Syllabus News Update for Tuesday, March 23, 2004

• 03/23/04

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News for Tuesday, March 23, 2004

* Open GIS Group Kicks Off Web Services Initiative
* Online Law School Dean Says Learning Replacing Instruction
* U. Penn Upgrades “Penn Marketplace” E-Commerce System
* Northwestern Picks Kinko's for Document Outsourcing
* MIT to Research Data Quality for Customer Info Systems

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Open GIS Group Kicks Off Web Services Initiative

The Open GIS Consortium Inc., kicked off a new interoperability
initiative to develop and enhance OGS Web Services (OWS) standards
designed to enable easy discovery, access and use of geographic data
and geoprocessing services. Participants are now working to extend and
"ruggedize" existing and draft OpenGIS standards. The goal is a
complete interoperability framework for implementation within a
multi-vendor enterprise and to achieve interoperability between
enterprises for geoprocessing solutions in government and business.

The OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 250
companies, government agencies and universities participating in a to
develop publicly available interface specifications for geographic
data.

Their specifications will "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and
location-based services, and mainstream IT.

For more information visit: http://www.opengis.org

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Online Law School Dean Says Learning Replacing Instruction

The dean of the online Concord Law School has published a monograph
espousing the equality of online versus traditional legal education
programs. In the paper titled “Confessions of an Early Internet
Educators, Jack G'etz cites research that shows “widespread support
among academic leaders for the notion that learning outcomes from
online higher education degree programs are equal to or exceed those
of residential programs, and that those learning outcomes are expected
to continue to improve relative to their fixed facility counterparts.”

On the theory that 'what gets measured gets done,' online institutions
have created a myriad of measurements that allow them to monitor and
evaluate their programs at all levels, he writes. This has been a
critical tool in ensuring students' mastery of online curriculum.
"Online higher education institutions must work harder at retention
than their fixed facility counterparts because their students
generally have other societal responsibilities competing for their
time.”

The paper is available from the Distance Education and Training
Council at http://www.detc.org/otherdownld.html

U. Penn Upgrades “Penn Marketplace” E-commerce System

The University of Pennsylvania said its Penn Marketplace eProcurement
system, launched campus wide on January 5, 2004, and is producing new
cost savings from supplier discount pricing contracts enabled by Spend
Director software from SciQuest, Inc. The integration of Spend
Director with the Penn Marketplace has enabled its 1,800 purchasing
system users to access 73 of the university's strategic contract
supplier online catalogs in key commodity groups, including laboratory
equipment and supplies, computer products, temporary staffing and
office supplies. In addition, Spend Director has enabled the University
to direct approximately 67 percent of its campus purchase order
transactions through the participating Penn Marketplace contract
suppliers.

"Spend Director is a revolutionary solution that has taken online
purchasing at the University of Pennsylvania to the next level," said
Ralph Maier, associate director of purchasing services at the
university, adding that supplier enablement for new suppliers has
already generated over $2.1 million in hard dollar product cost
savings.

Northwestern Picks Kinko's for Document Outsourcing

Northwestern University has signed an expanded document outsourcing
services agreement with Kinko’s Inc. "Northwestern University chose
Kinko's over other competitors because of their innovative use of
technology and variable-cost approach to document outsourcing," said
Bill Johnston, executive director of Norris Center, who led the
evaluation and selection process. "With Kinko's Commercial Solutions,
we'll be able to support our ever-changing needs for printing, copying
and storing documents without the added pressure of managing vendor
contracts and obsolete equipment."

Kinko's will provide university users several options for document
production and mobile professional productivity including: managed
services and DocStore a Web-based solution that will enable users to
create a customized online catalog of the college's most frequently
printed documents.

MIT to Research Data Quality for Customer Info Systems

MIT will collaborate on a research project focusing on
customer-centric information quality management. Dr. Richard Wang,
director of the MIT Information Quality Program (MITIQ), and Dr. John
R. Talburt, director of Acxiom Inc.’s Laboratory for Applied Research,
will lead the effort. The team will explore data quality issues
related to customer-centric information architectures, particularly
knowledge-driven customer recognition systems used in Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) applications. The MITIQ program is based
at MIT's Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development.
Acxiom develops customer and information management solutions