<p>I’ve been reading the MIT blogs a lot, and I really like them – I think they’ve been an excellent way to reach students and really show them what its like to be a student at MIT. I want to set up a blog for a science/research club at my school for outreach purposes, and I was wondering:</p>
<li><p>What blogging system does MIT use? Is it accessible to those not on the MIT campus?</p></li>
<li><p>Does MIT have any statistics/personal testimony which give a measure of how effective a form of outreach these blogs were? Ex. y% of incoming students said that the MIT blogs were an effective way to learn about MIT life. (This sort of info would help me convince my school to let me do it)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'll let Ben tackle #2. I know all the feedback I've received has been positive, but I'm sure nobody is enough of a jerk to seek me out and tell me that the blogs suck.</p>
<p>Well, the official campus computing environment (= computer clusters on campus), Athena, is mostly composed of Linux or Solaris machines.</p>
<p>As for student preference, I'd be willing to bet we have a higher percentage of Linux people than in most places, but that there's still a healthy majority of Windows and Mac users.</p>
<p>Sran, thanks for the kind words! I love Movable Type; I've used it for years and the people who work there are truly wonderful. For personal use it is free I believe - even if you find you have to license it, it's dirt cheap for educational use (we pay $10 per blogger). It needs to be installed on a server; if you don't have one, you can use the self-hosted version called TypePad (typepad.com).</p>
<h1>2 - Last year was the first year we had the blogs, and yes, we've received a ton of positive feedback from both applicants and parents. It really boils down to the fact that admissions doesn't edit them - the bloggers publish directly to the web without going through me - so applicants know that they are real and not some marketing tool designed to sell MIT. Feel free to email me if you'd like specifics...</h1>
<p>So now you know. I don't read and post to CC nearly as regularly as Ben and Mollie, but I try to keep up on some of the threads. Feel free to email, comment, PM, whatever with questions or comments. Like Mollie said, we're always looking for blog entry topics, so let us know what you want to hear about. =)</p>
<p>I've been a fairly avid reader of the blogs, and I had a quick question...</p>
<p>Besides being connected to MIT in some way (student, staff... etc), how does one become an MIT Blogger? I found the page where any student can sign up to have their own personal blog, but how did the ones that are featured in the Undergraduate Admissions page get there?</p>
<p>A key component in our selection process for the MyMIT bloggers was the "portfolio." Mollie, for example, had proven herself to be a dedicated and thoughtful blogger long before we ever approached her; same with Laura. The key to good blogging is regular posting - so when we see people who have already prioritized the time it takes to keep a blog's content fresh, those people get onto our radar screens.</p>
<p>After using that criteria to develop a good "blogger applicant pool," it becomes a matter of balancing class years, majors, interests, etc.</p>
<p>There will certainly be at least one opening next year, as <em>sniff</em> Mollie will be graduating. So to any of you who are interested, I'd start working on your "portfolios" now. :-) The competition is fierce!</p>
<p>Maybe Mollie can provide an outsider perspective too, no? Starting from graduate school, to her professorship, and the like. That would be awesome.</p>
<p>Thanks for your consideration,
FB</p>
<p>PS. Yeah, yeah, I'm only kidding. ;) Don't hate on me now.</p>