April 1, 1999
Now KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications is hatching its latest student laboratory in mass communications, the Digital Jayhawk Internet site and server.
The Digital Jayhawk -- www.digitaljayhawk.org -- will be unveiled at a public reception at 3 p.m. Friday, April 2, in 130 Budig Hall. School officials will demonstrate the site and discuss its uses and potential.
"It is primarily to train students about new media," said Christopher Ryan, a professional-in-residence at the school serving as content editor and technical administrator. "It's a research project to demonstrate what can be done with Internet publishing."
Content will include campus news from the daily student newspaper, the University Daily Kansan, and other sources; audio and video feeds from the student-run radio station, KJHK, and the student-produced TV channel, KUJH; KU sports events; original content from on-line reporting students; and web pages for student and campus organizations. The site also will include an interactive calendar, discussion forums and a resume and portfolio section to assist in students' job searches.
Two classes will provide students for the Internet site: Ryan's American Press class, which studies on-line journalism, and a media management class taught by John Katich, associate professor of journalism. Students will learn to write for the Internet, to post items on the Internet and to design and maintain a Web site, Ryan said.
Two servers will support the Digital Jayhawk, one at the journalism school in Stauffer-Flint Hall, the other in Academic Computing Services. Organizers hope it will be a center for a substantial amount of information and also for the use of cutting-edge Internet technology.
"It's more than a Web site," said Gary L. Hawke, Digital Jayhawk executive director. "It's a Web-management tool, entertainment source and alerting system."
Story by Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858 or tcohen@ukans.edu