IT Trends :: Thursday, February 1, 2007
Opinion
Who Owns Digital IT Collectibles: 'The Law Hasn't Caught Up Yet'
By Terry Calhoun
Living as I do, in a farmhouse built in 1870 with lots of out-buildings, has only accentuated my tendency to collect things. Courtesy of the fellow who built Ann Arbor's Eberwhite subdivision early in the 1900s, and who lived in my house, I have a nice collection of old tools, hinge plates, door knobs, and the like. He was something of a collector himself, so I also have hundreds of pre-1900 medicine bottles which he apparently got when he bought out an old pharmacy and pill-repackaging company that used to retail out of the building in which Ann Arbor's classic, old-style ice cream outlet, the Washtenaw Dairy is now housed.
I have some modern stuff, too: One of the Macintosh TV/computers, black, oversized, and it really never worked all that well. But I have it, and its operating manuals and software discs. Likewise, I have stored away a mid-1980s KayPro "portable," which weighs about 60 pounds. Yep, it has a handle, looks like a big, heavy suitcase, and you can lug it around. I also have, somewhere on some disk or another, every e-mail message that I have ever sent or received—beginning in 1993. Oh, and I have a collection of about 200 slide rules....
IT News
- Blackboard, SFLC Respond to Patent Reexam
Responding to a request from the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) decided Jan. 25 that it would indeed reexamine Blackboard's disputed and controversial patent on technologies used in course management systems. Both Blackboard Inc. and the SFLC, which represents open-source CMS developers, responded to the decision in separate interviews with Campus Technology....
- Students Better Informed Without CMS, Says Researcher
Students who receive course materials in class performed "significantly higher" on end of semester tests of their knowledge than those who received the materials via a course management system, according to a study by a researcher at Penn State....
- CDW-G Launches e-Procurement for Higher Ed
CDW Government (CDW-G) has launched a new e-procurement system in partnership with SciQuest, a provider of procurement services. The new service, called CDW-G e-Procurement, is designed specifically for higher-ed purchasing....
- U Memphis Deploys Xythos
The University of Memphis in Tennessee has deployed UMdrive from Xythos Software across its entire campus. The UMdrive is a new service designed for online collaboration and research and support for file storage and departmental websites....
- Dialing Up the Future for iPhones on Campus
- An interview with Jay Dominick, Wake Forest University
- By Mary Grush
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At Macworld in San Francisco earlier this month, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote unveiling Apple's iPhone. Consumers can line up to get them this coming June. But what does the announcement mean to the higher education market? CT spoke with Wake Forest University Assistant Vice President and CIO Jay Dominick for some insights.
CT: How was the announcement of the iPhone received on your campus?
DOMINICK: I would say the iPhone is probably the biggest technology announcement in the past year. It has generated a phenomenal amount of interest, certainly all across our campus—I've received many e-mails from our faculty and from the technical staff saying, "Check this out! What do you think?" So it's created a lot of energy and buzz....