CTO Greg Smith

If a University CTO is going to have a Blog then sooner or later there should probably be a post about Second Life, SL, or Multiuser Virtual Environments, MUVE. This Post time has come. Second Life is too good to ignore. We have been dabbling in SL for over a year with a fair amount of success. We have land that has been heavily developed below, at and above the surface. We have EdTech folks that have definitely made their mark in this virtual community. We have taught courses in SL that have proven to be effective. We can confirm all of the educationally positive feedback. But we also confirm that SL is a complicated and intimidating place where one needs extra hours to stumble around just to get to a level where these positives start to prove out.

So how will SL fit into Higher Education? First, lets remember that academia has always craved this environment. Already it is all that we dreamed it could be and it is almost free. It will probably only be used by a small percent of technologically adventurous faculty and researchers who will introduce it to willing students. But I believe that it will heavily influence Educational Technology over the next decade. Universities will have their own virtual worlds serving as 3D portals to their collaborative services. Our Learning Management Systems will probably find the most natural migration to this space, Sloodle, being a path for us. SL has proven to eliminate multimedia format barriers and is not a bad option for WebEx style conferencing.

A positive or negative observation is that we see these MUVE’s reintroducing class participation (virtual) to a net generation of students that have been shifting away from human interaction. We may agree that this should not be happening, but if so, we can’t overlook this solution.

I recently went to an interactive presentation on Unified Messaging hosted at a nearby university and delivered by a major email appliance vendor. I was partially interested in products that would be pitched, but mostly I wanted to see how traditional Unified Messaging was going to compete against free Google. Actually I am investigating whether it is a good idea to take that next step with Google.

Well, I learned a lot. I learned that Google is in another category because they actually provide today’s Unified Messaging. It used to be Voice, Fax and Email combined in a single digital message delivery system and the challenge was with mobile devices. I realized things haven’t changed a whole lot with this vendor when I mentioned the importance of coordinating Blogs, Wiki’s, conferencing, IM, Twits, along with the older mediums and the vendor dodged the opportunity and confirmed that they were not into Cloud Computing. In fact the main value point that they tried to push was a more effective way to respond to E-Discovery requests, actually the presentation felt a lot like Washington politician’s pitching the politics of fear.

I have held off from turning over Identity information to Google with the justification that it is better that I know where our communication data resides. And I did not want to have to explain what data harvesting meant to my constituents. But my greatest need is for an Identity Management System to provide a more flexible way to allow my users to collaborate. My Active Directory groups are never going to take me there. I’m talking about ID grouping where the user is in control, like why FaceBook is so successful. And I don’t have $ and Sys Admins to throw at the problem. That is why I may finally go to the Google side.

This is sort of a followup to my previous post where I predict the importance of the Apple Touch. I want to confirm that after spending a few days with the new iPhone/Touch Apps I am convinced that the iPhone has truly changed the course of mobile computing. First of all I am not sure how Apple will meet demand just for the gamers. I am not a serious gamer, but I bought Super Monkey Ball just to experience the gaming interface. Yes it is “Way Cool” but more important it redefines the user interface. Finally there is opportunity for new games. Up till now except for the Wii you had to point and shoot, ride or steer. Now we can again dream about what will be the next “Killer Entertainment App”.

Creativity combined with the best mobile interface will finally drive all of those apps that we just could not justify on the other tiny screen mobile devices. Academic software will steadily flow to this device since “as I mentioned” it will be standard equipment for every college student. The Social Networking apps do extend FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, AIM, GTalk, etc to the mobile student which will cause Universities to worry about their effect. I am still expecting the next generation of the Touch to offer iChat which will vault it to the top of the private communication stack. The medical profession will standardize on this device, just look at EProcrates Rx to understand the significance the display plays for medical validation. Combine that with a camera and live communication and we may finally have a way to offer expert medical diagnosis in the field.

I can’t remember anther point in technology time when the development window was so wide open. Won’t it be an interesting year.

I predict that in the next year the iPhone and/or iTouch will become the dominant mobile device for all college students. And I probably lean that toward the iTouch because of the AT&T factor for the iPhone. What I am really saying is that the “Touch” PDA/IPOD device will be a standard requirement for a college student. This is similar to a like status held in the past by calculators, typewriters and even laptops. But this is not just a new gadget; this is a technology platform transition. Many aspects of academic content delivery are now conducive for using a Touch. This will now change to a trend toward all new academic content delivery will be designed to be conducive for the Touch.

It may not just be Apple’s products but this Apple technology will dominate the arena and other entrants will strive to emulate it. For us IT leaders we now need to adapt our support infrastructure to cater to these devices. The common denominator is WiFi, sure the iPhones will have 3G and beyond, but we will be pushed to expand our WiFi to ensure that all our students with these devices will be connected. So we start thinking WiMAX type coverage and start adapting our network management to cater to many more WiFi devices.

It is great to have High School and College age children to help you understand how the world is changing. We know that Social Networking has exploded both for good and bad. Video distribution via many large sites like YouTube is leading the way. Here is a simple example:
My high school daughter is writing a term paper on Ted Bundy. She has guidelines for types of resources, some web content and other options like videos, books, interviews, etc. Of course teenagers think video so I tell her about a good movie I remember that Mark Harmon was in, “The Perfect Stranger, 1986”. (Feel Old Yet) So what is the preferred means of acquiring an older film today? Something like NetFlix or Blockbuster. Unfortunately the 1986 version is no longer available and the 2004 version is not acceptable for viewing by my teenage daughter. And the books that we requested from the local library have not come in. And of course the draft is due tomorrow.

So last night my daughter tells me that she loves YouTube now, and this statement means something since she does not typically waste a lot of time watching YouTube junk. She loves it now because she was able to watch the A&E documentary on Ted Bundy, the final scene from the 2004 movie which had the important information, a live interview of Ted Bundy along with many other great interviews, etc. She has been able to accomplish a significant academic task thanks to YouTube. Think about what this really means….

Follow-up: my daughter got an A+ on the paper

Just heard a story on OPB this morning about how an ISP wants to charge the heavy residential bandwidth users for their excessive downloads. Independent ISP’s can consider this type of move to help survive for a while longer, but it is just a matter of time before the big players such as Verizon, Comcast, Quest, etc control all this.

But it made me reflect on the role Internet bandwidth has played in dealing with our student customers. Today our students are in bandwidth nirvana. They are eating up our 100+ MBit of Internet Bandwidth with no memories of the frustrations that they faced just a few years earlier when our world was dictated by T1s. So I kind of pieced together the higher education bandwidth milestones as might have been interpreted by a prospective student. This timeline starts at the beginning of the Internet and moves through current day.

1. Can’t wait to become a student just to have an option for a modem account
2. Can’t wait to be on campus to be able to use an Ethernet connection
3. Modem from home is cool, but the University’s campus Internet connection is blazingly fast.
4. Campus network has issues; maybe the home modem option is best.
5. Why can’t I have as much bandwidth at school as I do at home with my parent’s DSL or cable?
6. OK, this is what I expect for my campus connection.

The lesson is basically that we will constantly be trying to keep up with the student expectations. And the new high bandwidth entertainment oriented residential services will again push us to catch up.

It is not that often that a software update exceeds your expectations, however, that is exactly what Apple’s new iChat 4.0 through their Leopard OS has done. Early on I gave Apple a hard time about how iChat seemed to be unimportant to them. With all that Apple was doing with multimedia back in the Tiger generation, iChat seemed pretty tame. The pieces were all there, time was right for an internal Jabber based communications solution and Apple’s QuickTime technology was ready to support A/V communication. Well Apple delivered that and more. The screen sharing, collaboration to 4 connections, flexible file sharing and maybe the critical feature that finally makes A/V computer-to-computer communication desirable; a voice algorithm that does not require headsets. Unfortunately this is only available on Apple computers running Leopard. But Apple’s new iChat is so good it justifies moving more rapidly to an all Apple campus. And it justifies campaigning for someone to build an A/V capable PC Jabber client; maybe Apple is working on this.

We are now promoting our iChat Jabber Server here at GFU, which means we have opened up the required firewall ports so that it works most everywhere for our account holders. Actually the problem connections now occur when trying to connect to a colleague at another university. I predict that Apple’s iChat will justify opening up the required ports similar to the web’s port 80. But for now we begin to take advantage of this tool. I point you to an excellent YouTube video, “Apple iChat and Student/Instructor Collaboration”, by artistatech that demos how iChat is changing campus communications.

I witnessed something today that may be the greatest indicator that Microsoft’s roll out of Vista is truly a disaster. I sat in on our monthly meeting for our student employees. These students represent the “techies” on campus and even though we are moving toward Apple, many of these students personally use a Microsoft PC. The discussion was centered around changes for next year. So a student asked “Do we have any plans to support Vista”. The question was answered with a truthful, “We have no plans to support Vista”. The group of about 40 students responded with cheers and applause. I was immediately struck with flashbacks of previous releases of Microsoft where my IT student workers wanted to support new releases such as 98, 2000 and XP before IT officially required it. I consider this a significant data point for Microsoft since these students are the technology evangelists for their generation. Oh well, Microsoft understands, the release of the Yahoo OS will help.

I’ve been preparing for the video storm that has been approaching our campus for a few years now. The infrastructure part has been easy, bigger Internet pipe, video servers, disk arrays, file format and player strategies. We worked out security issues with VOD content from PBS and production issues by producing Chapel Podcasts. So we know how to do it, but should IT be the leader of this video explosion?

Last week our president returned from the NCAA meetings inspired by how many institutions are using YouTube for recruiting and marketing their programs. Combine that with our interviewing for a new VP of Marketing and we have final validation that video via your website is where we need to be. Now I’m fearfully aware that IT is the only group ready to manage all of these video production and distribution issues. Something tells me that this will be just like IT driving the early web and I have a feeling I will be just as happy to turn it over to Marketing when they are ready.

So survival mode probably leads me toward YouTube. Sure we will continue to enhance our VOD and iTunesU is growing rapidly. But YouTube will save us, because it just works and it defines acceptable quality. My strategy now will be to optimize Apple Leopard’s new Podcast Server so that I can automate as much of the postproduction work as possible. I just wish this video storm was not so large and moving so fast.

George Fox University, GFU, has decided to transition the undergraduate laptop program to offer only Apple MacBooks instead of the Apple or PC choice. This decision brings our “Computers Across Curriculum, CAC, program full circle back to Apple Only. The CAC program originated 20 years ago offering a Macintosh computer to undergraduates as a marketing move financed by a tuition increase. The program has been successful on all fronts by maintaining a focus on enhancing the academic experience through technology. During the dark age of Apple educational computing 1995-98 GFU transitioned to all PC laptops. Moving to laptops was the obvious choice for our CAC program and Apple totally missed the boat on early laptop design. Then Steve Jobs came back and bet the bank on OS X and recommitted to education. And now we will move back to an Apple only offer next fall. Well, not quite that dramatic, our students will be able to run Microsoft Windows if they desire. However, we would not expect a major adoption of the Windows option since only 30% chose Windows this year.

We have been debating this move for the last couple of months. The expected areas for concern were the engineering and business programs. Compatibility testing proved that the intel based Apple laptop was truly a Windows PC with a minor adjustment to simulate the right mouse key. One of the more spirited arguments centered on whether our students might find themselves in a competitive disadvantage in careers that are heavily PC dominated. This did not turn out to be a critical issue, but I would say that the opposite might actually be the result. I would have great confidence in a hiring a recent college grad that was totally comfortable working on an apple. An Apple user today is very aware of the best computing tool for the job. By that I mean, your computing expertise should not be defined by the applications that you use. A presentation is not required to be a PowerPoint, it could be a Keynote, webpage, or Podcast. A spreadsheet is about rows columns and formulas; it doesn’t matter if it is Excel or Numbers. Shouldn’t your terminal or command mode work from UNIX instead of DOS. Unfortunately our greatest concern will be to make sure that our faculty are comfortable teaching classes dominated by this more open computing environment. Many courses with a technology component are defined by their references to Microsoft Office applications. But helping faculty to keep up with their student’s use of technology is nothing new.

Here is the link to the video stream of our recent Campus Apple Event