Thoughts for the Chief Academic Officer in the New Year

Many students and their families have made the commitment to attend your college or university. This is not new, has happened for years, so what’s the difference this time? The first difference is the renewed commitment to the dream that college will make a difference. Past decades have allowed students to attend your institution and leave with a job waiting. Possibly not true this year, what is probably true is:

1. The father or mother (or both) have lost a job in the past two years and are still unemployed. The commitment of sending their child to your school without a safety net is without precedent in past decades.
2. The student at your college or university is working longer hours than students have in the past.
3. The student will likely graduate without a job and will consider extending his/her time at your institution or go directly to graduate school. Scholarships are more important than ever.
4. The information center of a student’s life is a Facebook account and cell phone, probably an iPhone.
5. Search leads a student’s quest for resources in completing assignments, evaluating faculty, even choosing a college. Search must be a relevant experience on your campus. Very few colleges and universities are using the Google search appliance successfully. Students will expect to find information in your library systems, course management systems, and student information systems indexed and available through a search.
6. Mobility is important to the student; students expect to be able to get to faculty course sites, the library, and other specialized applications from any location.
7. Investments in central support organizations are not important to the student; they are looking for help where they are, when they need it. The closer you can locate your student support services (including technology) to the student and faculty, the better.
8. Consumerization continues to dominate the marketplace; students now expect to access information from an iPhone, and the App Store has set a new standard for campus IT departments delivering services. The Kindle and Nook eText readers are gaining momentum, and Apple plans on joining the eText fray in the spring.
9. The CIO must be forward-looking and be prepared for the changes in the campus technology infrastructure and in meeting the mobility requirements of students.
10. A renewed focus must be delivered by the faculty and staff on the needs of the student, not necessarily to change the curriculum, but to ensure the curriculum remains relevant and accessible.

Wait-and-See Approach to Cloud Adoption

It is interesting that higher education seems to be taking a wait and see attitude with cloud computing. Earlier posts suggest that the college and university environment would benefit from leading the transition to the next era of computing. Instead it appears higher education has selected a more conservative action: wait and see. The most interesting issue is we are in an era of economic downturn that has caused many states to take drastic actions to curtail costs, and higher education leaders are not taking advantage of proven solutions from industry leaders. I would suggest there are several reasons for this response:

1. CIOs are uncomfortable with a transition in technology that is controlled by the provider and the consumer, not the local IT organization. It is well documented that a university can offer state-of-the-art email to students at minimal cost to the institution. Universities like Arizona State, Notre Dame, Boise State, University of Maine, and Temple are successful, yet only 35% of universities are taking advantage of this offering. It is clear there are millions of dollars in savings being left unclaimed.
   
   
2. Universities are using security and compliance as the reason for not implementing cloud computing. This is a valid concern which has a number of documented solutions that are being ignored. The real problem is today’s universities are highly decentralized and the adoption of cloud services requires a comprehensive authentication infrastructure. It could be that the first hurdle to migrating to the cloud is the IT leader getting the university's security practices in order, having a disciplined security staff in place, and having best practices in place.
   
   
3. The Chief Academic Officer has not focused on the real savings that are available in using cloud resources. It is time for organizations providing leadership to the Presidents and Provosts to provide education and solutions to allow leaders to make the best choice for the institution. It is clear most CAOs have given total control of technology to the university IT leadership. Should funding issues continue, CAOs will be required to take charge if they want to realize the millions of dollars of savings available today and even more in the near future.

The next 24 months should be interesting to observe. Students are aware of what is available in today’s technology environment. Consumerization of IT is out of the box, and legacy practices will not dominate in the future. Attempts to control technology at universities has not been successful in higher education, and it will become even less so in the era of cloud computing.

Mobility and the Academic Library

I thought our readers might be interested in this interview with Doyle about the impact of the cloud and mobility on the future of academic library services. Elsevier interviewed Doyle shortly after a presentation; the interview is on page two of Elsevier's current issue of Library Connect. The complete text of the interview is available on the main Library Connect page.

Higher Education IT in Transition

We recently spoke at the Internet 2 conference updating leaders on what was happening with cloud computing in higher education. The scorecard presented was based on a nationwide survey to leadership groups such as Frye Leadership Institute alumni, Internet 2 technology and academic leaders, and to the Quilt Group.

As we were preparing the scorecard we became aware of an EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) study, Alternative IT Sourcing Strategies, a report focused on how higher education IT departments were utilizing cloud services in 2009. Our own survey findings were similar to those in the ECAR survey. Our top findings:

1. Higher education funding is at one of the lowest points in recent history; many staff are being terminated, increasing fees and tuition are at unprecedented rates, and states are still cutting budgets. It is very interesting that CIOs are avoiding adopting technologies that would significantly lower costs. It is clear CIOs value control of the technology over providing the university significant recurring savings.
   
   
2. The cloud service with the highest adoption is student email. Adoption is low, only 30-35% of higher education institutions are using the service. Survey results show that offerings (for free) from Google or Microsoft are superior to local email support. The response should be concerning to the Chief Academic Officer; hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on technology that could have been redirected to the academic mission, and academic leaders are not questioning the situation.
   
   
3. Course management systems are the second most cloud-enabled service adopted by universities. The adoption rate is in the single digits, far behind cloud-enabled email. Course management systems in the cloud have significant opportunities to grow for a number of reasons; most important is the faculty will lead the adoption. Many colleges and universities have limited staff to support course management systems resulting in dated systems with limited enhancements. Cloud vendors will offer feature-rich services by leveraging the advantages of crowdsourcing and web 2.0 vendors.
   
   
4. There are several very interesting projects underway, one being OCLC's Web-Scale Management Services. Imagine a comprehensive Web 2.0 integrated library system. If you understand the wealth of content OCLC manages, you are awed by the possibilities of this offering to students and more importantly to research. Keep your eyes on this project.

Cloud Summary from Gartner Symposium

From last week's Gartner Symposium, here's a summary of the top 5 cloud-related things from the conference:

• Clearer conversations about the cloud
• Demonstrated examples of success in the cloud
• Real commitment from Google for the enterprise
• Seeing a mainstream "conference 2.0"
• Acknowledgment of a "new normal"

Read more about each of these. Also, Appirio has published a list of the bottom 5 cloud-related things from the Gartner Symposium last week.

New ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and IT

Every year I look forward to this ECAR study of undergraduate student technology use. Some of this year's key findings:

• Laptops are owned by 87.8% of respondents
• 51.2% of respondents own internet-capable handheld devices
• Respondents said they spend an average of 21.3 hours per week on the internet
• Only 45% of respondents report that most or all of their instructors use technology effectively
• Good news for librarians: 73.1% of respondents used the college/university library website at least once during the semester

This one is well worth your time. Read the entire study.

One in Five Internet Users Uses Twitter

Pew has just released a report indicating that 19.1% of Internet users are now participating on Twitter or another status update service. 33% of Twitter users are under 30. The more internet-connected devices one owns, the more likely they are to Twitter; 39% of respondents with four or more devices are Twitter users.

Read the full Pew Report on Twitter and Status Updating.

New Computing Lab at Indiana University

Previously we have highlighted innovative campus computing labs such as one at Emory University. This week a new lab has opened at Indiana University in their student center facility. Home to a very successful information commons, this lab is on the other side of campus from the commons, and the planners hope that the space will have a similar energy. The space includes the common complement of whiteboards, movable furniture, and desktop machines, but they are also utilizing collaborative media tables and laptop lockers. The laptop lockers are an interesting concept--students can drop off a laptop in a secure locker for charging, then pick up later in the day. Read more about the grand opening of the renovated Indiana Memorial Union Computer Lab.

Cloud Computing Survey

For those at higher education institutions who work with cloud-based collaboration or social networking tools, please consider completing this survey. We are working on a presentation about cloud-based tools and are looking for examples and experiences from other institutions. As part of the presentation, we are creating a summary "scorecard" which will highlight the top twenty campus collaboration tools as well as the top twenty offerings from vendors.

If the survey doesn't apply to you, please consider sharing it with others who might have an interest. Thank you!

What's Possible with Broadband Stimulus Funding

Just a week away from the first deadline for the responses on the broadband stimulus bill--what was the response from your university or college? I do not think the response to the opportunity is as important as why did you not respond. I do not mean to put you on the edge of your seat, Provost or President, but the culture of the university is becoming clear as the time draws to a close. I do not know about other states (that’s not quite true), but I am very aware of what happened at home. It appears that with almost two billion dollars at stake there are few if any responses ready to go, lots of reasons given, but the truth is we had a difficult time trying to do anything other than the norm for a large university.

A small recap...the broadband stimulus bill was aimed at getting broadband services to the unserved or underserved areas of each state. Bottom line, get broadband to those who do not have the service today. What I observed from most large universities was using the stimulus funds to improve and enhance the status quo, meaning improving our own university infrastructure or regional networks. I would have been excited to find universities reaching out to be change agents for areas of the states that do not enjoy high-speed access to the internet. I guess we should not have been surprised at the results. I look forward to the awards that result from the initial proposals. Will RUSS and NTIA make awards on our best efforts to move ourselves ahead or will the awards be given to organizations reaching out to the remote areas of each state?

I, like most others, hope the second round of grant proposals due next month will provide an opportunity for large research universities to form partnerships with groups that could use our assistance. I envision there are a number of opportunities in health care, saving energy, and education. I am beginning to hope the awards from the first round of grants and the rules for the second round of grants make it clear that all universities and colleges within a state must form partnerships that break down traditional political issues and demand creative solutions to problems that all states are experiencing. Only time and leadership will reveal if I get my wish.

The broadband stimulus grants will be debated for years to come, but they do provide our leaders with the opportunity to change. We will continue to work tirelessly to improve our own universities, or we will reach out and create an infrastructure that would allow our legislatures to improve the overall efficiency of higher education. Without a doubt in three years and 7.2 billion dollars, we will have a different landscape. The fruits of the investment are not as clear. During the same time period we will be experiencing transformational technologies across our campuses. No longer will we have e the ability to maintain an information technology leadership with large capital investments on our own campus. Cloud computing will level the difference between who can or cannot afford complex comprehensive systems. Colleges and universities will be able to enter the IT arena with little more than a good campus network and desktop systems. The need for systems staffs, large pools of application programmers, and data centers will diminish over time.

Now is the time to take advantage of the changing technology infrastructure requirements and team with others statewide to create world-class solutions to solve today’s problems. Just think, if your staff can grasp this vision soon enough to submit a grant, you might be able to get significant assistance along the way. Found it interesting there was an article in today’s New York Times by the founder of Siebel, Tom Siebel, asking the question about the importance of IT in the years ahead. This reminds me of the recent book by Nicholas Carr, The Big Switch.

Back to School in the New Technology Landscape

This fall will introduce a new era of computing to the Chief Academic Officer, one shaped by consumer choice rather than the mandated standards of the university. First, each university must determine its response to the rapid adoption of applications available for smartphones . The iPhone has reformed the landscape of customer expectation through what's possible with applications. The student once happy with out-of-the-box student systems has been exposed to the 65,000+ applications available in the App Store and wants a portfolio of choices that complement his/her lifestyle.

The next product to impact the university technology landscape is the Amazon Kindle, the first highly successful eBook reader. A number of universities are reviewing how the Kindle fits into their environment. Students are vocal about the increasing cost of tuition and textbooks. The extended recession with high unemployment is simply fuel to the fire. University administrators are questioning the traditional methods of acquiring textbooks and are looking at partnerships with publishers. The transition to e-textbooks will be much easier to accomplish technically than it will be able to accomplish politically with the faculty.

The next technology to watch this fall is the cloud offerings from Google and Microsoft. Until a month ago, Google was the outright leader in this area. Google had experienced great success with Google mail (gmail), Google Apps (word processing), Google talk (IM and Voice) and Android (smartphone OS). In July, Microsoft answered Google with Microsoft Office 2010. The new offering has two components: the first is the traditional upgrade to Microsoft Office that has happened every three years for the past 15 years. The more exciting announcement was the offering of Microsoft Office 2010 online for free. We have all been aware of Microsoft Live services available online for the past three years and have considered the product equal to Google Apps. The real difference maker with Microsoft Office 2010 is it will blend the traditional desktop with cloud computing transparently. Microsoft will have an advantage in building on the skill base of millions of students who have used its traditional office products throughout their existence. Microsoft’s vision of cloud computing will have several real advantages and was good enough to level the competitive playing field with Google.

So what do you and your CIO do for the fall with limited budgets—that is the real question. The most important thing you should expect out of your CIO is a two-year vision on where he/she is taking your university. The vision must be comprehensive and include the needs of the faculty and students. You must see a clear road map for commitment to Google or Microsoft. The plan must address the steps your university is planning to take with cloud computing and the partnerships that will make the transition possible. Students will demand that your university address mobility and will expect a response to applications that will make their university experience relevant. Don’t forget to include all the traditional IT expenses that seem to be growing rapidly.

Evaluating the Customer Support Experience

Customer support organizations often focus on evaluating the contact with the customer once the individual has made an effort to formally contact the organization. This effort is necessary but can lead to faulty conclusions on the customer contact. Each Chief Academic Officer must understand what is necessary to be a great university. Does the CAO want to measure all contacts and evaluate the results of the experience or is there something else the CAO should focus on? Is there an experience that faculty and/or students are experiencing that is going unnoticed or missed completely?

Let’s be clear, understanding the customer contact is very important; large companies exist to assist in this effort and they will not go away. The question I am asking about is not recognized by our traditional customer contact methods. Specifically I think about a number of areas emerging in the social networking environment. The two most obvious are Facebook and Twitter, but there are many other points of contact we often miss evaluating because of the difficulty. Areas would include friends, social contacts, peers at work, and business contacts. All the above could influence our position on what we decide to do in our university life. The question is: is it worth knowing the value of the early contacts in our everyday university decision making?

My thoughts are starting to focus on early contacts to determine what an effective customer experience means. In the era of instant contact offered by Facebook and Twitter, we cannot ignore the impression faculty and students are forming about the university experience. These new communications tools highlight the thoughts individuals have prior to making a formal contact with an organization. The importance of the two services are not going unnoticed by the consumer industry; the large corporations are mining the data online to catch any disinterest or frustration with a brand. Do universities need to recognize this new phenomena to improve its faculty and student experience? Today universities are spending significant time and money to retain students and are making equal investments to retain the best faculty.

I am confident that traditional methods of measuring customer service only recognize 30% of the overall faculty and student experience. Often by the time a faculty or student makes formal contact with the university, the customer has already formed a lasting impression. To ensure retention programs work, universities must identify methods of recognizing the first touches and ensure they are positive. What should a university do to ensure this happens? The first steps are to go where the faculty and students are…could be the office, could be the traditional meeting places, and often it will be where they gather with friends to socialize. The goal is to get to the faculty and students early and often to ensure we understand what is important and we implement programs that ensure our retention efforts are successful.

Academic Computing Support

The Chief Academic Officer will look at all areas of the university to restructure costs from the administrative functions of the university. One of the first areas to be evaluated for restructuring will be the information technology support areas. Faculty and students are getting tired of having to go to so many places to resolve an issue. Support organizations will need to rationalize themselves. Two events will ensure the evaluation happens in the near future: the first has been discussed in prior posts, the state of the economic downturn for the foreseeable future. The second event will be the influence of cloud computing on functional areas. Legacy practices have allowed IT to request and be allowed to oversee and set the rules for all areas of technology on a university campus. Too often this has allowed support practices to focus on what is expedient for IT rather than the core mission of teaching, research, and service.

The current deployment of applications from off campus cloud computing vendors, known as Software as a Service (SaaS), will allow faculty and students to experience personalized technology support. Legacy practices of IT departments will be challenged by relevant and flexible applications from off campus. Faculty and students will be quick to point out the off campus applications, and these will often cost the university less than legacy campus applications. The probable result will be the CIO meeting the deans to determine the future direction of computing.

The fragmentation of service will highlight the need to restructure technology support on campus. Major SaaS providers will offer point product support, and the campus will continue to support central campus applications (ERP). The university community will require transparent support across all technology. Support might find itself being offered in one of the following scenarios:

1. A likely area to emerge as the technology support area is the library. Why? The primary reason is the library administration has transformed from a campus-based resource to a largely virtual resource successfully. Additionally, the library has introduced the Information Commons that has been a hit, widely received by the students and faculty. Further, the library has been able to transform to the digital world without losing the trust of the faculty. The academic community would welcome one-stop technology and research support located close to the college. The major issue will be if the library is willing to change its traditional culture to become the “information resource” for the academic community.
   
   
2. Another option would be for support to remain in IT. IT will need to create innovative and transparent relationships with the faculty and students to establish a transparent support organization in the minds of the academic community. IT has the skills to be very successful in offering support; the issue is credibility. Many faculty and staff feel that IT has not made the successful transition to the digital world and often suggest IT is a better gatekeeper than a customer service advocate.
   
   
3. The dark horse for IT support on campus would be an outsourced vendor. A number of large organizations have outsourced the customer support function to one of the large service providers. It is clear that an outsourced customer support contract would provide a university with a large number of scenarios that would meet the different needs of individual colleges. An outsourced vendor with clear service level agreements would ensure a defined level of service is achieved. The greatest difficulty with an outsourced relationship will be to get buy-in from all vested user communities. I fully expect individual colleges to establish outsourced vendor relationships and if successful could become the central model of support.

The Computer Lab of the Future

Last month I had the opportunity to visit the Cox Computing Center at Emory University. I write about learning spaces frequently here and on my own blog, and I have to say, the Cox Center is one of the coolest spaces I've seen yet. Even in the middle of summer, walking into the space I felt a definite buzz of activity. The jazz playing in the background probably helped, but I was still impressed to see so many students working and milling around on what should have been a quiet day. During the regular semester, they average around 1500-1800 visitors a day, and I can certainly see why.

One of the first things my colleagues pointed out was the relative lack of computers in the space. When we think "computer lab," many of us still think of elbow-to-elbow desktops in soldierly rows under the florescents. While I believe computer labs will be needed for quite some time to come, I really appreciate the minimum of seven linear feet between machines in this lab, not to mention the movable furniture and whiteboards. The space is extremely laptop-friendly, with many students opting to bring their own or to check one out from the service desk.

I kept feeling like this was an information commons, just without any library involvement. The place is such a hot spot during the school year, they added bean bags, ottomans, and pillows for extra seating, which further contribute to the vibe that this is truly a student space. The lighting is low, food is allowed, conversation and collaboration are encouraged. The student assistants at the desk were friendly and helpful and quite approachable. The furnishings, largely Herman Miller and Steelcase, give the place the perfect level of fun and funky and are still extremely functional.

This is one of several lab/learning spaces I will profile here in the future. I encourage you to visit the Cox Computing Center as my pictures really don't capture the feel of this energetic space.

The Changing IT Organization in Higher Education

Presidents and Provosts must continue to pay attention to the status of information technology on other campuses. Watching states like New York, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida struggle with funding is requiring academic leaders to reevaluate the usefulness of all the support organizations on campus and to revalidate earlier decisions on how to provide service functions campus-wide. I believe the only communities that will continue without significant change are teaching, library functions (information access), and research. I am certain all traditional administrative functions will be reviewed to ensure their contribution is enhancing the core mission of the University.

It is clear that the funding problems will not abate quickly and that state legislatures are looking for methods to minimize traditional cost. A large number of organizations are looking at outsourcing general services. At one time Information Technology was immune from consideration for outsourcing, but no longer. Two very large and different higher education organizations have successfully outsourced Information Technology: Arizona State University and the Kentucky Community and Technical Colleges. All Presidents and Provosts should become familiar with the two models of outsourcing used. Arizona State is a very large traditional university that has outsourced administrative applications and all campus email systems. Arizona State’s 62,000 students legitimize the upcoming “cloud computing” model works. Kentucky’s Community and Technical College system is located statewide with 67 campuses. KCTCS has over 90,000 students at the different campuses and have outsourced the entire IT function, including administrative systems, networking, telephones, course management systems, email, and video systems. Combine the examples with the efforts of state legislatures to control or lower the cost of higher education, and the day of accountability is here for the universities’ Information Technology organizations.

The pressure to change will only mount as the economic problems refuse to go away and legislatures refuse to change revenue producing practices (taxes) of the past. Information Technology in higher education is inefficient and has redundancy organization-wide. Further, all innovation that appears relevant to today’s faculty and students seems to be coming from technology savvy companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. As you look at the large technology companies serving higher education, you see large investments being made in cloud computing: just look at the recent investments made by Oracle, IBM, PeopleSoft, Google, and Microsoft. If the providers are making 100 million dollar investments in changing the corporate methods of selling to user communities, should universities undertake a thorough review of practices in deploying technology on campus? I suspect Arizona State and Kentucky have initiated a trend IT cannot avoid, only delay.

Senior Academic Officers must look at the university organizational structure and determine what to do with the technology organization. The next few posts will provide several models that should be considered.

Summer Plans for the CAO

The end of another academic year is behind us, and we are all looking ahead, wondering what next fall will bring our universities. Will our student retention be acceptable, will the predictions on the incoming freshman class be on target, and how bad will the state budget get? The long, deep recession has ravaged our budgeting process, and next year does not look better. The Chief Academic Officer will be in the hot seat next year. The only bright spot on the horizon is the stimulus legislation.

Three actions the Chief Academic Officer must take this summer:

1. The university (especially the CIO) must provide leadership in two areas budget cutting and business process re-engineering. The two areas most universities have ignored to ensure political peace: the large maintenance contracts to support administrative and research computing and allowing multiple customer support centers when one would be better for faculty and students.
2. Form a stimulus action team and be prepared to submit multiple requests in the first round of funding planned for September 2009. The group needs to be aggressive and creative in seeking additional funding for the university. Three areas are going to fare better than others: electronic medical records, energy, and research facilities.
3. Student retention will become increasingly more important during the economic downturn. Universities must become student-friendly; this does not mean you need to give everyone a laptop and an iPhone. The university must review its processes and policies and ensure they make sense for the 21st century. We must make the faculty available to student questions, and we must recognize what worked for the student’s grandparents will not work with today’s student.

Following the above recommendations will not guarantee success, but it will improve your odds. Several recommendations should save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and others will ensure your students will continue to return to graduate. Both will ensure you will be better prepared than many others when the budgets improve, and we can focus on academics.

Integrating Technology Skills into the Curriculum

Librarians like myself spend considerable effort working with faculty to build information literacy skills into the curriculum. While many assume that finding information is becoming easier all the time (and in some cases, it is), critical evaluation of information resources is now an essential skill for coursework, the workplace, and life in general. Whether finding scholarly resources for a paper or looking for reliable information for a personal need (health or finance, for example), evaluating information is an everyday occurrence.

In my mind, the same goes for technology skills. With Gen Y, we assume that because these students grew up with the internet and are great at texting on mobile phones, they must have all of the technology skills they need. From what I observe in our information commons, this is not the case. We frequently see students who need basic assistance with the Office suite, particularly Excel and PowerPoint. What troubles me more though are the quality of their PowerPoint presentations (too many bullet points, too many cutesy clip art images, too much animation). Where will they learn to create a visually appealing, interesting, and informative presentation? If you had to consider important workplace skills, this would be near the top of the list. Likewise so would be formatting a spreadsheet to prove your case, conveying information on a memo so that it is easily read and persuasive, and so forth.

In addition to spreadsheets and presentations and those things that have long been everyday to you and me, how are we preparing students to use web 2.0 tools? I am particularly thinking of using them for self-promotion to land a job. With today's challenging economy, students should explore every possible avenue toward getting a job. From LinkedIn profiles to the advantages of blogging or at least developing a personal, professional web presence, I worry that today's students are not getting any of this in our curriculum. You and I may twitter; our students may, too, but do they consider how it might help them professionally?

Chief Academic Officers, you need to consider how building technology skills fits into the general education curriculum.

Reforming Higher Education

Interesting that two newspapers (Lexington Herald-Leader and New York Times) today published articles on reforming higher education. Not revolutionary in today’s economic environment but still causes one to pause. One article focused on too many universities wanting to become research centers, and the second compared higher education to Detroit. Both articles came to the same conclusion; universities are spending too much money on areas not relevant to today’s needs.

Also it's important to note that Obama has continued to focus on using higher education to improve our chance to compete in the world economy and to encourage innovation across the sciences. The challenge to the Chief Academic Officer is to determine if it is time to reevaluate the mission and goals of the university or to just ignore the negative comments as idle chatter of the ignorant. The cost of a university degree and the dismal outlook for jobs will pressure students (and their parents) to decide if the financial commitment is worth four years of intense study. Interesting the first move by Obama was to recommend the government provide financial aid rather than continuing to subsidize the financial businesses. The action should encourage the CAO to evaluate university business practices to determine if there are other areas the Obama administration will encourage reform. It appears it is time to be bold if one is to be recognized as a leader. Simple, just follow the President’s example.

Uncommon Learning Spaces: What is the Commons?

In the last month, both major publications of EDUCAUSE have focused on learning spaces: EDUCAUSE Review and EDUCAUSE Quarterly. As we seek more ways to collaborate in these difficult budgetary times, it makes sense for campus units to work more closely together to provide student and faculty support services in shared spaces. When redesigning or building new learning spaces, it makes sense to create comfortable, inviting spaces that allow for maximum flexibility. These dynamic spaces, built largely on partnerships, are often known in libraries as information/learning commons. This is the first in a series of posts I will write about the transition to the commons environment.

While there are numerous textbook definitions of the commons, as well as hairsplitting debates on whether a commons is an information commons or a learning commons, I see three basic elements of the commons:

A collaborative space. The commons is a warm, welcoming space, which facilitates student work and encourages collaboration. Sometimes this is called a third place, basically an ideal gathering place for students that is not in the classroom and not at home. Typically these spaces include comfortable furniture that is easily rearranged for group work.

Well equipped with technology and related services. Computers in soldierly rows with students stacked elbow-to-elbow just don't cut it anymore. Reconfigured lab spaces which include different types of furniture that can easily be rearranged are quickly becoming the norm, especially as students increasingly bring laptops to the space and the future of the computer lab itself is questioned. While the technology is important--particularly the specialized software and hardware that most students would not have otherwise--the key to a successful commons space is knowledgeable, friendly experts that can provide library and IT assistance. Technology in the commons is more than just a glorified computer lab.

A place to have a little fun. While these spaces are usually in libraries, the environment is generally relaxed to encourage students to spend time in the space. The food policy is often more liberal than other areas of the library, as well as the policy on noise. Student influence is often visible in the space with artwork, signs, or other elements of creative activity. Basically it's not your typical library environment.

Next post in the series: I'll discuss the changing support model for libraries and IT.

Five things a Chief Academic Officer should never believe

If you have heard one of these statements from your Chief Information Officer, it is time to ask your CIO to update themselves on emerging technologies. It may be a lack of understanding of today’s technology environment, or perhaps the CIO is just trying to cover up a bad decision. In both cases, it is apparent that the CIO is out of step with the mission and goals of the university and is also not aware of the impact of their decision on the business practices of the university.

1. Open Source software will save the university money. There is no free lunch with applications necessary to manage a complex organization like a university. Open Source will almost always result in additional staffing, and commercial applications will be more expensive to acquire. The new rush to cloud computing is too new and immature to evaluate on total cost of ownership. In the end it will amount to your university spending more up front for your enterprise systems, or if you want go open source you will pay significantly higher operational costs annually.
   
   
2. Capital investments in traditional telephony equipment are safe. This was true for 50 years and lots of CIOs who have spent millions upgrading traditional equipment will be embarrassed in the next three years. As a matter of fact, there are few traditional telephony vendors remaining; both Nortel and Lucent are or have been through reorganizations and are a shadow of themselves. Voice technologies have become just another application on a data network. IT organizations need to address change by adopting the right unified communication technologies and by reorganization the information technology department to reflect the changes in technology. On top of this you have the whole cell phone issue.
   
   
3. Emerging technologies like smartphones, netbooks and virtualized desktop computers will replace the traditional computer and cost less. Everyone is looking for the magic combination that will make computing relevant and cost less--that day is beyond the horizon. The basics of a computer are all still the same, whether it is a traditional notebook or a smart-phone: it still has a processor, memory, disk drives, and needs electricity to run. The smart CIO understands the role of all devices and has the right equipment in the right place. Remember a university is a more like a city and less like a corporation.
   
   
4. Return on investment and best business practices are not relevant to a university. Might have been true for the past decade but no longer. The current economic conditions require the CIO to understand the “business” of the university and to implement changes that were unheard of several years ago. Recently the University of Virginia announced the university would close all student computing labs in the next three years. Many CIOs are already building the case on why this is impossible at their university; we no longer have the luxury of staying the same and change is eminent. Your CIO needs to begin compiling a list of changes in business practices that will improve service and lower the cost of technology.
   
   
5. Web 2.0 is a fad. Many legacy IT staff (including CIOs) would like to think the Web 2.0 technologies will not impact enterprise applications like the ERP or the course management systems because of the significant work required to integrate the tools of social networking with enterprise applications. CIOs need to recognize the front door many students use today to access resources begin with applications like Facebook. In addition we have a new generation of students in high school that spend hours on YouTube rather than watch television. Time for the CIO to invest thought in how your campus IT departments are meeting the needs of the students.

Changes in Business Processes

The economic meltdown has resulted in unprecedented budget cuts, and its swath is broad and deep. The university president has two choices: the first is to retrench by placing many projects on hold, freeze pay increases, and hope for the best. The second would be use the opportunity to change the status quo. Higher education is not known for its efficiency, and we have been doing “university” the same way we have been doing it for decades. During that time many universities have invested heavily in technology, including ERP systems. Many observers inside and from the community have noticed the lack of change.

The university president willing to be a change agent can move their institution forward despite the economic challenges. It is very clear the faculty will continue to introduce change incrementally, and that is OK. Faculty have been supportive of systems that improve teaching and research, and are critical of systems that are considered busy work. Investments in the academic infrastructure will continue to be important.

The change can be realized in administrative functions university-wide. The college president should use the economic climate to bring changes which were impossible earlier. A starting point would be business process re-engineering. A good place to begin would be human resources and accounting processes. The president must be willing to push the university into new methods of conducing university business to recognize the greatest savings. The business world has used ERP systems as a foundation for business process improvement for the past decade with significant returns. The goal would be to generate significant savings to reinvest in academic programs. A byproduct would be organizational agility.

The president that chooses to put everything on hold and wait out the downturn will find all areas of the university being adversely affected across the board budget cuts.

Other areas universities might review for change would be libraries merging student support organizations with IT—many libraries have shown leadership with the Information Commons concept. Another area of interest would be to rethink faculty support organizations (teaching learning centers, research support, library support) into a new organization. Bold rather than timid should define the roadmap of the next twenty-four months.

A number of individuals will say this cannot be done, higher education will never change. Interesting that Obama is choosing this time to change national policy on a number of issues. Who would have thought a year ago we would consider making student financial aid an entitlement or higher education would experience a huge boost in research funding? It is time to act.

Next Steps with Stimulus Funding

The next six months will be revealing for the Chief Academic Officer (President) of major public universities. States will be receiving the initial stimulus funding, and the legislatures and governors will be deciding if higher education will be a recipient or if other state agencies will receive a majority of the funding. It is clear that higher education was de-emphasized in the final legislation; the winners were students and the national science funding agencies.

The National Science Foundation received 3 billion dollars in additional funding and the National Institute of Health received 10 billion. There is another 3.5 billion for Energy and others. Expectations are the two funding organizations will disperse the funds quickly with current projects being expanded. Also expect a number of facilities upgrades to compliment the expanded research. With science receiving limited funding in recent years, it would be exciting to see the majority of the funding going to areas that were important in the presidential campaign: energy and healthcare.

State universities could use this opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowd for the next decade by deciding to optimize outputs through large collaborations with other universities. Further, it would be exciting to see the next boom in venture capital funding follow the Obama stimulus funding. A decade of economic growth could easily follow in renewable energy, healthcare, and informatics.

Many communities are waiting to see the direction higher education will decide to pursue. Will it be more of the same, or will universities step up with innovation that is noteworthy? Academic leaders must decide the next steps; the actions in the next year will set the direction for the next decade. State universities will be forced to reevaluate every aspect of the curriculum as budget cuts take their toll. The universities that can limit administrative and academic duplication statewide will be able to invest wisely in emerging academic programs across the sciences. It is time for the CAO to step up and lead.

Stimulus Funding Planning

It is time for Presidents (CAOs) to decide what steps to take: the following is a guideline for senior university leadership. This is presented in a sense of priority, but each university must interpret the legislation in light of their circumstances. The final legislation resulted in projects that require one-time funding, limiting federal and state exposure to long-term commitments. Initially, NSF, NIH, and Energy should be busy distributing the additional funds. Student financial aid appears a winner across the nation providing needed tuition for lean budgets. Funding that would stabilize operating budgets and funding to provide deferred maintenance were the losers.

Recommendation:

1. Focus on enrollment management with university staff. Each university should be in the middle of the enrollment cycle and staffed to handle this task. The CAO must decide how the stimulus funding will impact the incoming class—no easy task. It will be tempting to listen to the student’s request for admission and accept the increase in grants and aid to support higher education. The problem is stimulus funding that ensured state support for higher education was the largest single cut in the budget. End result will be pressure from students for admittance without offsetting funding for staff and faculty salaries.
   
   
2. Identify shovel projects that will “green” your campus. I expect every campus has a list of deferred maintenance projects; focus on projects that make your campus energy efficient. You will need projects you can begin immediately so you should have a task force underway to prioritize your spending plans. It is also time to visit the appropriate state offices to ensure your university receives a fair share--lobbying is not a dirty word. It appears the funding will be distributed in block grants to the state.
   
   
3. Research universities with medical centers should evaluate if they are prepared to request funding for electronic medical records. University hospitals and clinics that have only given passing interest will be at a disadvantage in becoming shovel-ready quickly; others who are committed will be ready to request funding, and statewide projects appear to be in the best position to receive funding.

More on iPhone Applications

We've mentioned previously that creating relevant campus applications for the iPhone is one of many student services that IT departments should give attention to in 2009. Several items I have seen recently have reminded me of just how important this is.

Abilene Christian University is the first of likely many universities to incorporate the iPhone into campus life; while this video is a dramatization, it does give us a picture of what future iPhone applications could do for the classroom and for everyday student life. Imagine a world where the iPhone really is a student's "campus lifeline"--the video is worth a look. (Incidentally, ACU has an impressive information commons in the library; I attended a presentation from their director last year and made a few notes.)

Speaking of libraries, I wrote a bit recently about a new iPhone application which allows users to search the library catalog, place holds, and view summaries/book jackets. The code will eventually be available to other libraries so that they too can build iPhone applications for their local catalogs.

A post today on The Chronicle's Wired Campus blog discusses a new iPhone application created by Georgia Tech students which provides an interface to several campus services. The application gives students iPhone-friendly access to campus email, a campus map, a bus schedule, and the course management system. One particularly nifty feature is that the application also includes a real-time computer availability map to see when a machine is available in their information commons. This is seriously cool.

Incidentally a librarian had suggested that the students incorporate the computer availability map into their application. He has a very good point about the importance of working together to build applications:

It is easy for us (as librarians) to complain that we don’t have money or staff to develop cool things—but sometimes that’s ok, because maybe we can partner with those who are (doing cool things) and get our materials and resources included in their work. Instead of investing our time in “a library app” we can attach ourselves to an already popular and successful app and gain a wider audience.

I couldn't agree more. So as IT departments (or groups of students) look to building iPhone applications, consider working with libraries and other campus departments to incorporate important student resources into your applications. Those applications will be far more valuable to students, and certainly we librarians will thank you for it.

The Obama Stimulus Plan: Thoughts for University Presidents/CAOs

Mr. President, you are two months away from making several very hard decisions. As you look at your state budget revenue and the demise of your endowment funds, you are about to make budget cuts you had hoped you would never have to implement. To confuse matters further, the House has passed the Obama stimulus plan, and the Senate will follow shortly. Once Obama signs the legislation, you will face two additional pressures.

First, you will have a pot of gold to further fund Pell Grants—a good problem that could allow you to increase your total tuition revenue without having to implement double-digit tuition increases. This itself will offset pressure from the state legislatures to freeze tuition rates, but the downside is the state legislature will be tempted to pass larger state budget cuts to universities. This will be a political football that could really help or make planning almost impossible. One bit of good news is that states must meet a minimum level of higher education spending in order to receive funding from the stimulus plan, assuming that language holds in the Senate.

Second, the Obama plan could fund a number of new research building projects and even more deferred maintenance projects. One-time funding for the projects will appear to be manna from heaven. The operation and maintenance budgets will not increase with the stimulus funding, leaving Presidents/CAOs with greater pressure on the operations budget that the state will likely ignore.

The stimulus funding will result in the appearance of growth and activity. The lack of state funding for operating budgets and the continued pressure on lower endowment funds will result in sleepless nights for many Presidents. The next two years will be the most difficult in the recent decade.

The Cloud and Libraries

Most libraries, including university libraries, typically offer at least a few computers available for use by the general public. In the university library, the purpose of these machines is primarily to provide the general public with access to the library catalog, subscription databases, and in the case of federal depository libraries, government information. For obvious reasons these public machines are pretty locked down, and they generally offer few applications beyond a web browser and perhaps word processing software. Some libraries have moved toward thin client solutions, but many still manage expensive desktops which barely make use of the 80GB or more hard drives. Utilizing cloud technologies could potentially make these machines easier to manage and less costly. Read more on the ALA TechSource blog.

Interesting Student Technologies in 2009

2009 will be a challenging year for universities as campus needs, budgets, and technologies all struggle for our attention. Some key student needs/expectations in 2009:

1. iPhone is the real winner. The iPhone will challenge university IT departments to offer students information in a new user interface. IT departments must develop new applications to allow students to use student information systems and course management systems on mobile devices, particularly the iPhone. Facebook sets a high standard on the iPhone interface that must be met by IT departments.

2. Online course response systems are driving students crazy. Students are requesting university IT departments standardize on a single course response clicker. Currently faculty members are establishing contracts with textbook publishers to use proprietary clickers. Students will demand a single standard clicker for all classes. Several universities have developed course response software for cell phones, and it would be wonderful if Turning Point would establish an iPhone application.

3. Students want universities to develop team study environments. Libraries have taken the lead here with the popular information commons model. Libraries that developed information commons are enjoying success and are finding record numbers of students visiting. The information commons that are most successful are those which are partnerships of multiple campus units, such as libraries, IT, and teaching/learning centers. A good source of information about the commons environment is Stacey Greenwell’s blog, The Uncommon Commons.

4. Facebook is the meeting place for college students. Universities that understand this and successfully integrate Facebook with campus systems will be relevant. Information Technology departments that ignore social networking will be ignored by students.

5. Google and Microsoft have developed very good collaborative tools for the university marketplace. Collaborative learning is very popular with high school and college students, and students have already adopted many free online collaborative tools. University IT departments must find ways to support both Microsoft and Google tools in their customer support centers.

The Tower and the Cloud

In addition to The Big Switch, The Tower and the Cloud is another must-read for those interested in the effects of cloud computing on IT as we know it. The Tower and the Cloud is a collection of essays focused specifically on higher education and how these technologies will impact higher education institutions and the IT organization. Librarians, CIOs, faculty, and other experts describe the role of technology in the higher education enterprise and predict where we are headed in the future.

The entire volume is available online.

Managing the Funding Gap

In the current economic environment, it's impossible to avoid our funding situation and what the future may hold. With this blog less than one month old, we've already commented on the future of technology funding on campus and expect many more posts around that topic.

Managing the Funding Gap: How Today’s Economic Downturn Is Impacting IT Leaders and Their Organizations, an EDUCAUSE whitepaper from a December 2008 ECAR Symposium, describes some immediate and long-term responses to the current funding environment. How can you make the best of this difficult situation? Read the full whitepaper online.

2009 Horizon Report Now Available

The Horizon Report, a project co-published by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, is one of those must-read reports that I look forward to each year (view past reports). The report focuses on emerging technologies for teaching and learning and identifies a timeline for mainstream adoption. The report includes specific examples and challenges, as well as key trends. This year's predictions:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
Mobiles
Cloud Computing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
Geo-Everything
The Personal Web

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
Semantic-Aware Applications
Smart Objects

Read the full 2009 Horizon Report online.

Funding Technology on Campus

An update on the state of funding at universities seems to be in order. Two months have passed since we discussed the importance of finances on translational technologies and uncertainty in the traditional higher education revenue resources has moved to gloom. State revenue continues to drop and the pressure from unemployment insurance payments are unprecedented, draining remaining state reserves. It is clear additional funding from the state will be nonexistent in all but a very few states. The stock market remains unstable without near term hope for a recovery that would help endowment funds. The only glimmer of hope is scholarship funding; the financial markets' deterioration has had minimal impact on student financial aid.

The remaining hope of many Presidents (CAOs) is the Obama stimulus plan. The initial draft is available and higher education projects were not omitted. The clear winner is funding for science and ensuring facilities are energy efficient. The Obama plan attempts to stabilize budget cuts to 2008 levels. The breath of fresh air was funding for science research and research facilities. Another real plus is funding for scholarships.

An obvious omission in the Obama stimulus plan is funding for campus technologies, computing, or networking. It is clear the Obama plan considers the state of technology at most universities acceptable without need of stimulus funding. This will require the CIO to focus on funding technology projects with traditional funding that is in short supply. The future remains uncertain for campus technology departments. The traditional methods of delivering applications is under considerable pressure. The next 24 months will be very interesting as cloud vendors offer campus solutions to technology requirements, and the CIO will have to decide their University’s strategy for the future.

Translational Technologies on the Academic Front

Historically, academic computing at universities has basked in the shadow of academic freedom. This implies that issues related to supporting the faculty and student has been open to an unstructured environment. It is often possible to find multiple technologies deployed to support a single campus-wide need...an example would be course management systems like Blackboard or Moodle. Often you will find multiple course management systems at a university. The diversity has led to innovation that is often not evident in other areas of the campus IT department. Going forward it appears the instructional areas of information technology will need to become standardized. This does not mean the innovation will be absent, but does imply local control will possibly give way to “cloud applications.” I predict the course management vendors will begin to migrate applications to the “cloud” to ensure a place in the marketplace. I would not be surprised to see Microsoft to offer a course management system to compliment the “Live” services it is promoting to the higher education world. I would expect the other leading vendors to respond aggressively. Do not be surprised to find you will have alternatives to campus-based solutions by 2010.

The good news is the cloud solutions will remove the many “religious wars” that take place today on whose application is the best and focus attention on developing course content. The migration to the cloud will also encourage many campus IT departments to address authentication and authorization using directory federation. Simply put, campus IT staff will be responsible for ensuring its student and faculty are legitimate, and the course management vendor will be able to offer virtual meeting services between higher education institutions. I have high expectations that this service will offer faculty solutions that will enhance their course materials at a very reasonable cost the university. This concept has been maturing in the social networking world and will be easily portable to the academic community.

Next, consumerization of IT will influence campus technology solutions in instructional computing. Campus IT will have to recognize its ability to “tell” users what to use to login is limited. The user will vote with their pocketbook on what device they want to use to access campus applications, some will use a laptop, others will want to use an iPhone, and many will want to use the computer in the home or office. Bottom line is the campus IT department will need to know what the end-user is using and ensure the campus applications will work with that device. The cloud vendors will offer the faculty and students this flexibility. We can be sure the device of choice is going to become increasingly mobile. Over the next 24 months faculty and students are going to migrate to the “smartphone” or “netbook.” The campus IT support organization will need to react to the needs of the user community. Good news is the faculty or student is going to pay for the mobile device, the bad news is the campus must be nimble and able to react to the needs of its community.

The changes coming to instructional computing will be positive to the university. Campus IT departments that are customer embracing will have little difficulty adapting to the emerging environment. Universities that resist the change will find the faculty and students will become frustrated and will use resources offered off campus when possible. The truth is the user community will be strongly influencing IT’s decision and that is good.

They say timing is everything...

Presidents (CAOs) must be prepared to make hard choices this fall. There is a little hope—the smoke has not cleared enough to determine if the fiscal outcome is good for the university or just another mirage. All campus leaders are hoping the winter is mild and the significant increase in energy costs will be marginalized to a manageable number, though it is still too early to count on this savings. Next in line is the Obama incentive funding programs, a long shot, but helps many campus leaders sleep at night. Most leaders have worked with state governors and Washington lobbyists to ensure their university gets a fair amount of the funds available. Early reports suggest the Presidents (CAOs) have listed all the building programs that are ready to build and are awaiting funding. In addition, the leadership has developed a list of all the deferred maintenance which has accumulated in the past decade. It is quite possible the number the Obama incentive tallies will be staggering, and when weighed against the job creating (non-university) projects, universities will be dismayed in the final distribution.

A truly innovative university would take quite the opposite approach. I would be interested in identifying any plan to invest in innovative new programs that would provide the country visible forward-looking leadership that is clearly charting a new direction whose results would provide answers to private industry and government. (Don’t hold your breath on this one). It could be a university reinventing itself to establish relevancy with the public, it could be a new model of offering degrees that make sense and really tackle today’s problems in medicine, education, and environment. Another idea would be innovative funding for research, such as the goals of NIH to fund translational medicine. Problem is all of the above are long shots, and the university needs revenue today to continue paying the faculty, investing in student scholarships, and paying staff. In addition, rising costs of facilities are unmanageable.

This leads us to where the President is going to identify the revenue required to maintain the university. The problem is all normal funding streams are receding or just not offering any hope. State budgets are declining at unprecedented levels – it is not uncommon to be asked to cut state funds 10% per year. Few states are in the position of West Virginia or Arkansas that have a state surplus. Even the states’ rainy day funds are depleted, and budget cuts are often and deep. Problems with the endowment funds declining are causing institutions like Harvard to reevaluate how to fund academic programs. What alternatives does a President have remaining to assist in managing across this fiscal perfect storm?

An area that has always proposed to be the tool to manage the university is the campus Enterprise Management System (ERP). It is time to reap the benefits of the multimillion dollar investments. CIOs have justified the ERP application on two returns. The first savings was to make information available to departments to make informed decisions. This is a measurable outcome, and the CIO needs to show university leaders examples of this working. If not, the CIO must be prepared to justify continued investments in ERP applications. The second promise of ERP savings was the reduction of staff. With information being input one time and used many times, the university should be more efficient. Again it is time for the CIO to identify the amount of savings for the university. If the ERP application has not provided this reduction, many across campus will remind the administration the funding for the ERP application might have been better spent investing in more faculty or upgraded classrooms.

Today it looks like the initial budget cuts are going to come from the traditional lines in the budget: reduce operational expenses and cut staff. After many years of using the same tools, the university is at the point of not being functional in important areas (more about this later). To complicate the issue further, students and faculty are demanding the technology tools they are personally purchasing be connected to the university computing systems. Consumerization is new to many CIOs, and the options available to integrate faculty and student devices (iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) marginalize the CIO’s ability to control his community of interest. Technology could be one of the innovative tools used to assist the President in transforming university funding models. Technology unchanged will become an albatross. The CIO will not be able to justify further funding and will often be required to undergo a significant budget cut.

Cisco’s John Chambers (Cisco CEO) states that in times like this you can do one of two things: retrench until capital is available to finance future projects, or you can identify certain areas that can provide you a competitive advantage and invest heavily while others are not. A perfect example of this is the current Disney investment in a new theme park in China. So your CIO should be able to offer your alternatives today, they should reflect one of the two methods Chambers cites above. At that time the President must decide if his vision for the future of the university is the same as the CIO’s or decide if it is time for change.

Evolving Customer Support Model

A significant change we are already seeing, and we expect will become more widespread is that IT support will not necessarily be based in IT but at the point of need. One emerging model to support this found at many research universities is the Information/Learning Commons which typically combines multiple library, technology, writing, and other instructional support services in one convenient, student-friendly location. The kind of assistance offered here includes but moves beyond resetting of passwords and other basic functions. Offering technology assistance from the point of learning can strengthen the connection between relevant technology tools and academic tasks. It is evident that both IT and the library, as well as other support units, must continue to evolve in order to remain relevant. The Information/Learning Commons encourages a blending of strengths of the organizations which makes support much more successful.

While I write about Information Commons-related issues on my blog, The Uncommon Commons, I will be discussing the commons here as it relates to technology support. Over the last year our campus has expanded the commons concept beyond the library and into the campus computer labs. We'll discuss that in more detail, as well as future plans and other changes that have made support more seamless for students and faculty.

Top 5 Issues for Presidents and CAOs in 2009

The top five translational technology issues Presidents and Chief Academic Officers will pay attention to in 2009:

1. Funding issues will top the list for many reasons, the greatest being all revenue sources will be at their lowest point in years and relief is not in sight. State funding is being slashed, endowments are low, and student financial aid is problematic. The funding issues will cause the Office of the President to consider reducing expenses in all areas; one area of interest will be technology. A new funding model will emerge.

2. Chief Information Officers will be asked to consider new ways of doing business. Many universities will follow the University of Washington and sharply cut technology development budgets expecting the CIO to find the resources needed in the Web 2.0 world rather than developing specialty software applications on campus.

3. Presidents (CAOs) will finally ask hard questions about the university technology organization. Duplication of staff will be of primary interest. The questions will be a result of financial pressures, but will also have momentum from projects other universities are undertaking. An example of this will be the question: “Why are we still buying hardware and software to provide student email?”

4. Presidents (CAOs) will evaluate where the CIO should report in the organization. In recent years the CIO has moved from the President’s cabinet to the Chief Financial Officer or the Provost. The trend will not subside and a greater number of CIOs will not report directly to the President.

5. Consumerization of the campus technology infrastructure will become important as students and faculty request equipment such as the iPhone to be connected to the university's administrative and academic applications . CIOs will be expected to address integration of consumer products into the campus enterprise architecture.

The book that started it all

My interest in cloud computing began after reading Nicholas Carr's book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google. Doyle had suggested it to me and was so impressed with the book that he gave copies to his staff. We had several lively discussions about the book which ultimately led us to where we are now, writing and presenting on how the cloud will change higher education IT as we know it.

If you haven't read Carr's book yet, we encourage you to do so. Carr draws a thoughtful, carefully constructed analogy between the evolution of the power utility and the future of computing. The idea of computing as a utility is not new, and especially not now, a year after the book was published, but it makes for very interesting reading. What I find particularly compelling is covered in the second half of the book--the economic and social impact of cloud computing, i.e. what will this all mean for us?

That will be one of the main topics of discussion on this blog--stay tuned.

What is Translational Technology?

As a result of translational technologies, colleges and universities are at the precipice of change in technology deployment. Translational technology is the perfect blend of three organizational shifts in deploying technology to the university community. The first change is the consumerization of technology deployment to all segments of the IT community. The second change is increasingly receiving the attention of early technology adopters and can best be defined by the term “cloud computing.” The final organizational change is the shift of technology decision-making away from the IT department, a result of the current financial markets and the eventual death of traditional IT funding sources.

Many university IT organizations might have managed their way through one or two of the above changes but will be challenged to overcome the concurrent momentum from the total environmental shift. Most IT departments will oppose these changes and will grasp the power found in past campus IT models. Tomorrow’s leaders are already embracing the change and are welcoming the transition that ultimately results in a customer friendly and organizationally relevant technology leader.

This blog will discuss these and other changes on campus as well as how to successfully transition into the support organization of the future. You'll learn more about how we got here--funding models, Web 2.0 applications, millennial culture--as well as where we're headed--IT as service provider, distributed customer support, trends in unified communications, cloud-based services, new university partnerships, and more. We'll describe how to get away from "mother-may-I" IT and move into a more open, user-embracing environment. We'll post examples, best practices, suggested reading, and commentary on navigating this shift in IT culture. Join us on this journey into the new era of IT.