Sporting a simple, practical and user-friendly structure, a new web site has been unveiled by the MIT News Office, allowing for smoother research, browsing and access to critical News Office services.
The new streamlined web site "serves all our constituencies--the MIT community, the news media and curious people everywhere--quite well and with a high level of ease," said News Office Director Arthur Jones.
Chief among the features of the new site is the "by topic" button that leads to five dozen topics, from aeronautical and astronautical engineering to voting technology. Each topic page includes recent and archived news stories as well as related MIT web sites.
The site lists three main categories (News, Services, About Us) in the menu section, reflecting a shift away from a multi-publication structure to a sharper news focus and emphasis on the full array of News Office services. Advice on submitting or writing news stories for the News Office, subscriptions to e-mail news and RSS news feeds, and forms for ordering images are some of the services offered.
The site went live in the early hours of May 18 and, with more than 11,000 documents available, was nearly a year in the making. News Office web editor and developer Lisa Damtoft said the site will continue to be updated and revised. MIT community members may contact her with comments at newsoffice@mit.edu.
Following the year's final issue of MIT Tech Talk on June 9, the web site will be the Institute's primary news source until late August, when the newspaper begins publishing again. A 2004-05 Tech Talk publication schedule will be posted soon at /newsoffice/techtalk-pubsked.html.
In addition to offering research and campus news over the summer, the web site will follow MIT sophomore Adam Kaczmarek on his cross-country bike ride to raise money for the Uniformed Firefighter's Association Widow's and Children's Fund.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 2, 2004 (download PDF).
