fill
of detailed info from the Q&A.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Clocky*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Alexandra also told us about the story that's consumed her life
for the last three weeks or so: Clocky, a relatively simple product
that could solve the problem of oversleeping. (See my colleague Sasha
Brown's story at
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/clocky.html.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Clocky story began when word of the device, which began as a
class design assignment, ran on a few web logs. Then a tiny story
appeared in New Scientist magazine, and BAM. Alexandra was
inundated with Clocky Calls. "This was not a planned media
effort," she reports.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"It's interesting to see how some of these new communication
mediums [ like web logs] are getting things out there, and very very
rapidly."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>She went on to say that in addition to calls from media around
the world, the lab has also received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails
from people who can't get up in the morning and proceed to explain
their efforts toward a solution. One person uses 5 different alarm
clocks!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Next Meeting*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The next meeting of MIT Editors' Club is Thursday, JUNE 16, in
the News Office (11-400) from 12-1.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Till then,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Elizabeth</div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>=================================<br>
Elizabeth A. Thomson<br>
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
News Office, Room 11-400<br>
77 Massachusetts Ave.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br>
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)<br>
<thomson@mit.edu><br>
<br>
<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www><br>
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