Welcome
Welcome to C2 (pronounced "C Squared"), the eLetter designed to open
an exclusive forum for discussions on technology among top-level campus
administrators: chief executives, provosts, vice presidents, and directors
across all areas of the campus who are concerned with the progressive
use of technology to further learning and streamline campus business
and instructional processes.
In each edition, you'll find one-on-one "behind closed doors" interviews
or C-level opinion pieces, quick bites of who's doing what where, and
career moves of interest to the top campus echelon.
C2 was created in response to the need for a personal dialogue among
top-ranking campus officers concerned with technology as a bridge to
the next generation of higher learning. We hope you will see this twice-monthly
letter as an opportunity for C-level information sharing, mentoring,
expression, and enlightenment. Feel free to send your thoughts, ideas,
commentary, and pertinent news items to Mary Grush at [email protected].
IN THIS ISSUE
FROM THE TOP
NEED TO KNOW
WHO'S WHERE
PAST ISSUES
From the Top
The Internet, the Pope, and the iPod
By Tracy Mitrano,
Director of IT Policy and Computer Law and Policy,
Cornell University (NY)
This spring I had a little epiphany. Asked to teach
Internet law to seventeen students from around the
world at a special program in Piacenza, Italy (the
instruction, thank heavens, is in English), I was
reminded of what makes the Internet so exciting:
the opportunity for communication, relationships,
and possibly even greater understanding among people
from all over the world. A number of students were
from the financial community in Western Europe
seeking information technology and management
knowledge to augment their banking skills. But
there were also two students, one from Dublin
and the other from Manila, who had met in the
program and who had decided to start their own
online business together. A student from Malawi
and one from Vietnam, each country currently
having only about 10 percent network penetration,
expect to bring back learning to help modernize
their mother countries. A woman from Belize
dreams of doing something creative with
information technology. A Church of Latter Day
Saints former missionary from Salt Lake City,
now married to an Italian woman and the only US
citizen in the class, wants to do Web site
translations from his new, adopted home in
Italy. A banker from Sudan and I become friends.
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Need to Know
Will online forums help foster an informed citizenry, ready to participate
in the democratic process? The world’s experts in deliberative democracy
and human-computer interaction came together this past weekend at Stanford
University to discuss how technology can change the way people
interact and ultimately, make collective decisions. What’s higher education’s
role? The development of tools for online deliberation can be informed
by research from a range of fields, such as social science, ethics,
education, and others.
Among the visionaries at the conference was human-computer interaction
pioneer Douglas Engelbart, best known as the inventor of the computer
mouse. In his talk on “Bootstrapping: Accelerating the Evolution of
Collective IQ” and a follow-up in-depth discussion session, he explained
how “humans’ capabilities depend upon their augmentation system” and
explored related work from his Bootstrap Institute (www.bootstrap.org)
and his lifelong efforts to “boost mankind’s collective capability for
coping with complex, urgent problems.”
New York Law School professor Beth Simone Noveck examined
the nature of deliberation and the role of technology. “We are witnessing
the emerging phenomenon of decentralized groups that are able to take
action, using the new tools that are available to them. If only we can
better figure out how to make the shift from the ‘interface’ to the
‘deliberative interface.’”
Carnegie Mellon University (PA) ethicist and philosophy
professor Robert Cavalier, described PICOLA, a Public Informed Citizens
Online Assembly (http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/picola/index.html)
that uses software developed at CMU. The project’s goal was to create
a high-telepresence environment for online deliberation into which the
user is easily immersed in the virtual world. “For many of our participants,
the computer disappeared. That’s the holy grail of HCI (human-computer
interaction). You just want to have a conversation.” Cavalier announced
that the public version 1.0 of the software should be available in late
summer or early fall.
During a plenary panel, “D'es Better Technology Make Better Citizens?”
Arthur Lupia, political science professor at the University
of Michigan, encouraged more thoughtful study of e-democracy.
“I believe in the deliberative democracy movement, but I think that
the execution can be vastly improved,” Lupia told Campus Technology
after the session. “The way to improve it is to pay attention to basic
things we know about attention, memory, and learning from the social
sciences from and the field of education.”
In its second year, Online Deliberation 2005/DIAC-2005 (www.online-deliberation.net/conf2005)
was hosted by the Symbolic Systems Program, the Center for Deliberative
Democracy, the Center for the Study of Language and Information, and
the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. Organizers
are currently considering Toronto for next year’s event.
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The World According to Bill
More than 100 CEOs from top companies convened last week in Redmond,
WA for the ninth annual Microsoft CEO Summit, two days of interactive
sessions and discussions about “Pathways to Growth—The New
World of Work.” One of the executive points of view was offered
by none other than Bill Gates, in opening remarks on May 19.
Rather than taking the opportunity to hype up the latest gizmos, bells,
and whistles, Gates quickly focused on the central problem of information.
Acknowledging the flood of e-mail, the immediacy of instant messaging,
24/7 Web sites, and general claims of “information overload,”
he examined the critical need for improved information processes and
tools—weaving in some discussion of new developments in information
searching, scorecards, collaborative environments, next-generation phones,
and the digital lifestyle. To find out why Gates says, “So we
are not even halfway towards delivering the information that people
want,” see the full text of his talk, available on Microsoft’s
Web site:
www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2005/05-19ceosummit.asp
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Who's Where
Andrews Installed as New Morehead State Prez
Morehead State University (KY) installed Dr. Wayne
D. Andrews as its 13th president at a ceremony on May 13. Andrews succeeds
Dr. Ronald G. Eaglin, who retired after 12 years as the institution’s
president.
Decked out in full academic regalia and his new 3.5’’-diameter solid
bronze Andrews Medallion, the freshly minted president confessed, “I
am generally not a ‘pomp and circumstance’ kind of guy…” But reports
of the event indicate that everyone including Andrews enjoyed a day
steeped in academic ritual and tradition. “As president, I give you
my solemn vow that I will do my best to know the way, go the way, and
to show the way,” promised Dr. Andrews. Andrews was previously vice
president for administration at East Tennessee State University.
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