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OPINION
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Deferred Maintenance—What D'es It Mean for IT?
Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan
APPA, the Association of Higher Education Facilities Managers, and NACUBO,
the National Association of College and University Business Officers, frequently
address the issue of "deferred maintenance." To them, that phrase
means the built-up and someday-to-be-incurred expenses of facilities maintenance
that current budgets can't afford. It's been a huge problem in recent years
and it's going to get bigger. In many ways "maintenance" is easier
to "defer" for facilities than for IT—you can delay putting on a new
roof for many years before you actually experience leaks in the auditorium.
There may be a parallel situation developing for campus IT; one that may not
be so obvious. But the "leaky roofs" of IT are likely to appear more
quickly and to have more of a direct impact on the missions of our institutions.
Maybe you are not convinced that there are parallels between campus facilities
management and IT resource management. Maybe you need to be convinced more than
by just hearing the old saw that "they don't call it 'information architecture'
for nothing." …
Read more
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| IT NEWS |
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U. Wisconsin to Stop Licensing of Microsoft Products
The University of Wisconsin-Madison had two choices: enter into a lease with
Microsoft and lose ownership of all licenses acquired under its current contract,
or continue ownership with a more than 100 percent price increase. It took a
third route, choosing not to renew its licenses at all …
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SCO Claims Copyright on Linux; Threatens Suit
The SCO Group claimed that it holds copyright to pieces of the core code of Linux
through its original rights to the Unix operating system. It is threatening customers
who are using Linux with legal action, saying Linux is, "in material part,
an unauthorized derivative of Unix." Linux is used on many campuses and many
campus developers are looking to it for cost-savings in the current fiscal climate.
Now Microsoft has joined the fray … (ZDNet)
Read more
MIT's Net Security Team Investigated 139 Incidents in April
Many of the investigations turned up Windows FTP and SAMBA vulnerabilities,
or port scanning for vulnerable machines. Some machines were fully compromised.
Other issues involved illegal file sharing … (The Tech—MIT)
Read more
Network Crash Near Finals Startles Harvard Students
The overall impact of the outage was limited to temporary unavailability and
no data appears to have been lost, but coming on the brink of final exams, students
with temporarily missing papers and without the ability to contact professors
by e-mail were close to panicked … (Harvard Crimson)
Read more
"e-Knowledge" Comes to Campus
First there was information technology and now headed your way: e-Knowledge.
"Using technologies that are already developed or will be deployed over the
next five years, best practices in knowledge sharing … will be substantially
reinvented in [education] ... From this revolution, e-Knowledge will emerge as
a defining concept … Every aspect of campus planning will be affected as
well: the design of academic facilities plans for wireless communication, campus
master plans, and providing for different zones of pervasive, ambient technology."…
Read more
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| RESOURCES |
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Current Top Campus IT Issues: Not unexpectedly, IT funding
challenges are at the top of the EDUCAUSE list of hot IT-related issues on campus.
Close behind: security issues and identity management …
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State-by-State Report Card for Higher Education: Measuring
Up is a report card series for higher education that grades states on their
performance in five categories: preparation, participation, affordability, completion,
and benefits. The site allows education administrators and policy makers to
compare any state with the best-performing states in each category …
Learn more
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| DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS |
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U. South Florida Managing Campus Space with Web-Based GIS
UF's new GIS system uses an Oracle 8i database, which stores all space, maintenance,
and cable management information in a single place and matches it up to verified
geographic data using AutoDesk Map and supplemental Trimble software. The information
is deployed across the Internet with an Apache Web server and AutoDesk MapGuide,
a Web-based GIS environment . . .
Learn more
Notre Dame Picks SCT for "Renovare" Project
The University of Notre Dame signed an agreement to replace its legacy campus software systems with technologies from SCT. As part of its IT renovation program dubbed Renovare, Latin for "renewal," Notre Dame will replace its core administrative systems,
which include finance, student/faculty, human resources, and payroll, with a suite of SCT Banner products. SCT Banner is an integrated Internet system designed to fuse administrative and academic functions and deliver education enterprise services across campus.
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POLL
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Given the extent to which information is communicated through digital media, should digital literacy be addressed as a component of the core curriculum in undergraduate programs?
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NEW PRODUCTS
Sun Introduces Low-End Servers for
x86 Crowd
Sun Microsystems Inc. made good on its promises to sell less expensive servers,
releasing two new systems—the Sun Fire V60x and V65x—starting at
$2,450, the company said. Oracle Corp. joined the announcement by saying it
would port its software to Solaris x86, the flavor of Sun OS for Intel Xeon
processors. Sun is normally associated with servers in the $10,000 range, but
will now compete with Dell in the market for inexpensive one-and two-processor
Intel servers.
EMC Offers Cheaper Options on Midrange
Storage Systems
Storage giant EMC offered cheaper options for its CX200 midrange system, part
of an effort to win customers that still rely on tape drives for back-up. One
option is to buy a system with one Fibre Channel controller instead of two,
bringing the cost of the $25,000 entry-level CX200 system to as low as $10,000.
Customers can also use cheaper Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) drives in
the dual-controller CX200 systems.
Cisco Ponies up 14 New Security Systems
Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled more than a dozen new security products this week
in a move to cover end-to-end security throughout IP networks. The offerings
include three security management products, three hardware-based accelerators
for Cisco's virtual private networks (VPN), five components for its intrusion
detection system, and a new VPN client for desktop PCs.
The Next Step After WiFi is Already Here
A more robust standard for high-speed broadband wireless delivery to laptops
and desktops—the 802.16a standard—will augment the WiFi market beginning
in late 2004, according a study published by Visant Strategies. The new standard,
which is optimized for fixed and mobile broadband in the wide area network,
today parallels that of WLAN technology in the late 1990s, when the market finally
grew as 802.11 price vs. performance gains converted WLAN from a niche to a
mass market …
Learn more
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Wireless Handheld Computers to Increase Interactivity and
Collaborative Learning
This week's interview features Betty L. Black
Click
Here to Listen
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