Communications Update

Feb 2006

A news-heavy month: Five news releases covering work by seven PIs: Brendan Foley and Hanu Singh (Chios shipwreck project using SeaBED), Ken Foote (a new sonar method to help assess California squid fisheries), Karen Bice (evidence for much warmer tropical Atlantic temperatures in the ancient past), Mark Baumgartner (monitoring baleen whales with AUVs) and Jeff McGuire and John Collins($1-million Keck grant to build new ocean bottom seismometers). Also released February editions of the tip sheets Ocean Pulses and Eyes on the Ocean, each featuring four items. The tip sheets are now distributed monthly instead of bimonthly. Terry Joyce did a two-hour interview for ABC News on climate work, to be aired this summer as part of a one-hour special on climate change.

Where do WHOI Trustees get their news? Shelley completed a media survey of trustees and corporation Members, with a response rate close to 60%. Tabulation complete in March, and comparison with the 2000 survey, which asked the same questions.

Internal communications efforts: produced WHOI Buoy newsletter; hosted Cape & Islands Tour Group Association, educating tour leaders who bring groups of visitors about WHOI; drafted plan for more effective use of all-hands emails. Beginning implementation.

HROV on Discovery Channel: With Andy Bowen’s help, drafted a nondisclosure agreement with Discovery Channel for documentary on HROV. With Discovery for review.

Another Alvin suitor: Representatives of the MIT Museum toured in Feb, to consider making a proposal to host Alvin on retirement. They also met with Jim Yoder to discuss possible education links.

Diving in the Antarctic: Larry Madin’s Antarctic salp cruise is featured on Dive & Discover (through March 10), which was linked at the NSF IPY Website, and through a Dan Fornari connection on Scholastic News. See http://www.us-ipy.gov/index.cfm?id=fea and http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/news/archive.asp?archive=022206

Also a letter of intent Jim Yoder prepared between WHOI and the MIT Museum may expand the reach of Dive & Discover, and of teacher training programs run by the Information Office.

Ocean Sciences meeting update: Five days of daily updates from Ocean Sciences 2006 meeting in Hawaii, with dispatches on work by 22 WHOI investigators, written by Hugh Powell and Dave Fisichella. 1,117 visits to the site in the first week. By comparison, the 5th most visited section of the WHOI Website, the OCCI climate change section, got 1,459 visits over the same period.

Oceanus editorial plan presented to Development officers, to gather feedback on topic, and priorities.

Set up March meeting with CORE communications team (Kevin Wheeler and Tomeka Rawlings), and Curt Suplee and Cheryl Dybas at NSF, on possible repurposing of WHOI content on NSF Web site, and other possible communications collaborations.

Upload R Gagosian Mass Tech Collaborative speech to the Web:

http://www.whoi.edu/administration/president/news_speeches.htm

Redesigned OceanSITES web site, developed a new logo, and prepared final proof of OceanSITES brochure for P. White and B. Weller

Media Relations (Manager: Shelley Dawicki)

MR Office Visitors: 15 (excluding Communications Department staff)

Press clippings: 86 Broadcast stories: 8 News release initiated clips: 31

Phone calls: 343 Emails: 2,096 Licensing Revenue: $1,662.50 Web visits: 22,445

Visual Requests (non-WHOI): 42 WHOI: 24 Cameras (still and video loaned to staff): 4.

·  Prepared five news releases with Brendan Foley and Hanu Singh on the Chios shipwreck project using SeaBED, a new sonar method to help assess California squid fisheries with Ken Foote, evidence for much warmer tropical Atlantic temperatures in the ancient past with Karen Bice (for the AAAS annual meeting), monitoring baleen whales with AUVs with Mark Baumgartner (for an Ocean Sciences 2006 press conference), and a $1-million Keck grant to build new ocean bottom seismometers with Jeff McGuire and John Collins. Stories have appeared on National Public Radio, Discovery Channel Canada, in the Cape Cod Times, Falmouth Enterprise, Science, Mail and Guardian (South Africa), Electronics Weekly magazine, Hindustan Times (India), The Economist, Monsters and Critics.com (Glasgow, Scotland), Honolulu Star -Bulletin, United Press International, Scripps Howard News Service, and in numerous other media.

·  Prepared and distributed February editions of the tip sheets Ocean Pulses and Eyes on the Ocean, each featuring four items. The tip sheets are now distributed monthly.

·  Sent a second mailing of the three recent issues of Oceanus in its new format to media and others.

·  Completed a media survey of Trustees and Corporation Members; response rate is 54%, with returns still coming in. Results are being tabulated.

·  Articles/stories about other WHOI research projects appeared in such print and electronic publications and broadcast programs as Cape Cod Life, Cape Cod Times, Sea Technology, Science News (physorg.com), SeafoodIntelligence.com, Grand Rapids Press (MI), Newsday (NY), Mother Jones magazine, Wired magazine, History Channel, LiveScience.com, Hawaii Public Radio, Materials Performance, and Hispanic Link Weekly Report.

·  Images and information were provided for a number of individuals and groups around the Institution, including George Hampson, Tatiana Rykova, Jim O’Connell, Bob Brown, Brendan Foley, and Lee Freitag.

Coming in March

Hosting a camera training session, completing compilation of trustee media use survey results; one or two “News at Noon” sessions with PIs, depending on their availability.


Web Group (Manager: Danielle Fino)

1)  MyWHOI

  1. Demos to MC&G department, G& G department, ITAC
  2. Added new MBLWHOI Library RSS feed – “Recent Publications from Woods Hole Authors”
  3. Work with MIS and HR to develop an “Employee ID Manager”
  4. Work with HR to develop workflow process for timely activation/deactivation of new and leaving employees

2)  Image of the Day

  1. Programming and template design completed
  2. Initial images entered and caption written
  3. Next steps are to activate once enough images are in the system and also to add an image to the internal/external homepage and media section

3)  Google search engine

  1. Google servers installed for internal and external searches
  2. Initial set up and internal search indexes completed
  3. XML interfaces and templates completed so can change the look and feel of the searches
  4. Plan to launch within MyWHOI/Internal home first and then implement on external sites

4)  Converted WHOI Headlines into new design

5)  New pages/sites/content highlighted on WHOI.edu this month include:

  1. Two Oceanus Magazine articles
  2. Five press releases
  3. Ocean Sciences Conference site
  4. Dive and Discover’s Expedition 10
  5. Students at Work – Sheri Simmons
  6. Hazardous Materials Form

6)  Strategic Planning website

  1. Met with Jim Luyten to plan development of internal site that enhances ease of feedback from staff. Users can also participate in a online discussion.
  2. Set-up basic structure, comment form and discussion board

7)  WHOI.edu redesign/site builder full

  1. Ongoing planning of site builder full architecture
  2. Met with undergraduate, GFD, and postdoc coordinators to review structure and content of their areas.
  3. Template development
  4. Added WHOI.edu template to content management system so can begin adding content to the database.
  5. Further development of administrator user interface

8)  WebTrends – new reports and maintenance

9)  Homepage Builder bug fixes and several Site Builder one-on-one demos

10) Search engine optimization work begun to find ways to move WHOI Web pages higher in search engine results.

Graphics (Manager: Fritz Heide)

Publishing and Illustration

1.  Launched Expedition 10 of Dive and Discover Site and posted daily updates (ongoing through March 10th)

2.  Posted 5 Oceanus articles to oceanusmag.whoi.edu

3.  Update WHOI Buoy website with 2005 Year in Review

4.  Updated Geodynamics Web site and each of the Ocean Institute websites

5.  Redesigned OceanSITES Web site, developed a new logo, and prepared final proof of OceanSITES brochure for P. White and B. Weller

6.  Began redesign of Coastal Systems Group website for J. Tierney and J. Donnelly

7.  Designed and printed Ocean Science Meeting posters for P. Richardson, B. P. Weibe, B. Groman, A. Bucklin, and B. Pickart.

8.  Printed and laminated 20 posters for the Oceans Sciences Meeting

9.  Designed, printed, & laminated posters for L. Amaral-Zettler, and C. Palacios (MBL)

10.  Produced illustrations for Sus Honjo, Phil Richardson, Gene Terray, Jeff McGuire, and Oceanus Magazine

11.  Printed and laminated 4 posters for MBL clients

12.  Produced a 2 page flyer for R. Evans on his Controlled Source EM System

13.  Produced a Northeast Consortium poster for B. Groman

14.  Prepared 4 business card orders

Video, Animation, and Conference Support

1.  Videotaped a three part Oral History of Tom O’Brian at USGS

2.  Produced a movie from an interview with Rob Sohn regarding the TAG Hydrothermal mound for D. Fornari and compressed it for pod-casting

3.  Provided various tape duplications and transfers to DVD for S. Dawicki

4.  Provided video conference support for various committee meetings and an NSF sponsored video conference for J. Waterbury

5.  Arranged A/V support for R. Gagosian presentation in Florida

6.  Prepared and presented a sample of our capabilities to representatives of the MIT Museum and MBL Ecosystems Center

7.  Edited and compressed various video clips for Stephanie Murphy, Scott Gallagher and Dive and Discover

Photography

1.  Ongoing event, lab and people shots such as the inside of the XRF, Adam Soule with rock samples , HROV and human hair, Jeff McGuire and John Collins, Karen Bice, Bill Jenkins, and ONS’s for Media Relations and Oceanus and entered them in the IMS

2.  Photographed a variety of people for the MBL Ecosystems Center Annual Report

3.  Photographed 3 passport portraits

4.  Produced 150 CD dupes for MBL

5.  Produced 30 DVD dupes for K. Patterson and 14 DVD dupes for S. Dawicki

6.  Matted and framed 4 retirement photos/posters

7.  Reproduction Highlights for the month:

a. 54 proposals e. 2 manuals i. 1 form

b. 1 postcard f. 1 bookmark j. 1 parking permits

c. 5 flyers g. 1 invitation

d. 2 Tech Reports h. 1 tickets

Coming in March

Oceanus Vol 45, No 1 should be off to the printer for an April distribution

OCCI marketing brochure; Redesigned Graphic Services Web site

February 2006: Information Office & Exhibit Center (Manager: Stephanie Murphy)

Activities /

January 2006

/

February 2006

Visitors to Exhibit Center (Closed for season) / 15 / 32
Group Visits to Exhibit Center /

4

/

1

Gift Shop Sales / $1682.60 / $1,775.75
Exhibit Center Donations / $0 / $20
Peanut Butter Club attendees (4 weeks) / 209 / 135
Peanut Butter Club donations (4 weeks) / $324 / $205

·  Public Information (Sandra Murphy)

o  Produced & distributed four issues weekly calendar

o  Arranged 2 special tours: MBL, Zeiss Representatives

o  Information Requests – received 406 email requests for info.

o  Met with MIT Museum director and Nautical holdings curator; held meetings with H Singh, A Bowen, B Lange, R Catanach, J Lund. (Steph)

·  Internal Communications

o  Headlines - produced & distributed four issues (Sandra Murphy)

o  Conducted first in a series of informal coffee hours. Held in Info Office, approx. 30 people attended, including scientists, engineers, tech staff, and administrators. Positive feedback & good input on internal communications issues. (Steph, Sandy, Kathy)

o  Published “year in review” issue of the WHOI Buoy. Preparing printed flyer announcement. (Steph)

o  Drafted plan for more effective use of all-hands emails. Beginning implementation.(Steph)

o  Launch revised Information Office/Exhibit Center internal Website.

·  Exhibit Center (Kathy Patterson)

o  Updating WHOI Store site design

o  Resolved compatibility issue with e-commerce software

o  Exhibit development: final phase of Titanic exhibit, HABs, and Coastal.

o  Hosted Cape & Islands Tour Group Assoc. –educated tour leaders who bring groups of visitors about WHOI.

o  Sent monthly email blasts to gift shop users requesting information on Associates Program.

o  Sent email blast about Dive & Discover to WHOI Store registered users who have requested that info.

o  Meeting with vendors; bringing new products into store.

·  Outreach (Stephanie Murphy)

o  Vent CDs – 91 requests from teachers.

o  Email blasts to Dive & Discover users

Coming in March

o  Three Falmouth public school group visits to EC

o  Organize Naval Command College visit – Info Office

o  Work w/carpenters on EC repairs, new installations prior to new season


Editorial (Managing Editor: Lonny Lippsett)

• Oceanus: Published 4 articles on www.oceanusmag.whoi.edu involving 7 WHOI scientists, students, or staff: (Bice, Simmons, Edwards , Owens, Valdes, Goisan, Donnelly, Woodruff, Hughen), plus Hawaii ASLO meeting coverage.

• Oceanus: Reporting, writing, and graphic development for stories: (Blusztain, Soule, Gallager, Foote, Joyce, Toole, Weller, Jin, Lin, Ashjian, McGillicuddy, Ledwell, Buesseler, Jenkins, Sholkovitz, Moore, Bender, Bradley, Yoerger, Lynch, Reddy, German, McDowell, Lynch, plus Alvin, Sentry, ABE and all ships).

• Oceanus: Researching new subscription/mailing/database/marketing operations

• Annual Report: Articles and graphic research for 3 Dept. feature stories completed (Singh, Buynevich, Winsor, Puecker-Ehrenbrink, Anderson/Keafer/McGillicuddy/Erdner), (Madin, Carlowicz, Nevala, Canavan), plus Marine Ops (Nevala), MPC (Carlowicz) and Acad. Programs (Madin) sections. Working on final 2 Dept. features (Singh, Peucker-Ehrenbrink) (Lippsett)

• Dive & Discover: Writing, photography, etc., for Expedition 10 (Madin).

• OCCI brochure: Edited text, graphics research, caption writing (Joyce) (Lippsett, Pires, Daly)

• WHOI Arctic research poster: Editorial support (Oberlander, Lippsett)

• Ocean Pulses: Sholkovitz aerosol monitor (Lippsett, Dawicki); Madin Antarctic salp cruise and Dive and Discover (Madin, Dawicki).

• News releases: Foote (Lippsett, Dawicki) and Bice (Lippsett, Dawicki, Nevala)

Coming in March

• Final editing and graphic development for Oceanus Vol. 45, No. 1, slated for printers

• Final Reporting and writing for Annual Report

• Editorial assistance on ABE news release

• Complete OCCI brochure

• Editorial help with poster for WHOI Arctic research

• Carlowicz shifts over to Web editorial

Oceanus online stats

Metric / October / November / December / January / February
Visits Average/day*
Visited more than once / 34,922 (+23%)
2,881 (+20%) / 36,157 (+4%)
2,712 (-6%) / 32,467 (-10%)
2,299 (-15%) / 28,969 (-11%)
2,517 (+10%) / 24,623 (-15%)
2,093 (-17%)
Total Online subscribers** / 600 (+63 2 mos) / 631 (+31) / 654 (+23) / 713 (+59) / 769 (+56)
*Visits include visitors and search engine robots
** (54% from .com/.net; 20% .edu; 15% international; .06% .org; .02% .gov, .01% .mil)
Of interest: United Nations, NOAA, ONR, Boeing, EPA, NewScientist.com, IEEE, EOA Scientific Systems, NASW, Scholastic, Petrobras (a Brazilian oil company), Exxon, and various aquariums subscribe
Referrals / Top 4 referred sites: 56% direct (know us or emailed from friend), 15% Google, 5% WHOI.edu, .1% Emerging Technology Blog
Sample referrers: Nature (blog), DeepSea.com, NSF-IPY,
Top 5 Pages: Float 312, Where Are You?, Is Global Warming Changing the Arctic?, Photo Gallery, Printed Issues, Sort by Date
Top 5 keyword phrases: Oceanus, big sharks, high sea marine protected areas, squirts, mid ocean ridge

Visits are down this month, but towards the end of February, our numbers started to spike upwards and hit over 1,000 per day during the week. February is historically one of our lowest months. The spike might be attributable to some successful marketing of Oceanus onto blogs: besides to the NSF IPY page (credit to Shelley), we also got the five-story climate package cited on http://oceanengineering.blogspot.com and the three-story whale package cited on the 1,700+-member Marine Mammal Research and Conservation blog. We also saw continued robust monthly increase in online subscriptions, perhaps attributed to Shelley’s promotion to the media, Luyten’s notes to program managers, and Terry Schaff’s promotion to staffers on the Hill.