CT Industry

• 01/01/08

:: PEOPLE

SOCIALTEXT CEO. Wiki and social software company Socialtext has named Eugene Lee as CEO and member of the board of directors. Prior to joining the company, Lee held senior management positions at Adobe and Cisco Systems. Socialtext Founding CEO Ross Mayfield will transition to the role of chairman, president, and co-founder.

:: NEWS

INVESTING IN KUALI. The Kuali Foundation’s Student Services System project has received a $2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance the development of a new open source student services system for colleges and universities. The first Kuali Student modules are expected to be released in 2009.

HELP FOR EARLY BIRDS. Financial aid management company Regent has announced an early needs analysis program and digital Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as a fully integrated part of the Regent Student Self-Service Portal. This new functionality allows prospective and current students to receive an early estimate of financial aid eligibility without a fee or third-party service provider. (Previously, students had to either complete an application from a third-party provider or wait until Jan. 1 to complete the FAFSA electronically through the federal Department of Education.) Additionally, the early needs analysis results enable schools to immediately package an early financial aid award offer, giving them a competitive edge in student recruitment.

SECURITY BREACHES ON THE RISE. CDW-G has released the results of its third annual Higher Education IT Security Report Card, a survey of 151 IT directors and managers from a variety of higher ed institutions. Among the findings: Fewer than half of campus networks are safe from attack-58 percent report at least one security breach in the past year. In addition, data loss or theft (including the loss or theft of staff and student personal information) has increased 10 percent in the last year. Lack of staff resources is the biggest barrier to improving campus IT security, the survey shows. Read more here.

GOING 360. Purdue University (IN) has selected the recently unveiled Echo360System lecture capture solution from Echo360, to upgrade and expand the school’s Boiler-Cast podcasting service. The platform features a second-generation management server with web-based scheduling, creating a centralized control center for lecture capture operations across multiple classrooms, buildings, and campuses.

CONTACTLESS PARTNERSHIP. Blackboard and Sony are partnering to support Sony FeliCa contactless technology in the Blackboard Commerce Suite, a family of applications enabling one-card transactions for identification, payment, and access. FeliCa can be integrated with near field communication (NFC)-enabled devices including door access readers, point-of-sale terminals, mobile phones, and a variety of attended and unattended readers. The solution allows for read/write transactions to be completed within 0.1 second, an advantageous feature for multiple campus applications that require high-speed processing.

DEARTH OF SURF? According to a new survey from eContent services and technology provider Ebrary, 50 percent of responding higher ed faculty members prefer using online resources for research, class preparation, and instruction. Yet 57 percent of respondents believe students do not know how to use electronic resources provided by the library. The 2007 Global Faculty E-book Survey, designed to help better understand faculty experience with electronic resources and printed materials, was developed by librarians and completed by 906 faculty respondents from approximately 300 higher ed institutions.

:: M & A, Etc.

INTEGRATED MARKETING SERVICES. Halyard Education Partners has integrated its four divisions- Educational Directories Unlimited, eLearners.com, GoalQuest, and World- Class Strategy-into one enterprise, renamed EducationDynamics. Via a portfolio of websites and online marketing services (such as EarnMyDegree.com), EducationDynamics helps higher ed institutions find, enroll, and retain students.