Operations Research Management Science Today - INFORMS Online

<BODY bgcolor="#ffffff" link="cc0000" vlink="cc0000" text="#000000"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br>   <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=480><tr valign=top> <td width=10><img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 hspace=4 border=0></td> <td width=470> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - December 2002</I></B></font><BR> <hr size="1"> <img src="cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <font face="times new roman, times"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>INFORMS Online</B></FONT><br> <IMG SRC="../barbluehook.gif" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="4"><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <FONT SIZE="+2"><B>Four Years of IT Progress</B></FONT><BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>By Matthew Saltzman</B></FONT><br> <hr size="1"> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=12 border=0><br>    For the past four years, I have served as INFORMS' vice president for Information Technology. This is the last column I will write while serving in that capacity, though my term as editor of INFORMS Online (and as author of this column) has at least one more year to run. Allow me, then, to review the past four years of IT progress at INFORMS; the changes during this period have been dramatic. While I certainly can't take credit for all of these accomplishments, I am proud to have had a hand in them.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> When I joined the INFORMS Board, the Board adopted a new strategic vision of INFORMS as "Web-based society." The Board believed that the most important vehicle for providing services to members  other than meetings  would be the World Wide Web, and that moving in this direction would create the opportunity to offer new and different services that we could not offer through more traditional means.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> We are now well on our way to seeing these predictions become a reality. My goals over my two election periods were: <UL> <LI> online subscription renewal, profile updates and new-member signup;<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <LI> online access to current issues and archives of INFORMS journals;<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <LI> integration of business office systems and public information services;<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <LI> new services, including a technical report database, event calendar and online resources index;<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <LI> manuscript submission and tracking; and<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=2 border=0><br> <LI> subdivision reporting. </UL> I took office at a remarkable moment in INFORMS history. The process of creating PubsOnline was just underway, and the IT director position was about to be transformed from a glorified system administrator to an integral part of the office's strategic planning process. Over the course of the past four years, many of these goals have been accomplished or are well underway. For example:<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <li> Online profile updates and subscription renewals are a reality, and online new-member signups are due shortly.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <li> PubsOnline provides online access to all 10 INFORMS archival journals (back to 1998) plus <I>INFORMS Transactions on Education</I> and <I>International Abstracts in Operations Research.</I> <I>OR/MS Today</I> archives are scheduled to be added. Archives back to Volume 1, Number 1 of all journals are being scanned and will appear in the future. For institutional subscribers, PubsOnline will soon offer reference hyperlinking.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <li> Business office systems have been upgraded, including the accounting systems and the membership database. The San Jose meeting saw the introduction of a new conference management package, replacing an old, MS-DOS-based system that required retyping of abstracts submitted online and was not even Y2K compliant. The profile update and renewal systems are tied directly to the membership database.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <LI> The IOL conference calendar provides information about a large number of upcoming events. Its success is due in part to the fact that outside users of the system can post their own events; thus, events that might not otherwise come to our attention are added by conference organizers or other readers.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <LI> The online resources page (formerly Mike Trick's OR Page) is the most comprehensive collection of OR-related links on the Web. IOL has databases for working papers, conference presentations, and publication abstracts, although they are not currently well integrated or as widely used as we would like.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <LI> We are testing manuscript submission and tracking systems. The unusual structure of the <I>Management Science</I> editorial board has made implementing a system to support that journal a particular challenge for our vendors. Once we have a system that supports <I>Management Science,</I> we expect that the other journals will be supported in short order.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> <LI> IOL supports in-house hosting, mailing lists and membership directories for subdivisions. An online subdivision reporting system is in the works.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> There is still plenty of progress to be made. I congratulate my successor, John Lucas of EDS, and I look forward to working with him to realize the goal of making INFORMS a Web-based society.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> As I continue to work with INFORMS Online, my main goal will be to completely modernize the site. In 1995, IOL was a relatively small site involving a few hundred hand-crafted HTML pages and Perl CGI scripts. Although it has grown to more than 20,000 pages  many of which are now produced by hand-crafted standalone scripts and flat-file databases  and changed its overall look once or twice, it is still maintained in more or less the same manner. Managing a site this size with only those limited tools is a daunting task.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> Modern content management (CM) software supports efficient management of published pages. "Look and feel" are managed separately from actual content, so appearance is defined once and applied consistently everywhere. Also, content creators need not have strong technical skills. CM controls what pages are "live" at any moment, minimizing the amount of outdated material. Finally, CM systems maintain content items in a database, which enhances consistent presentation of similar items and supports sophisticated searching. Much of IOL's content lends itself to maintenance in a database, especially publication and presentation abstracts and membership directories. A modern IOL will take advantage of this technology to improve layout, organization and searchability of the site. I look forward to reporting on our progress in this forum in the coming year.<BR> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=6 border=0><br> Anyone is welcome to help shape IOL, whether you want to hone and apply technical skills or to create new content. Contact me at <A HREF="mailto:iol_editor@mail.informs.org">iol_editor@mail.informs.org</A> if you would like to volunteer.<BR>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=5 border=0><br>  <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"> <CENTER><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></CENTER><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="tocfr.html" Target="_top"><I>Table of Contents</I></A><br> <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=4 border=0><br> <LI> <A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top"><I>OR/MS Today</I> Home Page</A><br>  <img src="../cleardot.gif" width=1 height=1 vspace=8 border=0><br> <img src="../barblue.gif" width=468 height=1 border=0 alt=" "><br> <b><i>OR/MS Today</i></b> copyright © 2003 by <A HREF="http://www.informs.org/" target="_new">the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences</a>. 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