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September 1 marks the launch date for two new Internet initiatives at Harvard Gateways, the Harvard Alumni Association's website (www.haa.harvard.edu). Both "my•Harvard," a homepage that can be personalized by University alumni, and an electronic survey, posted to gather information for the new Harvard Alumni Directory (to be published in September 2000) are now available.
"My•Harvard" was inspired by a similar program that Stanford began last spring, says Rachel Herf, the University Development Office's website manager. It lists various links to Harvard news and services, and can be made the default startup page for any Internet browser. Links on the page's left-hand side are fixed: click on a University headline to read the full text provided by the Harvard News Office, or choose another source such as this magazine or the University Gazette. Links to all of the graduate school and College alumni associations appear, as do the HAA's existing e-services: bulletin boards, chat rooms, class-wide listservs, the Professional Connection (see "Career Connections," January-February, page 82), and e-mail forwarding.
The individual user chooses the content on the right-hand side of the page, which might be given the general title "my•RealWorld." Users can display news headline, stock quotes (updated every five minutes), or the local weather forecast; a drop-down menu offers 14 Internet search- engines (many of which offer similar, customizable services); and "My•Harvard" can also keep track of appointments via a calendar function (not shown on the prototype at left). Herf says that one strength of "my•Harvard" is its flexibility.
A longtime publisher of alumni directories, Publishing Concepts Inc., has been helping the HAA adapt to the information age. As part of its contract to publish the new directory, PCI is not only assisting in the development of "my•Harvard," but is also providing the software to redesign HAA chat rooms and to make the electronic bulletin boards more user-friendly.
The HAA has also permanently posted on its website an on-line version of the directory survey that all alumni will soon receive in the mail. This will enable "wired" alumni to easily update their addresses or their survey information.
Short of offering a "virtual Cambridge," the HAA hopes that Harvard Gateways will provide one of the best means for alumni to keep their ties to classmates active. Making the alumni directory available to (and searchable by) Harvard affiliates on the Web, which the HAA expects to do, will help even more. "Building a Harvard community on-line," says Herf, "is top priority."