Digitas Not Just About Computers

We are writing in response to the Feb. 9 article, "Students May Print Electronic News," which discussed our new student organization, Digitas. Readers may have been given the impression that Digitas is a computer club. Digitas is a club dedicated to the use of emerging technologies which include, but are not limited to, computers.

We would particularly like to address the comments of John Stafford '96. The article states that he feels that Digitas will not be able to succeed because "the technology Elektra would use is so new.

Ironically, at the Harvard Computer Society (HCS) elections the week before, Stafford himself proposed to use the same technology to advance the HCS. In his position paper, he lists "making Harvard a leader in electronic text" as one of his four main goals for the computer society.

The article adds that he feels Digitas is "poorly organized." For him to be able to reach this conclusion with in two days of Digitas' founding as a pubic student organization without contracting any of the members is impressive indeed.

He compares Elektra to "starting a magazine like Time or Newsweek from his dorm room." We fail to see how a Harvard student organization's newsletter is comparable to these magazines.

We are not attempting to be "Newsweek online." Electra is our form of communication to the Harvard community, not the sole point of our existence.

"Like any new student organization, we understand that our path will not be free of obstacles. Our goal is not to create a computer service for Harvard a role the HCS fills quite nicely, Digitas is a group catering to the interests of its members. We hope other students share our desires to explore. Ishir Bhan '96   Jeff Tarr '96   Co-founders, Digitas