We’ve just completed another major upgrade to IEEE Spectrum Online (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org).

Why keep fixing it? Well for one thing, magazine publishing can no longer afford to be print-centric. In a multi­media world, IEEE Spectrum’s “readers” now expect to be able to get information in a variety of formats beyond print. They also expect the Web site to be increasingly interactive, not just a place to visit to read text on a screen instead of on paper. So the Web site’s technical chops need to be frequently enhanced so that it can serve up new formats and new online experiences.

Improvements to the site increase Spectrum Online’s value as an IEEE member benefit. And having a magazine Web site worthy of a 21st-century professional technology association improves our ability to recruit new members to the IEEE.

In addition to many technical improvements, the new site will feature quite a bit more Web-only audio, video, and graphical content. And on the text front, we’ve started a number of blogs we hope you will find intriguing.

In our Tech Talk blog, Contributing Editor Kieron Murphy and the IEEE Spectrum editorial staff will continue to blog about current technical events. Associate Editor Sandra Upson is blogging about biomedical technology. Mathukumalli Vidyasagar, IEEE Fellow and executive vice president in charge of the Advanced Technology Center at Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT firm, is blogging about technology in India. Dexter Johnson of CMP Cientifica, an international nanotechnology consulting firm, 
is blogging about nanotechnology, from his base in Madrid.

Our Gaming and Gadgets bloggers include David Kushner, a frequent contributor to Spectrum on the topic of games and entertainment; Rob Garfield, a writer, poet, and game programmer who creates simulations for Columbia University’s science programs; and Harry Teasley, a game designer who worked on the original Civilization game, Half-Life, and who is currently the official designer of the Lord of the Rings games.

David Carlick, managing director of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm VantagePoint Venture Partners, is the host of the Venture Learnings blog. He can tell you what you need to know to get venture capital and get your start-up off and running. And Robert Charette, IEEE member and president of ITAHBI Corp., an IT consulting firm, along with Ed Yourdon, cofounder of the Cutter Consortium, and the University of Oxford’s Martyn Thomas are writing a blog called The Risk Factor. In it they discuss big software systems and the challenges software engineers face in getting them to work.

Associate Editor Erico Guizzo runs Automaton, a blog about robotics. It will include From the Labs—for which robotics researchers in academia and industry will post brief reports, along with photos and videos, on their latest creations—and 
E-Stop (for Emergency Stop), in which Guizzo plans to chronicle “horror” stories of all things robotic.

And Senior Associate Editor Steven Cherry is blogging about Microsoft Research, focusing on Redmond’s latest greatest technology developments. Additional blogs will be coming later in the year, including ones on history, books, and the human factor in engineering design.

Building our Web site requires close collaboration among the magazine’s publishing team, Web developers, Web programmers, and a host of IT professionals. Here we’d like to thank Elizabeth Arts, Steve Beck, Laura Book, Elizabeth Bretz, Roy Carubia, Steven Cherry, Marion Delaney, Joe DiMauro, Tony Durniak, Sally Ericksen, Harry Goldstein, Bruce Huffine, Faith Jeanty, Rob Jones, Bhushan Kotrike, Leila Lynch, Blanche McGurr, Regina McKay, Siva Moduga, Kieron Murphy, Jackie Parker, Jintendra Patel, Ken Rawson, Phil Ross, Vijay Sekhar, Tom Smith, Mike Spector, Mark Steve, and Jim Vick of the IEEE staff for all their efforts to get the site up to speed. Our developers at Fergus O’Daly Associates, Fergus O’Daly, Geoff Brookins, and Robert Moskal, deserve special recognition for their creative and technical efforts. And key IEEE volunteers gave us their support and encouragement, particularly Spectrum’s Editorial Advisory Board and the IEEE’s Publications, Services & Products Board.

Good Web sites don’t come about from editors and designers working in isolation. The best sites depend absolutely on their readers and users. Just as you continue to tell us what you do and don’t like about Spectrum on the printed page, now we are relying on you to help us create the Web site you’d like to see. We will be contacting you to see how you think things are going. And we hope you’ll visit the new site frequently to participate in Spectrum’s growing online community.