IT Trends for Thursday, June 10, 2004

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Thursday, June 10, 2004

In This Issue

OPINION

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

Elephants in Our Room

I've spent a little time learning more about the roles of Chief Business Officers (CBOs) or Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) recently, so when I read the following essay by Richard N. Katz, Vice President of EDUCAUSE and Director of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR), it resonated with me. Luckily for me (and you) Richard agreed to let this piece be our guest opinion piece for IT Trends this week.

Richard takes a look at a little bit of the departmental cultural bias that partly springs from the differing perspectives that academic/campus culture allows its top executives to have. The CIO at a university or college d'esn't have quite the same role as the CIO in a for-profit company d'es, and that g'es for the CFO as well. Part of that result is a need for the IT folks and the folks at the business end of things to work together in ways that might not happen in a Fortune 500 company - because IT surely d'es matter in higher education. Enjoy!
Read more


IT NEWS

U. Makes Effort To Raise Level of Available Technology On Campus

Two hundred out of 300 general-purpose classrooms at the University of Minnesota have received a basic technology upgrade, at a coast of $4.2M out of a $7M budget plan that is two years behind schedule but still making faculty and students happy.
Read more

Michael Dell Says American Higher Education Is Not Doing The Job

In Dell's opinion, companies like his can move quicker and adapt faster. Institutions, like Southern Methodist University, where he spoke, are working hard to train future workforces, but they're too little, too late.
Read more

Open Source Risk Management Grabs Attention for Linux Insurance

It's an idea, but it's also a business, for Daniel Egger, entrepreneur in residence at Duke University. The idea is to offer a certificate that a given version of open source software is free of copyright violations, thus letting the user of the software more easily obtain insurance.
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UNC's Carolina Wireless Initiative

It's not required of students, but UNC is now in the cell phone business, having inked a deal with Cingular. For students, the bonus is in the extra goodies: For students, the real bargain is in the extras the plan would provide, Oberlin said. Internet connectivity will be included in all calling plans, as will free text messaging.
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ITaP Nears Completion of Campuswide Upgrade At Purdue University

Purdue's largest single campuswide network upgrade since it got a network in the first place is nearly done.
Read more

Tiffin University Survives A Few Days With No Internet

"It's like you've lost your life because everything is tied to that little machine," said one university staffer among those at the library, in alumni relations, and the bookstore who either were stopped dead in the water or really slowed down due to a planned move by the university's IT department into a new building.
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Cal-(IT)2 Is Getting A Couple Of New Directors

The new directors, professors William Hodgkiss and Leslie Lenert, will oversee research in homeland security and medical informatics.
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LambdaRail Fiber-Optic Network Gains Six New Members, Enough to Go National

An innovative project to create high-speed linkages between universities and colleges has enough members not to be considered national in scope, not just regional.
Read more

Tech Firms Putting Quality At Top Of List

Security, reliability, longer battery power, stability - all these things are getting a little more focus from IT manufacturers now, with a little less emphasis on power and speed.
Read more

Start Marking Your Oracle-DOJ Score Card

Things are starting to heat up, and at the very beginning of the first quarter of this football game-like fight, the Department of Justice scores. But Oracle, in its attempt to take over PeopleSoft, isn't out of the game yet. The trial started Monday and is expected to last four weeks, then the appeal begins.
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Smoke, Mirrors and Silence: The Browser Wars Reignite

The browser wars we saw before weren't the "wars to end all wars," and this author believes that the current, new browser wars are just the surface of a larger, World Wide War to control the future of the Web itself.
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RESOURCES


Getting Your Books For Class . . . For Free

A surprising number of books assigned for college and university classes are available online. And even if that availability might mean viewing them one page at a time, with waits for downloads, a growing number of students are using that technique to save money. (Requires free registration)
Read more


Flash Chips On Their Way To Replacing Traditional Storage, Facilitating New Products

One company currently sells a 16 gigabyte flash chip, for $2k, but prices are expected to continue to fall. Possibilities for implementation in a variety of innovative consumer goods are endless.
Read more


Comments on Possible FCC Regulation of Internet Services

EDUCAUSE has filed a comment with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) arguing that any regulation of Internet-based services, in particular, Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), should recognize and treat the Internet as a unique technology, distinct from the heavily regulated telephone industry. The complete comment filed with the FCC is available in PDF form.
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

HP Awards $10 Million in Technology Grants

HP named 193 elementary, middle and high schools, colleges and universities that will receive more than $10 million over 2004-2005 from the HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to accelerate learning through the innovative use of technology. Awards will total more than $8 million in 2004, and recipients who have successful projects will be given the opportunity to apply for an additional $2 million in 2005.

The HP Technology for Teaching grant supports HP's broader education goals of transforming teaching and learning through the integration of technology in the classroom and beyond. The grant enables teachers to creatively apply technology to enhance learning and improve student achievement in math, science and engineering education.
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Events


Syllabus2004 July 18-22, San Francisco: Technologies to Connect the Campus

Events Calendar

Sponsored by:
LightPointe
Tired of T1's but finding fiber-optic cable too expensive for your LAN? Switch to optical wireless with LightPointe. We provide the speed of fiber with the flexibility of wireless. Point-to-point connectivity without the hassles or costly drain of licensing, permits, trenching. See why organizations such as Carnegie-Mellon University, New School University and Brooklyn Law rely on optical wireless from LightPointe.

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POLL

Should products and services from commercial publishers provide more of the functionalities of Course Management Systems, offering both content and course administration?
Yes
No


Sponsored by:
Collaboration Technologies Meet Campus Challenges
Collaboration technologies can extend the classroom and change the ways students and faculty work together. How can they help you meet the challenges of a growing and diverse campus community? What are the best collaboration tools for your campus? A special Syllabus micro site sponsored by Oracle provides a resource to make sense of it all. Read about innovative programs, research new products, review case studies, and participate in discussion forums with your peers.

Click here and bookmark this special section for details.


NEW PRODUCTS

Gateway Launches Learning Management System

To help human resources managers streamline the time and costs associated with managing employee training, Gateway introduces its Learning Management System (LMS), an integrated Web-based platform that can house an organization’s training programs and learning content. The Gateway LMS serves as a single location for employee training and information, including training modules, corporate information, knowledge bases and simulations. Both third-party and Gateway training content can be easily combined within the Gateway LMS, creating a comprehensive online training library.

New Look, New Version pdfmachine 9.6 Now Available

pdfMachine 9.6 is a windows print driver that produces quality PDF files in seconds and preserves the integrity of your original documents. If you can print from a Windows application you can use pdfMachine. pdfMachine 9.6 has no complicated options, new features include: "stand alone" mode with no PDF loaded; file open menu option; opening of encrypted PDF's is supported; and "sticky note" style comments/annotations.
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SMART Launches New Sympodium MP250 Interactive Lectern

The new Sympodium MP250 interactive lectern (from SMART Technologies), a pre-wired multimedia cabinet with an interactive pen display and a multimedia switch. Equipped with SMART Board software, the MP250 simplifies integration and enables users to deliver interactive and multimedia presentations at an affordable price. Its compact size makes it easy to move or fit through a standard doorway, so setup in classrooms, meeting rooms and training rooms is simple.
Read more



Sponsored by:
Wide Range of Education Technology Providers to Exhibit at Syllabus2004
Syllabus2004 takes place July 18-22 in San Francisco and on the campus of UC Berkeley. In addition to cutting-edge keynotes, breakout sessions and panel discussions, attendees will see the latest products for campus technology in the conference Exhibit Hall. Some of the companies include: CommTouch, offering anti-spam solutions for small, medium and large enterprises through a variety of distribution channels; Computer Comforts, designing and manufacturing furniture for the electronic classroom; Matchware, providing easy-to-use web and multimedia authoring tools; Epson America, offering a wide range of printers, scanners, multimedia projectors and document cameras, and O'Reilly Media, an information source on leading edge technologies, with books, conferences and websites. Early Bird registration ends June 18--save up to $200 now!

To view the entire exhibitor list, and to register for Syllabus2004 click here for details.


Sponsored By

The Impact of Wireless Network on Instructional Computing

Howard Strauss, manager of technology outreach as Princeton University

Despite the popularity of the technology, wireless is only beginning to show its potential uses for instruction. Howard Strauss comments about the use of the technology, both in the classroom and remotely.

Click Here to Listen

Sponsored By

Discussion of the Week:

As academic budgets shrink, wireless access and mobile computing labs sometime appear to be attractive alternative to building and supporting fixed-station computer labs. What has been your experience with funding and mobile computing? Be sure include information about your campus to put your comments in context.

Posted by Kathleen Schwarz
Programmer/Analyst
UC Riverside Graduate School of Education

Join the discussion now!



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