ALPHAGALILEO NEWS: 28 SEPTEMBER 2000

Please accept our apologies for any cross-posting.

A limited service will operate from midnight Friday 29 September until 
the morning of Wednesday 4 October 2000. Details below


CONTENTS
Limited site access during upgrade
MORI impact survey
Experts's service progress
Embargoes
Site statistics
Email addresses of the AlphaGalileo team


LIMITED SITE ACCESS DURING UPGRADE
It will not be possible to enter new releases and events or edit user 
details or previously posted releases or events from midnight Friday 29 
September until the morning of Wednesday 4 October. This is caused by our 
upgrading the web and email servers and the database. The new email 
server will allow us to react more quickly to email problems, whilst the 
new database is needed to meet the ever-increasing demands on the service 
and to prepare the way for the experts's service that will go live to 
journalists before the end of the year.

During the reduced service period it will be possible to read existing 
releases and events as well as access the address book and other 
background materials.

We apologise for this reduction in service. We can of course accept 
releases now under embargo for Monday or Tuesday of next week.


MORI IMPACT SURVEY
Early next week the leading UK research company, MORI, will begin polling 
journalists on their views and use of AlphaGalileo. This will be the 
first independent research into the effectiveness of the service and we 
are grateful to the Wellcome Trust for making funds available for this 
work. The research will focus on the UK with two small dipstick samples 
in France and Germany. The UK focus is because of the longer use of the 
service by UK journalists. We are planning to include in the sample 
journalists who do not use the service or who have stopped using it, so 
that we get an authoritative and impartial view of our operations and the 
needs of journalists. As you would expect individual replies will be 
confidential.

The research results are scheduled to be published during December. 

We have already asked registered journalists if they wish to be excluded 
from the potential sample, if you have not replied, but do not wish to be 
included please get in touch. MORI will automatically exclude anyone who 
has been with the service for only a short time. 

Further information from [log in to unmask]


EXPERTS'S SERVICE PROGRESS
We are almost ready to offer registered contributors to the Media 
Resource Service, access to their details online. This is the essential 
pre-requisite of allowing access by registered journalists by the end of 
the year. From the end of October at least experts will be able check 
their details online and create a list of words and topics that cover 
their areas of expertise. Journalists will then be able to carry out free 
text searches of experts and their knowledge areas. Contact with the 
experts will be either direct or via an organisation's press office. The 
choice will be left to individual experts. The list of topics will 
include which media the expert has experience in and is willing to be 
contacted by.

If you have any questions about this please contact [log in to unmask]


EMBARGOES
We have had several recent examples of embargoes being broken by UK 
Sunday newspapers. As our posting policy explains we attach great 
importance to the embargo system for science news and will take action 
against anyone breaking embargoes. It is our policy to work with the 
issuers of the release and our advisory group of French and UK 
journalists and press officers to ensure that we take the appropriate 
action.

If you believe an embargo has been broken please let us know. The best 
way of ensuring your message is read is to use our new general email 
address [log in to unmask] This is sent to all three members 
of staff.


SITE STATISTICS
On 28 September the site had (in brackets are the figures from August): 

Registered journalists: 1,841(1,808)
Registered contributors: 918 (900)
Press notices: 3,674(3,491)
Calendar events: 569 (536)


EMAIL ADDRESSES OF THE ALPHAGALILEO EDITORIAL TEAM
If your message is urgent you should avoid a emailing a specific member 
of staff, who may be away from the office, instead send the message to 
the Duty Editor at [log in to unmask]

Peter Green (Project Director): [log in to unmask]
Sabine Louët (European Editor): [log in to unmask]
Jan Pieter Emans (Media Resources Manager): 
[log in to unmask]
Duty editor: [log in to unmask]
Media Resource Service: [log in to unmask]



Peter Green
Project Director
AlphaGalileo: the Internet press centre for European science, medicine 
and technology
www.alphagalileo.org

peter.green @alphagalileo.org
+44 1793 514276 (answerphone and fax)
07867 787889 (mobile)



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