The Organizational Scientist: Editor's Note

Showing posts with label Editor's Note. Show all posts

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Editor’s Note: New Features, Future Plans

by Ben Baran

Judging from the outpouring of positive feedback we’ve received, the Organizational Scientist is a resounding success. But we’re not getting complacent. We’re continuing to brainstorm and find new ways to improve this communication outlet to better serve both the internal Organizational Science community and its external friends and visitors.

For those of you still getting acclimated to this newsletter’s format, I encourage you to read this article for an explanation of its key features. Additionally, we have two new features in this edition.

In the feature story on Jane Ma, you’ll see that we have included an embedded video. This is a feature that’s available expressly because of the newsletter’s online format, and we hope you enjoy it. We plan to incorporate more multimedia in future posts.
You’ll notice a box on the right side of the page with the heading “Subscribe via e-mail.” I highly encourage all readers to type their e-mail address into the text field and click “subscribe.” You’ll then receive a confirmation e-mail, and once you activate your subscription, you’ll receive any updates to the Organizational Scientist in your e-mail. Please note that these updates will only occur when new material is posted and should never occur more than once a day (even if we posted 17 new articles every day, which we don’t).

Finally, two plans for the future are worth noting.

It’s time to assemble a core team of writers for the next academic year. If you’d like to participate or have any questions about what that entails, please e-mail Daniel Bonilla, who will be next year’s editor-in-chief, at organizationalscientist@gmail.com.
News happens regardless of publishing schedules. We deliberately chose to begin the Organizational Scientist as a periodic online publication, with all fresh content being delivered in large batches—much like a traditional newsletter. Now that we’re up and running with a dedicated editorial team, we are considering more frequent postings that are closer in time to when news occurs. Therefore, you may notice more frequent posts starting later this semester. This is yet another reason why you should strongly consider subscribing to the newsletter via e-mail as described above, as then you’ll know when new content is available.

Please thank the members of the editorial staff—Marisa Adelman, Joe Allen, Ashley Andrew, Daniel Bonilla, and Kate Frear—for their hard work when you have a chance, and I hope you enjoy this issue.

Cheers,
Ben Baran
Editor-in-Chief

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Welcome to The Organizational Scientist

by Ben Baran

Being part of something new is a big responsibility. That’s because much of what occurs early on shapes what remains years later. So it’s up to those in the beginning—the pioneers, if you will—to ensure that the wheels they set in motion will blaze a trail worth following. It’s my opinion that the success of the Organizational Science doctoral program tomorrow rests in large part on the deliberate progress we make today.

And with that thought in mind, a group of students came together in the spring of 2009 to discuss creating a newsletter. Our idea was to create a central forum that could provide a glimpse of who we are and what we do as a doctoral program. Additionally, we thought it important that this forum serve as a historical record that future students and faculty members could look back upon as a reminder of the program’s progress.

Five students—Marisa Adelman, Joe Allen, Ashley Andrew, Daniel Bonilla, and Kate Frear—volunteered to help. Fortunately, they stuck around even after I offered to spearhead the effort. And it’s because of their hard work and tolerance regarding my often-ambiguous suggestions that this online document came to fruition.

We chose to use an interactive Web-based format instead of a traditional layout designed for printing after much deliberation. Our primary reasons for this decision were that the Web-based format (a) saves trees, (b) is always online, (c) can be viewed from anywhere with an Internet connection, (d) is cutting-edge and interactive, and (e) it's flexible, adaptable, and can change as the program does.

To get the most of this newsletter and its interactive online format, here are a few features that you might find useful.

Read more. As you can see, when viewing the main page, only the beginning of each article appears. Following the “read more” link will take you to the full story. To return to the main page, simply click the “back” link on your browser or click on the main banner image at the top of the screen.

Comments. You’ll notice that at the end of every article, there is a link for comments. Feel free to post a comment on any article if you have something you’d like to share. To avoid spam, all comments are moderated. This means that the editorial staff will have the chance to approve comments before they become publicly visible. I mention this not to discourage comments; rather, I only want to point out that your comments may not appear instantaneously. So comment away.

E-mail an article. You’ll also notice that there is a link, which looks like an envelope with an arrow on it, near the comment link that you can use to e-mail a specific article to anyone whom you choose.

List of newsletter topics. In the right-hand column near the top of the page, there is a list of topics. Click on any of these to view articles that have been categorized into the topics listed. This will be especially useful once multiple issues of the newsletter have published on this site.

Please keep in mind that this newsletter is a work in progress. We plan to systematically review what we’re doing right and what we could do better so that it continues to improve and meet your needs.

Finally, please say thanks to the five people I mentioned above. They, not I, were the true horsepower behind the newsletter’s written content. Our current plan—which is subject to change, of course—is to publish issues in late August, early January, and late May. Please contact me with any comments or questions, and I hope you enjoy this issue. This is our newsletter; let’s work together to make it a positive imprint on who we are and what we do.

Cheers,

Ben Baran
Editor-in-Chief