April 1997 € Volume 24 € Number 2


Content, Pointers and Intranet

By Michael Trick

Two years ago, I became the first editor of INFORMS Online (IOL; available on the world wide web at http://www.informs.org), the online information service of INFORMS.

INFORMS Online was the result of years of work by Jim Bean (then the vice president, Information Technology of INFORMS) and Mohan Sodhi (whose Cyberspace column appears elsewhere in OR/MS Today). They had worked hard for months to create the initial skeleton of IOL and to provide critical initial services such as the membership directory.

In those two years, the Internet has grown explosively. Can there be a person who has not heard of the World Wide Web and has not noticed the ubiquitous "http://www..." attached to advertisements, announcements and flyers? IOL has grown along with the Internet and now supports a tremendous variety of activities.

In this column, now a regular column in OR/MS Today, I plan to keep all INFORMS members up to date on the online activities of INFORMS.


What does INFORMS Online Provide?
INFORMS Online's activities can be divided into three areas: IOL content, other INFORMS pointers and the INFORMS Intranet. IOL provides information about INFORMS and its activities. This provides the main content of IOL, and causes IOL to work with almost every aspect of INFORMS.

A sample of this information includes: This is just a selection of the information available at IOL. In future columns, I will talk about many of these in more detail.

The IOL content, however, is just a small part of what INFORMS does online. For example, most subdivisions now have their own home page on the world wide web. OR/MS Today has an extensive online version (http://207.69.204.147/ORMS.shtml). IOL provides pointers to all INFORMS activities and announces important additions and changes in its "What's New" area.

Finally, INFORMS acts as an "intranet" for INFORMS, providing its officers with an easy way to communicate with each other (through mail aliases) and access INFORMS documents (like the policy and procedures manual).

INFORMS is run by a combination of distributed volunteers and professional staff in its business offices. The Internet and INFORMS Online provides an effective mechanism for connecting everyone. IOL also acts as a repository of technical skill, helping subdivisions and committees of INFORMS better use the web.

INFORMS Online changes every week. You can get a weekly update of what is new at IOL via e-mail. Simply send an e-mail message with the body (not subject) "subscribe iol-news <your e-mail address>" (so my subscription message was "subscribe iol-news trick@cmu.edu", without the quotes) to majordomo@mail.informs.org


Who Uses INFORMS Online?
In a future column, I will address this question in more depth, but let me give some statistics to prove the explosive growth of the Internet and the popularity of INFORMS Online. As I write this (early February, 1997), on the average day, IOL serves approximately 1,200 different people. Each of those people requests approximately four files from IOL, for a total of approximately 5,000 file requests per day.

In the 10-month period beginning April 1, 1996, IOL handled more than 1.1 million requests from 177,000 different machines from almost 100 different countries.

Clearly IOL is popular!


Spotlight on Employment Services
For many INFORMS members, getting a good job is foremost in mind right now. Whether the member is a new graduate, a student looking for summer employment or an employed member looking to move up in the profession, INFORMS and INFORMS Online can help.

Foremost is the Job Placement Service (http://www.informs.org/JPS), an online registry of applicants (people looking for jobs) and employers. This service allows applicants and employers to fill out forms outlining their skills and needs, respectively.

These forms can then be browsed through INFORMS Online. This service works in conjunction with the on-site job placement service at each national meeting (this spring, in San Diego). Best of all, this service is free for INFORMS student members, and inexpensive for others.

Using similar technology, INFORMS also provides a Summer Internship Program (http://www.informs.org/INTERN). This program is free to all and allows both applicants and employers to post information about summer internships and availability for such internships.

Finally, IOL offers a listing of current job offerings (http://www.informs.org/Jobs/Jobs.html).


Acknowledgments
IOL is the work of a group of hard-working associate editors, each with a responsibility for a particular area. These people are Brian Borchers (New Mexico Tech, Member Services), Philipp Djang (U.S. Army TRADOC Analysis Center, Subdivisions), Jeffrey Herrmann (University of Maryland, Students and Education), Margaret Mayer (University of Virginia, Publications), Jay Rajgopal (University of Pittsburgh, Bibliographies), and Matthew Saltzman (Clemson University, Conferences). We have a need for another associate editor or two (including one for Aesthetics), and for a number of contributing editors (who work on smaller projects and need to make less of a time commitment than an associate editor).

If you have any other comments, please contact me at iol_editor@mail.informs.org .

E-mail to the Editorial Department of OR/MS Today: orms@lionhrtpub.com


OR/MS Today copyright © 1997, 1998 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved.


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