10. MIT´s Technology Review

Description of Publication: Technology Review

OK, OK, so Technology Review is from MIT, a prestigious engineering school, and it is a magazine about technology, but that's no reason to run scared . . . right? Right! This is an eminently reader-friendly publication (80 pages). It is not a periodical about engineering, math, or the so-called hard sciences, and it certainly is easier to read than your average organic chemistry book. Yet it is about technology, in all its forms. For example, from "Mindful Healing: A Talk with Herbert Benson" (October 1996):

The author of The Relaxation Response describes his quest to understand the mind/body link-activated by meditation, belief in a particular medical procedure, or even religious faith-in reducing stress and promoting a patient's recovery. But he decries those who would take his ideas to an unwarranted extreme by proselytizing or blaming patients for their disease.

Its reputation is supported by some interesting facts: (1) the average number of years as a subscriber are 11; (2) 73 percent of the readers are professionals/managers; and (3) 91 percent have at least one college degree. The format is long on essay and short on advertising, an attribute of no little consequence to those bent on learning instead of buying. Four or five feature articles are offered at approximately 10 pages each, so the prospects for useful reference works are good. The departments have the usual letters, careers, and trends section, but economic perspectives are also included, which is useful for targeting business interests. For example, the April 1997 issue included "The Economic Perspective," by Bennett Harrison:

New technologies do boost productivity as long as they are complemented by policies that, for example, enhance infrastructure or reorganize workplaces.

Despite Technology Review being a technology magazine, it frequently overlaps the interests of business. Businesspeople, after all, cannot avoid being involved with technology by either using it, funding it, or producing it.
By the way, those interested in getting information about the MIT Sloan School of Management MBA programs or the Executive Short Courses should visit the Web site at: www/web.mit.edu/sloan or call: (617) 253-7166; or fax: (617) 252-1200.

Another technology source, somewhat friendly to the noninitiated, is the Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientific American, Inc. ([800] 333-1199). Computer sources are: e-mail at info@sciam-com or visit their Web site at www.sciam-com. This is not a business reference publication, but it has left the rather rigid and esoteric formats of the past scientific articles for the more reader-friendly style that accomplishes the same goal while including a far greater number of readers. The magazine does include business articles (e.g., sections on "Technology and Business" and "Working Knowledge"). A recent feature article, for example, focused on "Semiconductor Subsidies," by Lucien P. Randazzese.

The federally funded research consortium SEMATECH is often credited with restoring vigor to the U.S. semiconductor industry. The ability of such cooperative efforts to foster competitive technology can be severely limited, however, as illustrated by the noteworthy failure of GCA Corporation. A once successful manufacturer of microlithography tools, SEMATECH tried to resuscitate GCA's business but could not. That experience holds lessons for other public and private policy makers.

Technology Review
www.techreview.com
trcomments@mit.edu

Technology Review

published eight times a year
ISSN 00401692
For more information, call: Association of Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Phone (617) 253-8250
Fax (617) 258-7264

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