Technology Troubles Set Off Tantrums, Tears, and Tirades

Oh boy. We wonder if there should be a competition for the best on campus tech support. Consumers are fumbling through thick manuals, holding on customer-support phone lines, searching for tech experts, or driving themselves mad. They’re also losing patience. “About 85% of those polled said they’ve become so flustered, they’ve ended up swearing, shouting, experiencing chest pains, crying, or smashing things.”…

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A Different Kind of Result from 'Glitch'

In late September, officials at the University of Michigan uploaded a data file of 5,700 potential students that was not properly formatted for the database. The result: deletion of the corrupted files and re-entry of all data, followed by weirdness for the 500 students who had applied while their potential applicant data was not available…

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At OU, the Student Data System Update is Rescheduled

The current, 13-year-old system will be replaced over 2 years at a cost of $20M. This would already be underway, except that the Ohio University information technology staff has been consumed by coping with recent massive security breaches of large amounts of sensitive information...

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Online Maps Aid Eco Mine Fight

More transparency! Let us see the world, and we can make better decisions. This is the primary way that IT currently supports environmental sustainability. In this case, a Web site uses Google Earth to let people see the damage that mountaintop coal mining has done to Appalachia. The images are moving…

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