[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, Sept. 2010

[Elizabeth A Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from September 13, 2010*

Some 15 Editors came to our first meeting of the 2010-11 school year, including several folks new to the club. A warm welcome to Kris Brewer of MIT Tech TV, Allison Crimmins of the Joint Program on Global Change, Tora Ganguli of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Jessica Jones of the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program.

*MIT 150th*

A discussion on MIT's 150th anniversary and what various Editors are doing to celebrate it gave us a glimpse into what must be the sometimes frustrating job of a historian. In compiling timelines and otherwise delving into the Institute's history, many of us found that various MIT Facts were defined in slightly different ways in different documents. For example, a given project might be listed in one document under the year it was completed, while another document listed the same project under the year it began. Similarly, the same project is sometimes credited to one person; sometimes several. 

What do do? For a brief timeline of MIT research and educational firsts that will appear in the next issue of MIT Spectrvm (go to: http://spectrum.mit.edu/), my colleagues and I settled any questions by consulting the Office of the Provost's web site for institutional research (see http://web.mit.edu/ir/index.html). We went with that site's definitions of MIT research and educational firsts. 

Chad Galts, communications director for the School of Engineering, is preparing a timeline for his entire school. He says he's been "greatly thankful for the last 150 years of the Reports to the President." Although he's found conflicts there, too, it's been an invaluable source of information. 

Debbie Levey of Civil and Environmental Engineering notes that the Reports to the President can be interesting reading in other ways, too. Early on, for example, the Reports included health notices. Debbie sent along the following examples:

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1919, p. 15, Richard Maclaurin talks about putting barracks to house student soldiers in 1918. "However, these barracks have not yet been occupied, for the epidemic of influenza which is now raging has necessitated a postponement of the opening of the Institute, which is now planned for Monday next."

Having student soldiers in barracks turned out not to be such a good idea:

1920: "The opening of the Institute had to be postponed on account of the prevalence of influenza, and students found it difficult to combine barrack life and military requirements with regularity in class-room attendance and necessary preparation. It is not far from the truth to say that during the Student Army
Training Corps period the results attained in the subjects studied were not over two-thirds of the normal."
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But I digress.....


*Back to Chad*

The School of Engineering timeline project, which will no doubt be of interest to many members of this group, should be done by the end of November. Chad explained that it will include nine large panels--one for each department or division in the school--highlighting the major events for each. These will be displayed outside the dean's office in 1-206. The panels will also be repurposed for the web, and for a print publication. Chad volunteered to tell us more about the project and how it was done at a spring 2011 meeting of this club. Thanks in advance, Chad!


*Can you help?*

Anne Khaminwa is working on a timeline that will focus on black achievements at MIT. Please send any potential submissions from your department, center, or lab directly to Anne, who is with the the Robert R. Taylor Network at the MIT Center for Educational Computing Initiatives. She is at amkhaminwa at alum.mit.edu


*Useful Stuff*

Many MIT Editors use the web to find interesting, inexpensive (or free) photos, music, and more for various projects. It's worth double-checking favorite sites, however, to make sure fees haven't gone up.  Judy Daniels of Architecture and Planning found that to be the case with some images from Flickr; similarly, Robyn Fizz of MIT Information Services and Technology recently found that the rates for iStock Photo have gone up. After a little sleuthing, she found that fotolia seems to have better prices.

>From photos we naturally segued into.....


*MIT Tech TV*

Kris Brewer, the service's Webmaster & Community Liaison, defines it as "a custom, home-grown YouTube for MIT." He noted that some cool changes are coming next month, such as closed-captioning and web-based video editing. Kris, like Chad, said he'd be happy to lead an upcoming session for this group about Tech TV.


*Thank You, Melanie!*

Many thanks to Melanie Miller of chemical engineering, who hosted this meeting in Building 66.


*Next Meetings*

The next meetings of MIT Editors' Club, which are always 12-1, are as follows:

Wednesday, Oct. 13
N42-286

Tuesday, Nov. 16
W98-302

Wednesday, Dec. 8
E19-319


Cheers,

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Associate Director of Communications
MIT Resource Development
Office of Communications
600 Memorial Dr., W98-300
617-258-5563, 857-756-9457
<thomson at mit.edu>, giving.mit.edu
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