Upgrade expands services, information on info boards

Tuftslife.com, in conjunction with the Tufts department of Public Relations, recently completed an upgrade enabling new features and allowing new content to be displayed on the info boards around the Medford/Somerville campus.

The upgrade of the info board screen content created the "Tufts Today Network," the newest version of the info board service. It allowed for the integration of Tuftslife.com content with the University's existing computer infrastructure.

This change was necessary to get the "automatic upgrades of the computing infrastructure by Tufts to better evolve the content displayed on the screens," said Pete Sanborn, Assistant Director of Public Relations.

The Tuftslife.com public info board project began with a single screen in Dowling Hall. This location was shown to be "a viable communications channel," according to Sanborn.

Over the past few years, Tuftslife.com has expanded its ability to reach students and faculty on campus by adding screens in the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, the Tisch Library, the Campus Center and the Hall of Flags in the Fletcher school in addition to the original in Dowling, according to sophomore Rajit Kapur, of Tuftslife.com.

For the new Tufts Today Network, "there are three primary types of content represented: announcements, news headlines, and emergency alerts," Sanborn said.

During the week, the main section of the info board content rotates through news headlines of interest to the University community ranging from topics of international importance to items specific to Tufts. For example, information was recently included about the TCU Senate elections.

Another important component of the Tufts Today Network is "the ability to easily customize the content on the go," according to Sanborn. Custom modules and categories can be set to show specific news events and to "address what the students are interested in, such as the TCU election announcement," said Sanborn.

On Friday afternoons and weekends, the news content displayed changes to arts, food, music, and sports headlines pertinent to the Boston area, according to Sanborn.

Also, content from Tuftslife.com is present on the info boards at all times, from campus announcements, which are shown as news briefs, to the daily event calendar, which scrolls along the bottom info board.

As soon as an event has concluded, it can be automatically dropped from display. In addition, the added ease in customizing the content "allows emergency announcements pertinent to the Tufts community to be disseminated and displayed on the screens," said Sanborn.

Looking ahead, Sanborn and Kapur cited several areas for expansion and changes related to the info board system. In conjunction with the Tufts Public Relations Department, Tuftslife.com plans to "increase the scope of its news delivery," by expanding the public info board program to all of the Tufts campuses, including Health Sciences in Boston and the Veterinary School in Grafton. According to Sanborn, this coincides with the administration's philosophy of linking the Tufts campuses together.

At the other Tufts campuses, it is planned to have members of the Tufts Computing and Communication Services, called Front-Line Support Providers (FSPs) in charge of updating the boards since Tuftslife.com is a student organization central to the Medford/Somerville campus.

Tuftslife.com also hopes to increase its presence by placing info boards in more locations on the Medford/Somerville campus. In addition, to make the info board project more helpful to students, the Public Relations department would like "to work with and get input from students about the scope and type of content displayed on the screens in the near future," said Sanborn.