July, 2005

The Edutech Report - July 2005, Full Issue
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Use Information Tunnels to Counter Silos
By Thomas Warger
Information silos are bad, even notorious. The finance office keeps a server that it does not trust central IT to host; then loses a disk, and the finger-pointing starts. Campus police and the dean of students both have some cell phone numbers for students, but the registrar—the official keeper of student contact information has access to neither collection. The art museum, art history department, and the library all have digital images collections, but few people know about all three, and no central search is available. Every campus has its own list. Silos are sets of information locally ordered and protected but more hoarded than shared.

Newsbriefs
EDUCAUSE and COSTS Higher Ed Technology Surveys Will Merge; Learning Initiative Announced

Centralized and Decentralized IT Support: Finding the Right Balance
By Linda Fleit
IT support services, especially for faculty and students, are provided in most institutions through a combination of centralized and decentralized units. At large universities and small colleges, end-user departments will often hire or develop internal IT staff who successfully support their own specialized facilities and programs. This arrangement usually works well in terms of end users acquiring what they need, but concerns are often raised about the cost-effectiveness of such an arrangement.

Edutech Responds
Defining IT poliices and procedures; overheating servers; learning PHP

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