A new look for the Scientific Communication SIG web site.
This site design presents a simple and user friendly interface with features allowing us to expand into the future. With a few tweaks, we hope it will prove accessible and convenient to all who venture these pages. The use of templates and .css styles, transitional xhtml, and UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding, will allow us to more quickly incorporate new features, change the design, and maintain compatibilities as needed. Again, if you can think of features you would like to see, whether design elements, or resources, do not hesitate to contact our SciComSIG manager, or the webmaster.
The section of the home page you are now reading will contain important news of the activities of our group. Those announcements will include: messages from our SIG Manager; new features and resources added to the web site; events forthcoming; events reviewed; news related to scientific communication; cooperative efforts between our group and others; business offerings to, and from, our members; project requests and updates; a brief overview of the current issue of The Exchange newsletter; and other interesting and valuable tidbits for those visiting our site. In the capsules below, you will find introductory focus segments on the items announced here. These segments will direct you to the locations within this site, and outside, where you will find specific source material.
It is hoped that we can continue to offer valuable resources to our members, and the public at large. In this regard, we look forward to any suggestions and input anyone has to share. This web site will develop with respect to the needs and activities of those members who take advantage of this resource. If there is a resource you would benefit from, and would like to see it incorporated into the site, please feel free to ask if it can be done. Every effort will be made to achieve these developments. As this is a work in progress, some of the links you see are pre-installed to be activated when content is provided. Your help will greatly be appreciated by all. Enjoy your site!
A message from your SIG Manager:
From Kathie Gorski (kgorski@execpc.com)— Greetings fellow SciCom SIG members. I have volunteered to take over management of the Scientific Communication SIG, effective January 1, 2006. Do not panic—Geoff Hart will remain as editor of the excellent newsletter and will also, at least temporarily, continue as moderator of the discussion list. I am joining our intrepid new Webmaster, Cory Koeppen, in having heeded Geoff’s recent call for SIG members to become more involved in managing the SIG.
My involvement started when a headline in the December 2004 issue of the Exchange caught my eye: “Keep our SIG alive!” In the article that followed, Geoff explained that the SciCom SIG (along with all other STC SIGs, chapters, and communities) had been asked to recharter, essentially to justify its existence. He posed some questions that got me thinking about why I value the SIG. And then, at the annual STC conference in Seattle in May, I sat at the SciCom table during the SIG networking luncheon and learned from Geoff that he was seeking to hand over management of the SIG to someone else. After a few months of off-and-on reflection, I decided to volunteer for the role.
In a follow-up article in the [February 2006] newsletter, I will explain why I value this particular SIG and how I see my role as manager unfolding. In the meantime, I am looking for several volunteers to help get the rechartering process started. If you’d be willing to spend a bit of time, starting in January, discussing how we might approach and accomplish the task, please send me an e-mail. I’d be very grateful if other new volunteers were also to “come on board”.
