IEEE Spectrum July, 2007 - 4

SPECTRAL LINES
Online Forecast: Bloggy With
100% Chance for Participation
We've just completed another major
upgrade to IEEE Spectrum Online
(http://www.spectrum.ieee.org).
Why keep fixing it? Well for one
thing, magazine publishing can no longer afford to be print-centric. In a multimedia world, IEEE Spectrum's "readers"
now expect to be able to get information in a variety of formats beyond print.
They also expect the Web site to be
increasingly interactive, not just a place
to visit to read text on a screen instead
of on paper. So the Web site's technical
chops need to be frequently enhanced so
that it can serve up new formats and new
online experiences.
Improvements to the site increase
Spectrum Online's value as an IEEE
member benefit. And having a magazine
Web site worthy of a 21st-century professional technology association improves our ability to recruit
new members to the IEEE.
In addition to many technical improvements, the new site
will feature quite a bit more Web-only audio, video, and graphical content. And on the text front, we've started a number of
blogs we hope you will find intriguing.
In our Tech Talk blog, Contributing Editor Kieron Murphy and
the IEEE Spectrum editorial staff will continue to blog about current technical events. Associate Editor Sandra Upson is blogging
about biomedical technology. Mathukumalli Vidyasagar, IEEE
Fellow and executive vice president in charge of the Advanced
Technology Center at Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest
IT firm, is blogging about technology in India. Dexter Johnson of
CMP Cientifica, an international nanotechnology consulting firm,
is blogging about nanotechnology, from his base in Madrid.
Our Gaming and Gadgets bloggers include David Kushner,
a frequent contributor to Spectrum on the topic of games and
entertainment; Rob Garfield, a writer, poet, and game programmer who creates simulations for Columbia University's science
programs; and Harry Teasley, a game designer who worked on
the original Civilization game, Half-Life, and who is currently the
official designer of the Lord of the Rings games.
David Carlick, managing director of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm VantagePoint Venture Partners, is the host
of the Venture Learnings blog. He can tell you what you need
to know to get venture capital and get your start-up off and
running. And Robert Charette, IEEE member and president of

ITAHBI Corp., an IT consulting firm,
along with Ed Yourdon, cofounder of the
Cutter Consortium, and the University
of Oxford's Martyn Thomas are writing a blog called The Risk Factor. In it
they discuss big software systems and
the challenges software engineers face
in getting them to work.
Associate Editor Erico Guizzo runs
Automaton, a blog about robotics. It will
include From the Labs-for which robotics researchers in academia and industry
will post brief reports, along with photos
and videos, on their latest creations-and
E-Stop (for Emergency Stop), in which
Guizzo plans to chronicle "horror" stories of all things robotic.
And Senior Associate Editor Steven
Cherry is blogging about Microsoft
Research, focusing on Redmond's latest greatest technology developments. Additional blogs will be
coming later in the year, including ones on history, books, and
the human factor in engineering design.
Building our Web site requires close collaboration among the
magazine's publishing team, Web developers, Web programmers,
and a host of IT professionals. Here we'd like to thank Elizabeth
Arts, Steve Beck, Laura Book, Elizabeth Bretz, Roy Carubia,
Steven Cherry, Marion Delaney, Joe DiMauro, Tony Durniak,
Sally Ericksen, Harry Goldstein, Bruce Huffine, Faith Jeanty, Rob
Jones, Bhushan Kotrike, Leila Lynch, Blanche McGurr, Regina
McKay, Siva Moduga, Kieron Murphy, Jackie Parker, Jintendra
Patel, Ken Rawson, Phil Ross, Vijay Sekhar, Tom Smith, Mike
Spector, Mark Steve, and Jim Vick of the IEEE staff for all their
efforts to get the site up to speed. Our developers at Fergus
O'Daly Associates, Fergus O'Daly, Geoff Brookins, and Robert
Moskal, deserve special recognition for their creative and technical efforts. And key IEEE volunteers gave us their support and
encouragement, particularly Spectrum's Editorial Advisory Board
and the IEEE's Publications, Services & Products Board.
Good Web sites don't come about from editors and designers
working in isolation. The best sites depend absolutely on their
readers and users. Just as you continue to tell us what you do
and don't like about Spectrum on the printed page, now we are
relying on you to help us create the Web site you'd like to see.
We will be contacting you to see how you think things are going.
And we hope you'll visit the new site frequently to participate
in Spectrum's growing online community.
n

The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not reflect official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Please address comments to Forum at n.hantman@ieee.org.

IEEE Spectrum | July 2007 | NA

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum July, 2007