IvyGate Is Cool
The Crimson magazine, FM, features
an interview with the founders of a great blog,
IvyGate, dedicated to news about the Ivies. They're really smart, it's a terrific blog, and more power to them.
I mention this also because IvyGate is part of a trend that I've been trying to explain to the powers-that-be at Harvard for some time now, both through my work and more directly, in private conversations: the way that Harvard is being written about is changing, and you guys need to get with the program. It's not just me and this blog; it's
02138, it's
David Warsh, it's IvyGate, it's
Gawker. (It's even
Open University.) It's not just the Globe and the Times anymore.
(Interestingly enough, there are more blogs written about Harvard than there are, as far as I can tell, written by Harvard professors. That is not a good sign. You folks are missing a very interesting opportunity here...)
Harvard still has a generally hostile, don't-call-us, we'll-call-you-when-we-need-you attitude towards the press. And, frankly, a snobbish attitude. I hear it in some of the early feedback I've gotten about 02138—it's not serious enough, there's "nothing to read" in it, "we don't like to see Harvard presented that way."
Maybe so—but this is how the outside world, including some of your own graduates, sees you. There it is. Better to work with it than deny it.
