Seen & Heard

'Tweet' Us Here

Fighting off the recession brilliantly? Going green on a shoestring? Got 60 seconds? Tell us about it!

• By Katherine Grayson
• 05/01/09

Each year in March the Campus Technology editors get down to the business of judging our Campus Technology Innovators entries. (That deadline has passed, but don't miss our August issue to see who won and why.)When we do, we're always struck by how difficult it is for entrants to distill their remarkable technology innovations to their essence. In fact, it's difficult for people, in general, to be concise and to the point about what they're doing. But Twitter and "tweeting"should change all that and helpeveryone get to the point! (Maybe by next year, our judges won't be groaning as much as they sift through award program entries trying to figure out what the entrants mean to tell us.)

And when it comes to those Innovator case studies, what you may not know is that aside from the actual competition winners, we find many important stories in those hundreds of entry forms. Case studies that we can share with our readers all year long and which come directly from where you sit.

Yet, why must we wait each year for our Innovators competition, to uncover a wealth of new case studies? What are you doing with technology and its processes, right now, that will dramatically impact or greatly assist your campus community? Particularly, how are you forging new models for the higher ed technology community at large?

If you can manage to tell us in a regular e-mail message, in 140 characters or less (including spaces) how you are carrying the campus tech torch through these challenging times, we may end up writing a story about you and your latest initiative! All we need is a compelling tweet, and if you grab our attention, we'll get back to you for all the details.

Not sure how to tweet effectively in 60 seconds or so? Check out these examples: We consolidated 40 scantily attended classes and used new scheduling tools to save thousands in HVAC and lighting costs over past months. [137 characters] We proved that the outlay for virtualizing 20 servers across campus would be one-third of the $$ we would save in one year. [123 characters] We found a way to alert our on-site and remote campus community to an emergency without relying on cell phones or a website. [125 characters]

Got the idea? Send that "tweet" to us here. Only four rules:

1. The term 'tweet' is used generically here: Please use the e-mail address above for your 140-character message; do not go through Twitter.
2. It may take us awhile to channel your tweet into an upcoming 2009/ 2010 story, so please-- no follow-up e-mails or tweets.
3. We will accept tweets from all campus personnel, but no vendor tweets, please. (Vendors, you can suggest to your campus community partners that they tweet us.)
4. Campus tweeters, don't forget to include your name, function, school, and contact information (it won't count toward your 140-character limit).

--Katherine Grayson, Editor-In-Chief
What have you seen and heard? Send to: [email protected].