XRDS Editors

OLD  –  Please refer to “Tentative XRDS Launch Content“

FRONT OF BOOK:

“Roll Call” / “Editors” / “Staff” / “XRDS-ers” / “Admins” — a listing of the ~15 editors plus small headshots. One column full height.

“Letter from the Editor” / “Musings” / “From the Editors Desk”– the letter from the editor. Half page or full page (could be paired). Can include relevant picture. No need for headshot if headshots are included in “roll call”

“Inbox” / “Recursion” / “Txts and Tweets” / “Feedback” — feedback from readers since last issue. List format. Will include emails, physical letters, text messages, twitter tweets, flickr photos, facebook messages, etc. Needs to be flexible as communication forms will change. Half page or one column full height.

“ACM Chapter Update” – List of updates from one to five ACM Chapters (like student clubs). Likely text-centric, but some may have a related photo. Typically cover recent guest speakers, upcoming/past special events, parties, projects, community outreach and similar. Half page to full page.

“Bonus” / “Membership Benefit” / “ACM Benefits” / “Did you know?” — Highlights one benefit of being an ACM student member. Likely to be text-centric. Half page.

“Advice” / “Listen” (general) — a text-heavy (likely text-only) article providing advice. (e.g., “how to get into a good PhD program”). Half page to full page.

FEATURES

Two to six feature articles. Long features are approx. 3000 words long. Short features are 1500 words. Both formats are multiple pages with images. Lengths can vary as per page design.

COULD BE INTERLEAVED WITH FEATURE ARTICLES (all are related to the issue topic):

“Chat” / “Interview” / “Talk” / “Exchange” — An interview piece. Will need appropriate formatting (editor:, person:, editor:, person:, etc.). Persistent across issues, like a department, but acts more like a feature article. Full page to multiple page.

“Acrynm” / “Acyrnomns” / “Cheat sheet” Acyrnomns cheatsheet (related to topic)
“Profile” – profile of notable researcher. Background, kid, education, research, now what, future, … Half page or one column full height.

“Hello World” / “Code” / “Tutorial” — a code tutorial relating to the issue topic. Will almost always include a code snippet (embedded in the text like an image – 2 or 3 col. wide). Half page to full page.

BACK OF BOOK:

“Flashback” / “Time Capsule” / “Jump” / “Goto” / “Warp” / “Time Machine” / “Goto 19XX” — a look back at what the state of the art was X number of years ago. Will primarily be a list, e.g., “processor, ram, storage, bandwidth, monitor, software”. Like a list of specs. Maybe a few factoids in sentence form. Likely to be paired with an image of the item. Half page.

“ACM Labz” / “Labz” — Highlight one lab (academic or industrial) that is a great place to work or great place to get a PhD, etc. Will feature at least one photo. Has persistent sidebar/inset that lists other top programs (2-5). Half page or full page.

“Conferences & Journals” / “Events” / “Deadlines” / “Dates” / “cron”– A listing of conferences and journals (i.e., publication venues). Each item will include a brief 1-3 sentence description, the entry deadline, and a actual event date/location. Photos rare, if ever. Half page or one column full height.

“Contests & Events” — A listing of contests and events. Each item will include a brief 1-3 sentence description, requirements, the entry deadline, and a actual event date/location. Photos rare, if ever. Half page or one column full height.

“Grants & Fellowships” — a listing of grants and fellowships. Each item will include a brief 1-3 sent description/requirements, and the entry deadline. Half page or one column full height.

FAR BACK:

“heap space” / “pointers” / “&ptr” / “pass by reference” / “memory” / “resources” — catch all for more info. Might include web links, youtube videos, books, publications, email addresses, organizations, mailing addresses, rss feeds, … Half page or one column full height.

TENTATIVE LAST PAGE:

“Bemusement” / “Humor & Thought” / “Comics & Puzzles” / “:P & ?” / “LOL’s and HMMM’s” — Between 2 and 4 comics and/or puzzles. Needs to be highly flexible space. Essentially blank area we can fit items into. Full page.

STANDARD INSET ITEMS (common objects that can be embedded/in-lined into features and departments):

“www” / “url” / “http” — a web link to the project or for more info
“fact” — a small one-three line fact
“bio” — will generally appear at the end of a feature
“def” — definition of a term
“[quote]” — matching iconography for a pull quote
“pub” / “ref” / “cite” / “paper” — a reference to a book or paper
“img” / “fig” — acts as a caption for a figure
“cap” — like a img/fig caption, but could be for a chart or code snippet. Not necessarily graphical. Could be used as a figure caption though.
“goto” / “jump” / “rel” / “also” — Could point to something else within the issue (aka page 15), or maybe something in the XRDS archive.

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NOT INCLUDED (maybe combined into others):
“Showcase” – student projects, hacks, websites, etc. (general)
“Programs” list of Undergrad/masters/phd programs (topic)
“Free” – free travel grants, free software, events, available through ACM (general)
“img” (from students. possibly themed; e.g., spell XRDS out of students). (general)
Internships and Job openings (general)
free software
notable publications (topic)
student events (dorkbot, hackpgh, maker fairs, …) (general)
“book reviews” (general)geeky fashion (t-shirt links and such, maybe ACM shwag)
“BOX” geeky tv/movie review (general)(student)
“Warstories” (humerous slant) (general)Cutout figures/objects nerdy stuff (general)
Famous quotes
“bookmarks” (topic – quick links to relevant articles, software, etc.)

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Under the prevue of Tom Bartindale – Departments editors.

Outline developed by Jill Duffy and publisher Scott Delman (and Chris Harrison):

TOM & CHRIS EDIT – 13/11/09:

Departments – Every Issue

yes Letter from editor – personal, make sure he covers the topic and is interesting, also refer to the content in the issue. – 2 page spread

yes Conference Listings / Call for Papers Dates (in chronological order) – 1 page

no ACM Chapter updates (+ photos)

no Awards / Important News Stories related to computing in general (this could have some sort of editorial initiative in reporting on them)

no Book Reviews / Recommendations – Either a list of these  or 1 or 2 books reviewed.

yes Comics – XKCD, PHDComics – this can be on the back page, or used to fill in gaps. 1 or 2 of these an issue, no more.

yes puzzels (from chris’s guy)

advice collumn – non topic realated, from department head etc, getting a job, finding research post etc. (industry too)

hello world collumn – topical.

“bookmarks” editors choice bookmarks, url links and small descriptions of links relavant to the article.

Job Listings / Research / Internships , and as well as paying ones, there needs to be a section with all this in one place.

Collumns – Optional

twitter hash tag update from last issues readers comments.

Image Visualizations of information e.g maps of computer use, heat maps of research, places, people etc

Opinion Editorial (OpEd) – bascially a feature article / short feature.

Q & A session

Labz – Profile of important labs in the field of the issue – link with aware for the lab

Education focussed collumn – what does this mean?

Papers to Read – Review of top papers in the field, and ones that are must read. / best paper awards.

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OLD IDEA SHEET

Departments

• Letter from the Editor (and masthead)
• Reader LettersNews, conference listing, call for papers (spread with images, breakout boxes)
• From the Association (ACM activities)
• Member Highlights: short interviews, award winners, highlights from ACM university chapters
• Snapshots: Most important papers to read, in summary
• Book recommendations and mini book reviews
• Backpage

Columns

• Opinion Editorial
• Advice (two questions answered by dept heads, other high people, hiring managers).
• 10 questions posed to notable people in the field – ask like 3 people. Topic
• Humor (XKCD or PhD Comics syndication)
• Education-focused column: issues in CS, uni. news sidebar
• Career advice
• Company and Research Institute Profiles
• Practitioner (executive) Profiles
• Job listings (paid ads)