[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, Dec. 2011

[Elizabeth A Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from December 5, 2011*

About 20 MIT Editors made it to this past Monday's meeting in chemical-engineering land (Building 66). With that many people, you can bet that a variety of subjects were discussed and questions answered. Among them:


*Update: Communication Production Services*

Monday marked the first official day of Communication Production Services, a new office created to support MIT’s communications project needs (<http://web.mit.edu/cps/>). Danyel Barnard, CPS senior communications specialist, sent us an email about CPS earlier this week, and was on hand at this meeting to give us an update. For example, she said, one high priority for CPS is the continuing development of an MIT photo library. CPS is looking at what the needs are going forward for such a library. MIT is transitioning to a new product for organizing the library (the current one, Thalia, is being phased out).

Danyel also encouraged Editors to reach out to the CPS' Stephanie Hatch with any questions related to social media/email marketing. Stephanie's position is newly created. Guess that says something about the growing importance of these areas. Stephanie is at <hatch_s at mit.edu<mailto:hatch_s at mit.edu>>. She met with me and some of my colleagues a year or so ago now to tell us about her use of social media in the School of Architecture and Planning (her previous home), and she was very inspiring.


*MIT Communicators Toolkit*

Since we have several new members of our club, it seemed to me that it would be useful to give another plug for the MIT Communicators Toolkit at <http://commtoolkit.mit.edu/resources/writing>. Created by CPS, it's full of useful editorial goodies, including a guide to MIT acronyms that *all* of us would probably benefit from perusing.

The acronym guide, by the way, is at <https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/ACRONYMS/Acronyms+Home>. Just took a peek myself, and there are more than 30 entries for the letter "G" alone. Wow.


*QR Codes and Communications*

Who among us is using QR codes? asked Kate Briggs, assistant director of marketing and participation for the Annual Fund.

For those unfamiliar with these little buggers, here's what I wrote about them in a past issue of the minutes:

QR stands for Quick Response. QR codes are those little square maze-like boxes that we're seeing everywhere, from magazine adds for dish detergent to posters on the T for museums. With your iphone and a special app (a QR reader), you can take a picture of the code and you'll automatically go to the web site for the entity in question. That way, for example, you can instantly get the hours for an exhibit or coupon for a product; things that would otherwise be too text-heavy for a poster, ad, etc. (BTW, the MIT Mobile app actually includes a QR reader in it, so you don't have to download a separate QR reader from iTunes. Very cool.)

ANYway, in answer to Kate's question, Lisa Damtoft of MIT Medical said that Medical has been using QR codes on posters. Similarly, Jessica Jones of UPOP (I'm gonna make you work: go to the acronym guide), says that she has used them on postcards for her program.

>From past Editors' Club meetings, I also know that the Poverty Action Lab hands out buttons printed with their QR Code, Heather Denny of the Libraries is using them in some of their communications/marketing materials, and each panel of the Mechanical Engineering Department display in the Hart Nautical Gallery (5-126) includes a QR code for more information on the subject of the panel.

So how do you generate QR codes? Go to: <http://qrcode.kaywa.com/>.


*Online Communications Tutorials*

Robyn Fizz of IS&T shared more news on the Lynda.com<http://Lynda.com> front. We've discussed this site before, but it's well worth re-mentioning. It's packed with tutorials about techie communications stuff ranging from web design to iPhoto. And, it's free for MIT employees. Simply go to:

<http://ist.mit.edu/services/training/lynda>.

At this meeting Robyn told us that as of January 5, Lynda.com will be rolling out something called Lynda Campus. Essentially, this will allow you to personalize your trips to the site (e.g., bookmark cool things, keep track of courses you've taken, etc.). Robyn sent us an email yesterday about a Lynda Campus presentation THIS THURSDAY (that's tomorrow) at MIT. If you'd like Robyn to resend the email, send her a note at Fizz Robyn L <fizz at MIT.EDU>. In her email Robyn notes that IS&T has created an account for Editors so that you can try out Lynda Campus before its official launch at MIT in January.


*Newsletters*

Both the MIT Energy Initiative and the Department of Chemical Engineering have new newsletters out, produced by Nancy Stauffer and Melanie Miller, respectively. If you'd like paper copies of either, contact Nancy (<stauffer at MIT.EDU>) or Melanie (<melmils at MIT.EDU>) directly. The newsletters are also available online as PDFs.

On a related note, someone asked if there's a list of all MIT newsletters. And the answer is.....probably not. (At least no-one at this meeting was aware of such a list, although I know it's been tackled in the past.)


*Next Meetings*

MIT Editors' Club meetings are always from 12-1 but in different locations around campus. The 2012 schedule so far (I'm still waiting on the May and June dates):

Wednesday, Jan. 11
E19-750 (Office of Sponsored Programs)

Monday, Feb. 13
1-216 (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Tuesday, March 13
4-303 (Physics)

Wednesday, April 18
W98-302 (Resource Development)


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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