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history, facts, contacts

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Academics
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People
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Corporate
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Announcements
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Calendar
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About the MIT EECS Web Site

Since September 15, 1994 the department World Wide Web pages have provided information about the department, its organization, people, programs, policies, procedures, etc. The site has been in continuous service since that date.

Site Policies

Privacy, style, accessibility, and other matters.

Resources for Visitors

The interactive Site Map, generated automatically, is always up to date. It lists the pages in this site and lets you go directly wherever you want.

The Site Search uses the MIT search engine. The site is indexed frequently.

The site Comment and Inquiry system routes inquiries to department headquarters, and comments to the webmasters. The visitor gets a copy. Each message indicates the page being viewed.

The archive files retain information about each academic year. It is intended that these be available indefinitely, for reference:   1994-95,  1995-96,  1996-97,  1997-98,  1998-99,  1999-00,  2000-01,  2001-02,  2002-03,  2003-04,  2004-05

Past Web News headlines: Recent,   2000-01,   2001-02

Site usage can be viewed from several perspectives.

Site Maintenance

The EECS Webmasters maintain the computer that hosts the server, its file structure, and the information content: Patricia Sampson, Rosa Fuentes, Myron Freeman, and Paul Penfield, Jr. Many other people contribute content, particularly event listings for the Event Calendar. Several password-protected tools are used by these people.

Meta Information

Most of the resources in this site contain information, known as metadata, about themselves. The Web pages have links at the bottom by which visitors can view this data, and if files are downloaded from the site this metadata accompanies the file and can be used to determine its source and history.

Metadata about the site itself is also available:

Dynamic Resources

The site features many dynamic resources that have been developed over the years, most of which use CGI scripts written in Perl. These include

• the EECS events calendar
• the EECS announcement listing
• the interactive Site Map
• a Comment and Inquiry service which reports the page being viewed so the visitors' needs can be understood and served better
• a site usage tracking system
• a flexible Site Search system that can call upon several search services
• a system that enforces limited access to site editing tools via passwords, that is used by over a dozen support staff to maintain the content of the site
• restricted access resources
• a uniform way to report meta information about the site and its components

These Perl scripts have been used by about twenty external sites, and an effort is under way to make them robust enough to be released for more general use.

Site Design History

The site has had three distinct designs:

1. Original design, September 15, 1994 - July 31, 2000. The site was designed and implemented by Paul Penfield and Ed Moriarty. It had a banner logo and standard grey page background, consistent with the HTML standards of the day, which did not include tables.
2. Second design, July 31, 2000 - April 22, 2004. The site kept most of the original information structure but added some new features. The design was done by Rachel Bredemeier. It included a left-hand navigation bar on second-level pages, a new logo featuring a dome, and many new pages. The home page, all second-level pages, and all third level pages except those in the archives adhered to the new design. Archived pages were left unchanged, with the former banner logo.
3. Third design, April 22, 2004 - present, by Patricia Sampson. The home page and all second-level pages were put into a new format with the new red-and-orange department logo. Third-level pages were put into the new format as they were modified. Archived pages were left unchanged.

Here are the original banner logo, the dome logo, and the current red-and-orange department logo: