CT Industry
        
        
        
        :: PEOPLE
 SOCIALTEXT
CEO. Wiki and
social software
company Socialtext has
named Eugene
Lee as CEO and
member of the board of directors.
Prior to joining the company, Lee
held senior management positions
at Adobe and
Cisco Systems.
Socialtext Founding CEO Ross Mayfield will transition to the role of
chairman, president, and co-founder.
SOCIALTEXT
CEO. Wiki and
social software
company Socialtext has
named Eugene
Lee as CEO and
member of the board of directors.
Prior to joining the company, Lee
held senior management positions
at Adobe and
Cisco Systems.
Socialtext Founding CEO Ross Mayfield will transition to the role of
chairman, president, and co-founder. 
:: NEWS
INVESTING IN KUALI. The Kuali
Foundation’s Student
Services System project has received a
$2.5 million grant from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation to
advance the development of a new open
source student services system for colleges
and universities. The first Kuali
Student modules are expected to be
released in 2009.
HELP FOR EARLY BIRDS. Financial
  aid management company Regent has
  announced an early needs analysis program
  and digital Free Application for
  Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as a fully
  integrated part of the Regent Student
  Self-Service Portal. This new functionality
  allows prospective and current students
  to receive an early estimate of financial
  aid eligibility without a fee or third-party
  service provider. (Previously, students
  had to either complete an application
  from a third-party provider or wait until
  Jan. 1 to complete the FAFSA electronically
  through the federal Department of
  Education.) Additionally, the early needs
  analysis results enable schools to immediately
  package an early financial aid
  award offer, giving them a competitive
  edge in student recruitment.  
SECURITY BREACHES ON THE
  RISE. CDW-G has
  released the results of its third annual
  Higher Education IT Security Report
  Card,
  a survey of 151 IT directors and managers
  from a variety of higher ed institutions.
  Among the findings: Fewer than
  half of campus networks are safe from
  attack-58 percent report at least one
  security breach in the past year. In addition,
  data loss or theft (including the loss
  or theft of staff and student personal
  information) has increased 10 percent in
  the last year. Lack of staff resources is
  the biggest barrier to improving campus
  IT security, the survey shows. Read
  more here.  
GOING 360. Purdue University (IN)
  has selected the recently unveiled
  Echo360System lecture capture solution
  from Echo360, to
  upgrade and expand the school’s Boiler-Cast podcasting service. The platform
  features a second-generation management
  server with web-based scheduling, creating
  a centralized control center for lecture
  capture operations across multiple classrooms,
  buildings, and campuses.  
    
SONY'S FeliCa technology will enable contactless
transactions for the Blackboard Commerce Suite.
 
CONTACTLESS PARTNERSHIP.
  Blackboard and
  Sony are partnering to
  support Sony FeliCa contactless technology
  in the Blackboard Commerce Suite, a
  family of applications enabling one-card
  transactions for identification, payment,
  and access. FeliCa can be integrated with
  near field communication (NFC)-enabled
  devices including door access readers,
  point-of-sale terminals, mobile phones,
  and a variety of attended and unattended
  readers. The solution allows for read/write transactions to be completed within
  0.1 second, an advantageous feature for
  multiple campus applications that require
  high-speed processing.  
DEARTH OF SURF? According to a
  new survey from eContent services and
  technology provider Ebrary, 50 percent of responding higher ed
  faculty members prefer using online
  resources for research, class preparation,
  and instruction. Yet 57 percent of respondents
  believe students do not know how
  to use electronic resources provided by
  the library. The 2007 Global Faculty
  E-book Survey, designed to help better
  understand faculty experience with electronic
  resources and printed materials,
  was developed by librarians and completed
  by 906 faculty respondents from
  approximately 300 higher ed institutions.
:: M & A, Etc. 
INTEGRATED MARKETING
SERVICES. Halyard Education Partners
has integrated its four divisions-
Educational Directories Unlimited,
eLearners.com, GoalQuest, and World-
Class Strategy-into one enterprise,
renamed EducationDynamics. Via a portfolio
of websites and online marketing services
(such as EarnMyDegree.com), EducationDynamics
helps higher ed institutions
find, enroll, and retain students.