CT at the Show
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Data is Focus at TDWI Series
Deep discussions
On Microsoft’s Redmond campus this past summer, the invitation-only summit
“Computing: The Next Decade,” provided a forum for more than 375 research
faculty from higher ed to discuss security, mobility, software engineering,
languages, humancomputer interaction, embedded computing, and other research
challenges they’re pursuing on their campuses, with financial and technical
support from Microsoft Corp. (www.microsoft.com)
In an open session moderated by Princeton University’s Dean of Engineering
Maria Klawe (far right), the group discussed issues and directions about computing
research with Microsoft Chairperson Bill Gates.
Campus research initiatives
MIT, a continuing participant with Microsoft Research, demonstrated the results
of recent years’ research efforts. Hal Abelson, Professor in the Department
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and Principal Investigator
of the MIT iCampus project (icampus.mit.edu),
described one of innovative educational technology projects now being freely
disseminated by MIT to promote the adoption, evaluation, and continued evolution
of technology-enabled teaching. MIT iCampus (a prime example of the research
model being promoted by Microsoft Research) is supported by Microsoft and
conducted in collaboration with Microsoft Research.
Exhibitors clean up
In late July, 107 exhibitors displayed and demo’d their wares at the 34th
ACUTA (Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education;
www.acuta.org) in Kissimmee,
FL. Beast Cabling System (www.thebeast.us),
demonstrated “The Claw,” the company’s product for “clean” cabling.
SCUP's 40th International Conference
GET THE IDEA
The key focus at the 40th
International Conference and Idea Marketplace of the Society for College
and University Planning (www.scup.org) in
Washington, DC this past summer was on "Planning, Linking, Learning," which
reflects the idea and ideal that planning is about linking all of the individuals
and activities in the academic enterprise to advance learning. Planning should
be viewed as a double helix connecting every part of the academic enterprise,
with learning as the common purpose, regardless of titles, departments, and
disciplines.
High-level Planners
US Senator Lamar Alexander (above, right; pictured with SCUP-40 Conference
Committee Chair Sal Rinella of STRATUS, at left) gave a keynote address.
Educause (www.educause.edu)
VP Diana G. Oblinger's plenary session, "Listening to What We're Seeing," (what
our students are really like and what they want) was among the other enthusiastically
received sessions.
ALOHA, 2006
The "local hosts" from Honolulu had a great display booth in anticipation
of next year's combined APPA/NACUBO/SCUP conference--"The Campus of the
Future: A Meeting of the Minds." (www.campusofthefuture.org)
LinuxWorld
CT visited the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco this past
August and scoured the show floor for Linux applications that might be
useful in higher education. While most of the show was geared toward the
corporate world, we did uncover some nice surprises:
JamboWorks (www.jamboworks.com),
a company that has created a content management system called Mambo for
the open source environment, will begin a push to acquire higher education
customers. CTO Mitch Pirtle says that from its office in New York City,
the company has developed an affordable option to Windows-based systems
that cost a hefty sum. "Schools have low budgets, high turnover and no
time to train people," he explains. "Mambo solves all those problems by
being cheap and incredibly easy to use."
Kaspersky Labs (www.kaspersky.com),
a Linux-oriented anti-virus company in Woburn, Mass. plans to roll out
a suite of new products tailored for higher education to help schools
secure their networks. Steve Orenberg, the company's president, notes
that currently, schools like Adams State College (OR) already are using
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Mail Server 5.0 for Linux to help fight attacks. "Our
security is great security at a fraction of the cost of what you might
pay elsewhere," Orenberg asserts. "What network administrator d'esn't
want that?"
Finally, SWSoft (www.swsoft.com),
a Herndon, Va., company that helps customers create virtual private servers,
points to its success in higher education so far. Carla Safigan, senior
product marketing manager, says the company's Virtuozzo product already
has had a major impact on 20 different academic environments, enabling
students to have individual partitions on the network. "It gives students
technical resources without having to buy hardware," says Safigan.
There were other interesting finds at the show. Splunk (www.splunktechnology.com),
a start-up company in San Francisco, offers a new Linux-based search engine
for security log files so network administrators can keep track of attempted
intrusions on the network. Kerio (www.kerio.com),
a security company based in Santa Clara, Calif., has an entire line of
open source security products, including the Kerio MailServer 6.1, which
can be coupled with anti-virus protection from McAfee (www.mcafee.com)
for even better protection at the server level.
Visit http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/ for
more on the LinuxWorld conferences.