News 01-03-2003

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U. Illinois Collaborates on Open Software Initiative

The University of Illinois and the OpenEAI Software Foundation said they would form the OpenEAI Project, an open source initiative to develop standards-based Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies. The Project will explore the principles of EIA and present its findings in the form of OpenEAI methodology, software and documentation. "The OpenEAI methodology and work products have the potential to drastically reduce the costs and time involved in integrating systems at the University of Illinois," said Richard Mendola, associate vice-president for administrative information technology services at the University of Illinois. The Project will focus on six areas: OpenEAI methodology, application foundation APIs, message object API, message definitions, messaging infrastructure applications, and deployment and administration.

For more information, visit: www.OpenEAI.org

Sponsor: Syllabus Radio

This week: Phillip D. Long, Ph.D., and Greg Anderson, Director of IT Support, both of MIT, discuss Benchmarking IT Support Services. Click on www.syllabus.com/radio/index.asp for a complete list of interviews with established leaders, creative thinkers and education technology experts in higher education from around the country.

Higher Ed Software Award Finalists Announced

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) released its list of finalists for the 2003 Codie Awards, including five applications in the category of Best Postsecondary Education Instructional Solution. The software association's awards showcase the software and digital content industry's best products and services. In the higher education category the finalists are: Seminars on Science from the American Museum of Natural History; USMLE Step 1 Online from the Princeton Review; WebCT Campus Edition from WebCT; WebCT Vista from WebCT; and XanEdu CoursePacks from ProQuest/XanEdu. Winners will be presented on May 6 during the SIIA annual conference in San Francisco.

For more information, visit: www.siia.net/codies2003/finalists.asp

N.C. State Signs Intellectual Property Accord

North Carolina State University has set up a joint licensing and commercialization partnership with the Semiconductor Research Corp. that would commercialize selected inventions arising from SRC-sponsored university research. Historically, in return for sponsoring research at a university, SRC-member companies are granted a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide license to intellectual property developed by the university. The new partnership presents an optional licensing relationship between SRC and NCSU for mutually selected inventions developed under SRC sponsorship. "This is an excellent opportunity for NCSU and SRC to leverage technologies that many companies would like to access, but don't have the infrastructure to produce," said Michael Batalia, interim director of NCSU's Office of Technology Transfer. "We are confident this model will provide opportunities unavailable under previous arrangements".

For more information visit: www.ncsu.edu/ott

Ca. School Wins Performance Excellence Honors

National University, the second largest private university in California, won an award for performance excellence from the California Council for Excellence (CCE). The school became the first university-level participant to win the Council's Eureka award, the highest honor offered in the program. CCE's mission is to help California organizations achieve world-class service and products through the principles of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. "The mere process of applying for (the award) has benefited National University by providing staff and faculty the opportunity to assess themselves in a comprehensive manner," said Dr. Jerry C. Lee, chancellor of the University.

For more information, visit: www.calexcellence.org

Deals, Awards, Contracts in Higher Education

NETWORK SERVICES—The University of Louisville renewed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar communications services agreement with Sprint. The agreement delivers a wide range of communications technologies, including data services, dial IP services and collaborative services. The University will use Sprint fiber services to consolidate its existing networking backbone into a single infrastructure. The network enhances the university's ability to transport mission-critical data such as payroll and transcript information. The school is also considering implementing videoconferencing over IP.

HARDWARE—The University of Notre Dame picked GovConnection, Inc., a subsidiary of PC Connection, Inc. as a preferred supplier of notebook computers, printers, peripherals, and software to the university. The contract also calls for GovConnection to supply IBM-brand laptop computers to the school, as well as directly to its students and faculty. GovConnection is a rapid-response supplier of IT equipment to federal, state and local government agencies and educational institutions.

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