[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, 4/13/2004

Wed Apr 14 12:20:25 EDT 2004

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from April 13, 2004*

Did *you* know that there's a magazine out there printed on special 
drool-resistant paper because it's "read" by folks aged 6 months to 2 
years? And that one of Our Own was recently published in said 
magazine? Plus, how do you tell the difference between a cockroach 
and a centipede? And did you know that one of Our Own started her 
career as an entomologist/horticulture agent?

These gems and more meant a rather raucous meeting, but somehow we 
also managed to cover a great deal of Useful Stuff:

*Newsaggregators/Real Simple Syndication*

Apparently there is at least one techie area where MIT is behind the 
curve, reports Robyn Fizz of Information Systems and Technology. 
There are computer "thingies" (my word) called newsaggregators or 
Real Simple Syndication (RSS) that could spell a new way for 
communications offices around the Institute to share news with the 
rest of the MIT community. RSS is essentially a way for any one of us 
to pick what publications (or companies) we want to get news from 
every day, and receive that news in the configuration we like best.

Next week, Robyn said, IS&T folk will be meeting to talk about RSS 
and its potential for the rest of the community. In the meantime, 
Jack Morris of the Alumni Assocation reports that his group is 
already receiving RSS "feeds," and, I learned, the new News Office 
web site will be, too.

For more information about this topic, check out the following sites 
that Robyn sent over:

To get a head start on RSS, check out RSS Quickstart guide at 
http://rss.lockergnome.com/resources/articles/quickstart.phtml.

The most popular RSS reader on the Mac is NetNewsWire: 
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/. NetNewsWire Lite is freeware (link 
near bottom of web page).

The most popular RSS reader on Windows is BlogExpress: 
http://usablelabs.com/productBlogExpress.html. Also freeware, though 
you can donate via PayPal.

*Stata Center Media Event*

The dedication of the Stata Center in early May will include a 
SUBSTANTIAL program for the media, which is being coordinated by my 
News Office colleague (and fellow Editor) Patti Richards. Patti has 
invited beaucoup media from the technology and design press to a 
day-long series of lectures, tours, and demos on May 5. ALREADY some 
60 media from places including the New York Times and Vanity Fair 
have confirmed that they'll be there.

To that end, I'm throwing out a perennial request: send the News 
Office (through me) story ideas that might appeal to reporters 
covering technology and/or design. These folks are always hungry for 
leads. ALSO: please send Patti the names of reporters you (or your 
faculty) know who you think should definitely be invited. Patti can 
be reached at prichards at mit.edu

*New MIT News Office Website*

My colleagues (and fellow Editors) Lisa Damtoft and Darren Clarke 
have completely revamped the News Office web site with loads 'o new 
bells and whistles. The site will be unveiled in early May, and 
because it's so cool I've asked Lisa and Darren to give a demo of the 
site for the next meeting of Editors' Club. Actually, their demo will 
be at a JOINT meeting with the Web-Pub group. So mark your calendars 
for Thursday, May 27, from 12-1 in 3-133. (Many thanks to Suzana 
Lisanti for booking the room and suggesting the event.) This meeting 
will REPLACE the May Editors' Club meeting that I originally 
scheduled in the News Office for May 10.

*MIT News?*

Janet Wasserstein of Foundation Relations asked whether the new MIT 
News Office site will include the latest news about MIT from outside 
media, which would be a very useful resource for her office. Not 
immediately, reports Lisa Damtoft, but such a service will probably 
be added later.

IN THE MEANTIME, here are a variety of nifty tips for getting that 
kind of news AND for finding archived media articles about the 
Institute.

First, take advantage of the Google news service. The following URL 
is already primed to bring up news stories about MIT: 
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=%22Massachusetts+Institute+of+Technology%22+OR+MIT&btnG=Google+Search

Another cool thing: Jack Morris of the Alumni Association notes that 
you can also have Google ship MIT news stories directly to your 
inbox. Simply scroll to the bottom of the Google news service page 
(see above) to sign up for this service.

Finally: The MIT Libraries subscribe to the LexisNexis database which 
allows you to search for--and find--archived stories about MIT from a 
WIDE RANGE of media. Because MIT subscribes to the service, you can 
find these articles for free, rather than having to pay the small fee 
that most media web sites charge for access to older articles. Go to 
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe?_m=669e5617a375692177793e25545d3f16&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkVA&_md5=d0c2462369215e152c6b4922af3ac09f

*Readership Survey*

The next issue of the Information Systems and Technology newsletter, 
due in your mailboxes around April 22-23, will include a survey about 
how people want to get their computing news. Robyn Fizz, editor of 
the newsletter, encourages everyone to fill out the survey. When 
she's analyzed the results, she'll give us a summary, since this is 
an issue that most of us are interested in.

*About Drool-Resistant Paper and Bugs*

I KNOW, just KNOW that many of you have read this far simply to find 
out who was recently published on drool-resistant paper. And the 
answer is: Debbie Levey, editor of the newsletter for the Department 
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who penned the following poem 
for the magazine Babybug:

A Centipede Enjoys a Rainy Day

It's raining on the tulip
It's raining on the rose
There's mud on all my little feet
And dirt between my toes.

And which of us started our career as a horticulture agent and still 
gets occasional plant and bug queries from MIT folk who know this 
history? Me.

Elizabeth
-- 
===================================
Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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