OPINION

Maintaining What You’ve Got + the Ability to Innovate = Not Easy

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

Whether you call it the ability to “innovate” or “flexibility,” maintaining it is important to everyone in higher education IT. Unfortunately, if IT budgets stall out and don’t increase, there is an inevitable shrinkage in the ability to innovate (or to be flexible)--because the maintenance function of our jobs is constantly there and d'esn’t shrink as fast as funding might.

So, we try to save money on existing programs. We try to eliminate existing programs. (Very hard to do when others are invested in them.) We seek out grants to gain flexibility and engage in innovation. We lobby our bosses for smaller decreases and more increases. We tax our students with fees for IT; sometimes they ask or demand to be taxed with fees for IT. We worry about keeping things running and also about being “out there” in terms of institutional prestige.

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IT NEWS

Columbia University Warns Students about Marketscore

Not all spyware is created equal, although users might think so. Marketscore has apparently developed ways to read even encrypted data from student users, causing quite a few institutions, like Cornell and others, to block its servers. (Wired News)
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Macro-Scale Power from a Micro-Device

At Georgia Tech, they’re teaming up a microgenerator about the size of a dime with a “similarly sized gas-fueled microturbine (or jet) engine” to make a micr'engine that potentially powers electronics with at least 10 times the life span of a similar-sized battery. (Atlanta dBusiness News)
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Stanford About to Unleash Online Pay Info for Staff

The new, secure system is Web-based and will include information back-dated to January 2002. It’s being called Axess and it’s PeopleSoft-based. (Stanford Report)

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This Facebook Thing Just Won't Stop

Nearly 2,000 students at Seton Hall have already signed up for its Facebook since it was created over Thanksgiving weekend! Wish we could get that kind of attention put onto safe computing. (the setonian)
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Tech Cheating Turns Cal Poly Professors into Sleuths

Online paper mills and other ways of cheating are getting more sophisticated--you can now purchase a “C” paper if you worry about your professor catching on. The latest wrinkle is the growth in the number of students who aren’t even embarrassed when they’re caught. (The Tribune--SanLuisObispo.com)
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Picture Phones Not Taken Well on Saudi Campuses

Women students may not carry phones with cameras on campus in Saudi Arabia. If they’re caught, they will lose their phone for the remainder of the semester and could face a hefty fine plus a 3-year suspension from school. (Arab New
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MyNotebook Initiative Gaining Ground at the College of William & Mary

A pilot project is scheduled for 2005. Expected gains include better networking for all students and repurposing of current computer lab machines to more specific and sophisticated tasks. (The DoG Street Journal)
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RESOURCES

Report Examines Foreign Markets for Higher Ed eLearning

The education consulting firm Hezel Associates today released a preliminary report detailing foreign market opportunities for US higher education institutes. The preliminary report examines markets in Asia, Latin America, and Europe, and a more detailed report by country is slated for February 2005. A preview is now available on Hezel Associates Web site.
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Linux Needs Better Network File Systems

In a very detailed, comprehensive article, this author makes his case that Linux needs a great deal of new creativity to overcome reliance on traditional networking paradigms. (NewsForge)
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Funneling Fees Computers, Labs Paid with Tech Fee

This is Part 3 of a series of reports about Arizona State University fees and how they are used. Apparently, ASU students are not unhappy about the services they get for their approximately $160/month. (ASU Ram Page)
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

UCSD Lands $300,000 in Nanotechnology Funding

To bolster medical research inclusion of nanotechnology, Nanogen Inc. recently bestowed on a University of California, San Diego researcher $300,000 in funding to be spread over a two-year period. UCSD’s Michael Heller is the grant recipient; he will receive funding for his work in electric field-based technology, or more specifically for his efforts in nanofabrication, the assembly of nanostructures and the integration of nanostructures into other devices.
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Gordon College Signs for Datatel and Liquid Matrix

Gordon College in Wenham, MA, has chosen technology solutions from Datatel and LiquidMatrix, a subsidiary of Datatel, to address extensive business needs. Gordon will implement Datatel Colleague, Datatel’s ERP system, in conjunction with LiquidMatrix’s ActiveAdmissions and ActiveAlumni.
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Florida State University Signs with Business Objects

FSU recently settled on a business intelligence solution offered by Business Objects to manage data across major operational areas, including the university’s student admissions office, student affairs, human resources and finances.
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