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Tech Talk Ceases Publication:
MIT News Office Launches New Website
Jason Pontin
On September 16, MIT's News Office published the final issue of Tech Talk. On September 15, a new daily Website was launched, MIT News.
The closing of any publication will sadden some of its readers. But we believe we can better inform our community using Web, video, mobile, and social technologies, and that those media will allow us to do entirely new things, as well.
Those who visit MIT News at web.mit.edu/newsoffice/ will see a site that fulfills the old mission of Tech Talk: to bring together the MIT community with news of life on campus. But they will also see a site that will invite readers outside of MIT to better understand the Institute. Every day, readers inside and outside MIT will find three news stories about the Institute's research, innovations, and teaching, written by the News Office to appeal to the widest audience interested in science and technology. This approach – in which a university speaks directly to the public – will be an innovation unique to MIT.
To the immediate right of the day's top stories will be a video, "Sixty Seconds at MIT," that will bring out the life of the Institute in small, daily doses. Beneath the top stories and the daily video will be "Institute Announcements" from the administration. Beneath these elements is "Around Campus," which focuses on the MIT community directly. "Of Note" will spotlight an event or activity on campus that deserves promotion. To the immediate right is "Campus News," where selected faculty, staff, and students can submit news that will be edited, then posted, by the News Office staff. Another part of "Around Campus" will be a daily link to an MIT Website that we find curious, elegant, or new. Finally, MIT News will highlight the Institute's shared calendar.
We recognize that not everyone within our community will want a purely electronic publication. To address that concern, we will soon begin publishing a weekly e-mail newsletter that users can easily print.
All new Websites are (or should be) beta software. Their launches are collaborations, their development iterative. Please write to me with any suggestions or comments.
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