IEEE - 'The Source' for Web sites, info

The IEEE has been, and continues to be, the dominant source for new technical information in "electrotechnology." Our complex collection of technical societies and standards development task forces, combined with the traditional delivery system of conferences and publications, enables the world's leaders in technological development to congregate and learn from each other.

Times are changing, and the IEEE is transforming its wealth of technical information into electronic form for dissemination in a variety of ways that are faster and more convenient.

The recent Sections Congress addressed the provision of electronic (Internet) services, and last month I discussed the steps IEEE is taking to respond to delegates' recommendations. This month I focus on an extension to the concept of being the world leader in technical information. Let me explain.

THE SOURCE.   As the IEEE, we have the capability to have the one Web site that is "The Source" for electrical and computer engineers, a convenient source for our members when they need to find any information related to the kinds of business they engage in.

This goes far beyond the technical information we produce and publish. It includes the statistics on demographics, customer preferences, business opportunities, funding and many other categories that government agencies and business associations collect and publish on the Web; it includes on-line catalogs of products and services that companies develop and maintain; it includes educational and training programs offered by both private and public sector institutions. It should include everything you, the IEEE member, need.

YOUR INPUT.   And we, the IEEE members, are the ideal collectors of the links to this information. As we go about our work or as we read magazines, newspapers and so on, we see references to Web sites that contain useful information. If we can use our IEEE connections to share this information, think how many sources of information we can collect. How do we do this? Let's try an experiment:

I ask each of you to send three-line e-mail messages to the IEEE that contain the URL (e.g., the Web site address) of the source of information, a short descriptor for the link, and an appropriate additional descriptive phrase.

For example, suppose you thought that it would be useful to be able to read the on-line magazine Technology Review published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You would put the URL -- " http://web.mit.edu/techreview/www/tr.html " -- on the first line , followed on the second line by the link descriptor " Technology Review, " followed by the description "published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., USA."

Using this format, please e-mail your contributions to " thesource@ieee.org ".

WEB SITE.   Last month I described a Web site for the IEEE Internet Project. I see "The Source" as being part of the overall IEEE Internet Project, so I have added a place for "The Source" on this Web site. This can be our temporary home for access to this information while we see how it develops. To access from the IEEE home page, go under "member services" and select "electronic communications" services (or go directly to " www.ieee.org/eleccomm "), then select "IEEE Internet Project."

CATEGORIES.   How will these links be organized? What categories will we have? These questions will be answered by your input. You will help shape this development by the kinds of information sources you submit. To get started, let me suggest a few categories based on the premise that different areas of information are relevant for each of our members at different stages of their careers:

  *   Technical   -- First, there are the sources of technical details, consumer patterns, and resource capabilities that relate to the practicing professional engineer in the "primarily technical" part of his or her career cycle.
  *   Management   -- For those who are in the "management" career phase, very different information issues emerge -- human and financial resources.
  *   Life Members   -- For our life members there may be a third set of issues of interest - retirement issues, personal investment portfolios, and so on.
  *   Recent Graduates   -- For the recent graduate -- our Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) members -- there may be issues relating to starting careers and developing a professional practice.

A FEW HELPERS.   We also need a few volunteers to help organize these URLs and create/maintain the Web pages that house them. If you have experience editing Web pages and are willing to assist, please join the e-mail discussion group we have set up for this purpose, " thesourcemanagers-d@majordomo.ieee.org ". You can join this group by sending an e-mail message to " majordomo@majordomo.ieee.org " and placing the command "subscribethesourcemanagers-d" on the first line of the message. If you have questions, send me an e-mail.

One caveat -- this idea may flop, for two very different reasons -- too little response, or too much input and not enough volunteers. However -- bear with us if we take time to catch up with a wonderful deluge of great links! I will keep you posted on the "IEEE Internet Project" Web site.

Let me close with an appeal. If you are on a technical committee, or in the Engineering Management Society, the Life Members Committee, the GOLD program committee or any of the IEEE societies, boards or committees, and you see a possible role for your entity to play, please discuss this within your group and participate.