Web sight

Maybe you’ve noticed a number of changes on the MIT Sloan website. If not, I’ll take that as a good thing — we notice what we don’t like, assimilate what we do (hey, sounded good). We’ve initiated a number of changes to the website in the past year, among them the launching of this very blog.

Our goal, of course, is to keep pace with the ever-changing way in which folks use the Web. We thought we were in a good way back in 2004, when we completed our last major redesign. But along came blogging, feeds, podcasting, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, de.licio.us, all things Google, YouTube, and so much more. All under the rubric of Web 2.0, which I might better express as, “Web 2. ... Oh, man, how are we supposed to integrate all this stuff into our online communications?”

The answer, of course, is to do our level best. And so we have, are, and will. Among our online ventures in the past year:

• Started audio podcasts
• Set up MIT Sloan News Feed
• Transitioned the website to XHTML
• Launched the MIT Sloan Blog, student blogs, and Dean Schmittlein’s blog
• Created flickr communities for MIT Sloan student and alumni photos
• Began using the Google calendar tool
• Adopted the Google search engine

We’re not done, of course. Right now we’re developing a mobile version of the website, creating a bunch of new RSS feeds, eyeing broader use of blogs, and working to make video content more prominent on the website. Indeed, online communications work continues apace at MIT Sloan. As well it should: I attended a webinar the other day in which a speaker mentioned Web 3. ... Oh boy.

- Posted by Scott Rolph