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IT Trends for September 4, 2003

Thursday, September 04, 2003

In This Issue

OPINION

Connect, Enable, Transform . . . Case (CWRU) Is Getting Wireless Right

Terry Calhoun, Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

In the past few months, I’ve been various places where I would have liked to have been online. (Well, actually, there is no place I wouldn’t like to be online.) Often, these are places where I can detect that I am surrounded by a wireless network – just not one that I am permitted to use. For example, when in the University of Michigan Business School, I can perceive the wireless network, but since I am staff in the School of Education, I don’t have access. Unless, during limited business hours, I fill out forms, authenticate myself, and check out a special PCMIA card.

Yet, last week as I was refueling my SUV at a local gas station I noticed a little Wi-Fi decal on the door. I checked and, sure enough, I was able to pop onto the hot spot with my notebook – for free, and without creating any identity-sucking account – and download my email while I was pumping gas.

This can be very confusing and frustrating. When I am in a high-tech building on a college campus, there is no connectivity for me. Yet when I am in a gas station at the end of the dirt road I live on, I can get online?

Wouldn’t you think that universities and colleges would have more at stake, in terms of being identified with and providing Internet access, than gas stations? We do. And we think that the model that Case Western Reserve University is implementing right now is the one to follow...
Read more


IT NEWS

North Texas University Billing Students for Blaster Clean-Up

North Texas University is billing students an unanticipated $30 fee, to their university housing accounts, for cleaning up Blaster and virus messes from infected machines, and for installing up to date protection. (North Texas Daily Online)...

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Gaming: The Program That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Colleges are increasingly offering classes and credentials in video game systems and design, a development that may not thrill Mom and Dad, but which a few big-name universities are taking seriously, including MIT, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University, to name a few. (Christian Science Monitor)...
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Europe’s Hottest Spot – The Netherlands’ University of Twente

Europe's largest hot spot is the University of Twente in The Netherlands, which has built a Wireless LAN infrastructure of unique dimensions in Europe. It covers the 140 hectares of the university campus and consists of 650 wireless access points, some running at 54 Mbps – and all are intended to be that fast....
Read more

Online College Orientation Fast Becoming Standard Routine

As usual, many schools are building their own and some are turning to a rapidly-growing sub-industry that offers services ranging online course registration to Web-based virtual orientation tours that provide photos, profiles of class-mates, even pictures of the future dorm room. (CBS News) ...
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Campus Wireless Sows Seeds of Business Transformation

More than 85 percent of campuses have some wireless networking, compared to about half of the nation's businesses. By getting college students hooked on wireless access, technology companies could be grooming a future market for their products, as those students move into the corporate world. (Kansas City Star)...

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Nebraska System Protects Copyright Violators from Themselves

The University of Nebraska has created new IP address system to help track down file-swapping intellectual property violators. But it's not intended to get them into trouble - it's intended to help steer clear of big-time legal headaches. (Daily Nebraskan)...
Read more

Getting Internet Access – From Rooftop to Rooftop

Roofnet is an MIT project to create a self-organizing wireless network
in which an amorphous, unmanaged collection of cheap Linux computers equipped with Wi-Fi cards collaborate to efficiently route data packets...
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RESOURCES

NiceNet Internet Classroom Assistant

Nicenet is a volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to providing free services to the Internet community. Nicenet's primary offering, the Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) is designed to address the pedagogical needs and limited resources of teachers and their students....
Learn more

The Sloan Consortium

A consortium of institutions and organizations committed to quality online education. Publishes the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. Maintains a catalog of degree and certificate programs; hosts conferences and workshops to help implement and improve online programs; and keeps an effective practices database. . .
Learn more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

George Mason Grant Enables GIS Experience for Grads

George Mason University received a grant of $1.1 million from Integraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions to support the university’s Earth Systems and GeoInformation Sciences program. The company’s GeoMedia and IntelliWhere technology will be sued to support School of Computational Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Information and Engineering.

St. John's University Unveils Mega Technology Rollout

St. John's University today announced a major technology initiative for the Fall of 2003 that would see all 3,100 freshman - the largest freshman class in almost 20 years - receive an IBM ThinkPad notebook, powered by Intel Centrino Mobile Technology, configured to operate on the University's Cisco Aironet Wi-Fi local area network. The school says the combination rollout is the biggest and most aggressive of its kind in higher education, carrying an overall price-tag of $7 million.

Sponsored by:
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Events


TDWI World Conference
in Sunny San Diego,
November 2-7

SYLLABUS 2003
7/27 - 7/31

Events Calendar


Sponsored by:
Introducing WebEvent View: The Universal Calendar for the College Campus
Designed with the dynamic event-driven college campus in mind, WebEvent View is a universal calendar that integrates public event calendaring with personal/group calendaring for students, faculty, and administration, providing one view into all campus-wide calendars through a standard browser interface. For a free white paper and presentation

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POLL

Sponsored by:

Dell

Is your institution leveraging the Internet to facilitate remote desktop support?
Yes
No

Poll Results


Sponsored by:
Content World is Your Key to the World of Digital Content Technologies
The October 7-9, 2003 conference in Los Angeles, CA, covers a full array of topics relating to digital content: e-learning, Media Asset Mgmt, Digital Rights Management, Metadata, Content Taxonomies. Register by September 8 and save up to 30%. View program for details


NEW PRODUCTS

Microsoft Announces Pricing Incentives for OneNote Product

In recent months, academic IT departments have become overwhelmed with spam complaints from end users. Yet many schools have a policy protecting academic freedom and privacy, which must be balanced with the need to protect their IT infrastructures and end users. To help address the problem, ActiveState has introduced PureMessage, a server-based email filtering solution that identifies and quarantines spam using a combination of heuristics, spam directories, and spam signatures...
Learn more

Dogpile Search Engine Gets New Look, Feel, and Features

Dogpile, the metasearch engine that combines the search results of string of Internet search engines, announced a major site renovation. By bringing together the best results from the Web's search engines, the new Dogpile offers a fast way to search as much as 50 percent more of the Web than any single engine, the company said...
Learn more

Apple Ships New PowerMac G5s to Higher Ed Customers First

Apple Computer delayed shipping its dual-processor Power Mac G5 to consumers, opting instead to ship the first of the fast desktops to schools, according to the CNET news service. Apple promised customers that the dual-processor 2GHz Power Macs would ship by the end of August. Now it is saying it may take until the end of the month for those people to get their machines. The delay is due to the company's efforts to equip colleges for the back-to-school season, says the news service...
Learn more

Firm Launches One-Stop Shop for Incoming College Students

Qcorps Residential Inc., a residential management company, has launched UniversityMoves.com, a service that allows college students to shop for and connect a variety of essential home services through a single online location. Available services vary by location and include: local and long distance telephone service, cable and satellite television, Internet access, renters insurance, newspaper delivery, moving services, furniture and appliance rental, and even change of address forms...
Learn more


Sponsored By

Wireless Handheld Computers to Increase Interactivity and Collaborative Learning
This week's interview features Betty L. Black,

Click Here to Listen


Sponsored By

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