IT Trends :: Thursday, April 20, 2006
Opinion
Extra Charges for Special People
By Terry Calhoun
There’s a little ditty that I embarrass my wife with sometimes when we’re shopping. I chant it (I can’t really sing very well) as we walk by the special people who park just outside the department store door, along the curb, or in your way. I also use it when we walk past someone abusing a handicapped parking spot.
I sort of think about Barbra Streisand singing it, even though she sounds nothing like me. It g'es: “Special, they’re so special, they can park anywhere that they want. They’re so special, and they didn’t have to pay a lot.” and it g'es on like this for a few puerile stanzas.
I’m a little worried about the income and spending power gaps that keep growing between the richest and poorest Americans. And I am especially worried over the trend for organizations to charge “premium” surcharges for access to fairly mundane, almost necessary things. Being able to use information technology to charge for a monitored use of such “special” services will exacerbate the already growing divide between rich and poor.
Here at the University of Michigan, the current “special or not” debate is over corporate skyboxes in Michigan Stadium. The stadium is undergoing a huge renovation. When I took a SCUP board member, Jim Zavagno of Foothills Community College, in for a look at the “Big House” a few weeks ago, the entire south end was just a pile of dirt. (Among other changes, a little more hip space for burgeoning maize and blue fans.)...
Read Complete Article | Back to top
IT News
New Look for Libraries
The University of Utah, Utah State University, and Utah Valley State College are examples of how digital library centers with wireless Internet access and technological learning tools are replacing…well, books…
Read More | Back to top
High-Profile Computer Breaches Draw Attention to Security
After a major security breach, Iowa State is encouraging a community-wide sense of responsibility for protecting university and student-owned computers...
Read More | Back to top
The Technology Rush
Florida colleges and universities have become just as dependent upon IT as others. Students expect a competitive technology edge they can later transfer into the workplace...
Read More | Back to top
Terrorists Seen Turning to Campuses for Skills
Have universities replaced terrorist training camps? Students at the University of Montpellier have been arrested due to alleged ties with militants in Fallouja...
Read More | Back to top
Deals, Contracts, Awards
Students Converge on Tech Center
Temple University's new $15 million Teaching, Education, Collaboration, Help (TECH) Center could be the nation's largest computer lab and students are lovin' it...
Read More | Back to top
High-Speed Recruiting
HoopTV.net is one of several services that help colleges advertise their athletes to professional recruiters…
Read More | Back to top
New Technology
Microsoft's Google Scholar Rival Set to Go Live
Named "Windows Live Academic Search" service, Microsoft's take on academic searching may be available in beta form at sometime this week – maybe before you read this...
Click here for details
An Anti-Apple Conspiracy at Virginia Tech?
Some Virginia Tech students are unhappy with a new requirement at the engineering school that all incoming freshmen must have tablet PCs...
Click here for details
Babson President Shares Podcast
All future university and college presidents may want to do a stint with NPR early in their careers. Babson is the focus here – not just the president, but some of the other ways it is using podcasting…
Click here for details
Software Teaches Troops Valuable Cultural Skills
The University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute has developed Tactical Iraqi, a cultural awareness program for use by the United States Army and Marines…
Click here for details