It was another slow July night on the Farm, the kind that makes for lengthy discussions over chocolate milkshakes. Grumbling about overflowing e-mail in-boxes and the avalanche of flyers littering campus, several students agreed to find a better way to advertise University events.
Eighteen months later, they have. Innovative Student Information Services, or ISIS, placed 12 flat-panel LCD screens around campus in the fall. The 19- to 40-inch displays, found everywhere from the Bookstore to dining halls to the new James H. Clark Center, flash ads for events ranging from meetings to movies.
The screens are part of a larger collaboration between ISIS and the Office of University Communications. Known as Events at Stanford, the service lists campus happenings on a new University-run website, events.stanford.edu. Departments, student organizations and individuals can submit their events to the site and can also upload text ads and 10-second commercials for display on the LCD screens.
Creating a comprehensive listing of campus events “is something the University Communications office has had as a priority for a number of years,” says Scott Stocker, ’90, the office’s web director. But “without the input and energy of the ISIS group, I don’t think Events at Stanford would have been completed as quickly as it was.”
Administrators agreed to pay for the video screens, which have cost about $30,000 so far. “During the planning, we knew a website would be a key element, but the important thing would be putting this info in people’s daily paths,” says senior Kyle Doerksen, a founding member of ISIS.
Users are pleased with the service. “The screens allow you to create something that is kinetic rather than a poster or a flyer,” says Ben Davidson, director of the LGBT Community Resources Center, who submitted a commercial to promote the center’s new website.
Doerksen envisions a day when the screens identify passersby by their cell phones, then display custom information. Meanwhile, ISIS plans to place at least 10 more screens around campus by June. Who needs flyers?
