Industry Briefs

NEWS TEAMING UP. Open source application provider rSmart (www.rsmart.com) has announced that it will team up with technology giant IBM (www.ibm.com) to deliver open source solutions to education. Additionally, rSmart and IBM have been invited to join the Sakai Project (www.sakaiproject.org) as Sakai Commercial Affiliates (SCA) to provide development and customer support for Sakai software, say Sakai spokespeople. EXCLUSIVE AV AGREEMENT. In an exclusive agreement with several schools around the country, C-SPAN (www.c-span.org) has provided students and faculty access to its archives of audio and visual recordings. Made possible by the BARR Foundation (www.barrfoundation.org), the effort is dubbed the C-SPAN Program, and provides direct, real-time interaction among instructors, A-list guests, and students in Denver, New York, and Washington—enriching students’ learning experience. COLLECTING, RECYCLING, AND CONSERVING. IT giant Dell (www.dell.com) will provide the University of California-San Francisco, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and Miami Dade College (FL) $10,000 grants for the schools to conduct computer collection events on campus this spring, at the end of the academic calendar year. The pilot program is part of the Dell Higher Education Recycling Leadership Awards (www.dell.com/environment), recognizing customer commitment to leadership in areas of technology innovation, environmental sustainability, and/or campus community recycling. M&A, ETC. NEW RESOURCES FOR AV COMMUNITY. International Communications Industries Inc., the international trade association for AV/IT (ICIA; www.infocomm.org), and BICSI (www.bicsi.org), the telecommunications industry education and skills assessment organization, have come together to offer new resources to support the AV design community. The partnership will give both association members access to each association’s courses, and together the associations will collaborate on a reference manual for AV systems design.

David Meek

Campus Management's Meek gets award recognition

SAFARI ACQUIRES EZEDIA. Combining the best of multimedia software and digital video, Safari Video Networks (www.safaripathways.com), a subsidiary of Library Video Company (www.libraryvideo.com) and provider of video networking solutions, announced that it has acquired product assets of eZedia Inc. ( www.ezedia.com), a digital media software company. Safari and eZedia users will now have access to a variety of visual tools and content for high-quality presentations and instruction. PEOPLE NEW VP OF SALES. Customer relationship management software provider to higher ed, Intelliworks Inc. (www.intelliworks.com), has announced its new VP of Sales, Lee Ramsayer. Ramsayer has more than 18 years of experience with companies such as Microsoft, BearingPoint, and Oracle Higher Education. Ramsayer will be responsible for sales strategy and operations at Intelliworks. 2005 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR FINALIST. David Meek, CEO of Campus Management (www.campusmanagement.com), an administrative solutions company, was named a finalist for the Ernst & Young (www.ey.com) 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Nominees are selected and evaluated based on the following criteria: entrepreneurial spirit, financial performance, strategic direction, community/global impact, and innovation. Winners will be announced on November 19.

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