SEJ's Web site is taking a leap into the future. We invite you to join us.
This site has a new look, a new home, and a new software foundation.
The most important result will be a stronger sense of community among SEJ members, better services and benefits for members, and a more participatory, interactive Web experience.
We hope that the new system will make it possible for more members to contribute content to the site and to comment on the content.
The new site was launched on Friday, May 8, 2009, at 9:00 am ET.
Features:
The new site has an internal mail feature that allows members to talk to each other inside the site. It also makes it easier to share content with friends and colleagues beyond SEJ. As before, members will be able to submit their own work to the
EJToday news digest.
One new feature we are experimenting with we call the
"River of News." It is a good place to fish for stories. It's an organized collection of news feeds from regular news organizations, newspaper blogs, agency press offices, advocacy groups, bioregional news aggregators, and other sources. It even scans the Federal Register daily for notices from EPA and other agencies that environmental journalists cover. It's just raw material, but worth sifting.
Almost all the content from the old Web site has been (or will eventually be) transferred over to the new site. You will still be able to read the
SEJournal, the
TipSheet, the
WatchDog, and the
EJToday news digest.
You will still get listings of awards, workshops, and fellowships for environmental journalists. As well as the calendar listings with increased emphasis on upcoming news events. You will still get the latest on upcoming SEJ annual conferences — and online registration.
And there will be special-interest areas: for freelancers, Canadians, academics/teachers, in Spanish and others.
The new site's "Library" area will include a variety of resources: blogs, books, reporting tools, the source lists in SEJ's Climate Change Guide, other source lists, teaching tools, and other useful links. Ultimately we hope to develop a searchable group Rolodex for sources on all subjects.
What you need to know:
For the new site, your pass code will be reset to the original randomly generated pass code that you were sent as a new member. If you've changed this, you can log in with your user name and request a new pass code. The site will ask for your email address. If you've changed your email address and SEJ doesn't have the new one, you may have to try submitting an old email address. If you no longer have the old address, contact the SEJ office and we'll email you the information you need.
You can still access the current (soon-to-be old) sej.org with your current pass code. This will continue when the current site becomes sejarchive.org. The resetting of pass codes doesn't apply to the current site.
What we need from you:
First and foremost, please go into your profile once you're logged in. You can access this by clicking either "Members" at the top right of the page or "Members Only" on the right side of the maroon bar where you log in. Your profile will appear in a box at the right. Click on "my account" and then "edit" to add information, change your pass code, etc. Please don't ever change your record number, at the bottom of "Personal Information"!
Under the "Edit" function, the last of the menu options is "Tags"--please select this and identify your region and your areas of expertise. You can add as many of these as you would like.
In the future, whenever you have changes in your contact info, enter it into your profile on sej.org. Changes will generate an email to SEJ HQ so we can update your records there. No need to contact SEJ as long as you keep your profile on sej.org up to date.
Once you're done with your member profile, go and browse the new site. Members are given the option to comment on all content. Please do! We'll be checking comments often. Also, if you find a glitch on the site or want to comment about the functionality, information, etc., please email sejinfo@gmail.com. This is still a work in progress. Your feedback will help us get everything running smoothly.
GeekSpeak
The new SEJ site is built entirely on "open source" software — which keeps us from being held captive or held back by any single company. The key software is a "content management system" called Drupal — which is built on a platform of Linux (the operating system), Apache (the server), MySQL (the database), and PHP (the script language).
One major advantage of the new software is its ability to grow. There are hundreds of cool apps we can add to the core Drupal system we are putting up this week. We expect more blogs, more listserves, better searchability, and more ways to share information.
Many of these things are still in the future. To date, we have focused on getting basic features of the site working first. We want to hear your reports on bugs and problems — please e-mail
sejinfo@gmail.com .
