November 2010 Archives

We all know that mobile devices are becoming an ever-present factor in the IT strategy for an organization. I've discussed before that mobile devices are the "Web 3.0".

PC World wrote an article, Secret Life of the Mobile User, that raises several interesting and important issues facing IT Directors as mobile devices become more prevalent. The key issues:

1. Some mobile generation gaps do exist

On average, 69% of mobile workers use a smartphone for job-related duties. Here, a surprising generation gap emerges: More than 70% Baby Boomers use a smartphone for work, versus 59% for Millennials.

2. iPhones and Androids will rule the mobile roost

The transition to mobile is happening very fast, and users expect these devices to be real computers, not mere messaging devices. Surveys suggest these two platforms will dominate mobile business usage, with iPhones at 42.4% of smartphones, and Android smartphones comprising 23.8%.

3. Personal and business use are already highly mixed

The iPass survey found that 58.2% of mobile workers had used a personal device for work, and that percentage didn't vary based on age. Nearly half of employees (46.2%) regularly use their own smartphones for work.

4. The risks of mobile devices

A constant concern in IT and legal circles is what happens if a mobile device is lost or stolen and has corporate data on it. 14.3% of mobile workers had lost their smartphones or had them stolen. And that's higher for workers aged 22-34 (22.9%) and for those who used their own devices (20.0%).

So maybe it's not such an unreasonable question to ask, "Who should own your smartphones?", as PC World did in March this year. Are employment agreements a way to protect data on mobile devices? Read the article for an interesting summary of the risks around mobile devices and policies.

(Thanks to SW for the links.)

Now that Dr Kaler has been named the new president of the University of Minnesota, a lot of us may wonder what are his views about education, innovation, technology. Here is an interview with Dr Kaler from last year, when he was Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University. It's a campus-oriented interview show similar to Tech Talk from OIT, when it ran on PBS.

In the interview, Dr Kaler talks about the future of the "smart classroom", as the next step in student learning. It's an interesting discussion about delivery of content in the classroom, active learning, and taking the lead in education.

Thanks to my friend SW for the link.

As you now know, the Board of Regents unanimously supported the appointment of Dr. Eric W. Kaler to the position of the 16th President of the University of Minnesota. President-designate Kaler will begin July 1, 2011. As stated in the announcement: "Regents are impressed with Dr. Kaler's ability to relate to various constituencies, his academic credentials and leadership experience, as well as his proven ability to be an agent for change in higher education."

A number of us attended (perhaps virtually) the public forum with President-designate Kaler that was held last week. As we look ahead to this transition, we can glean insights by observing the points he delivered during Dr. Kaler's speech. Ann Hill Duin (Associate VP and Associate CIO, OIT) noted in her OIT weekly email these key points made by Dr. Kaler:

1. The future is about excellence.
2. Costs must shrink quickly to provide for the academic core.
3. Key to internationalization is increased numbers of students studying abroad.
4. Shared governance is critical; open communication and collaboration is key.
5. He favors patents (despite his own "cautionary tale" here), commercialization, partnerships with industry, incubators.
6. The liberal arts are central to our mission; he will invest here.
7. ESPs = extremely stupid procedures; one example is non sharing of tuition (across colleges) to support interdisciplinary teaching.
8. He plans restructuring of the University in terms of how we do business.
9. Programs across our campuses should be complementary and not competitive.
10. Donations / private gifts are key.
11. Diversity and access: he would bring the Stony Brook EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) model here. At Stony Brook, as a result of this program, graduation rates of African American students exceed that of their white student counterparts.
12. Supports public engagement and service learning.
13. Lifelong learning and supportive institutes are important (at this point he stated that "Macs represent a higher earth form."
14. Sports and athletics are a "window into the University" for prospective students; they enhance our visibility across the country.
15. Regarding eLearning, he would "evaluate the landscape," looking to identify "differential niche" areas; he supports digital and media recording of lectures to support student learning.
16. Regarding the Health Sciences, there should be "zero barriers" between provostal areas and AHC areas.
17. He will use a business consulting firm to evaluate administrative costs; he'll look to streamline business practices, look for best practices.
18. He was asked about assaults on campuses and clearly will address all safety needs.
19. He has much background regarding understanding/appreciation of and work with unions.
20. We need to identify the right types of help/need in support of our graduate students.
21. He came to the University of Minnesota - for excellence.
22. His most difficult decision (along with the President) at Stony Brook - was closing undergraduate programs at their Southhampton satellite campus.
23. Non-faculty staff/help are integral; he learned the ropes of being a department chair - from his executive assistant.
24. He plans to visit every department at the University of Minnesota.
25. We need to be eco-friendly. All facilities should be Lead certified buildings.
26. The current budget model is not a good one; it needs demystification.
27. Advising is critical; quality of the undergraduate experience is imperative, along with courses offered in a timely fashion, communication, career advisement, financial aid, scholarships, and student connections to "something beyond academics."

In short, President-designate Kaler stated that his vision is:

• to be a premier institution in the U.S.
• to provide a stellar undergraduate experience
• to make athletics more visible
• to be a student-centered institution.

Thus, we embark on the next era at the University of Minnesota. We have prepared for this transition, and we embrace shared leadership in support of excellence.

Earlier this week, we updated the University of Minnesota Morris web site with an improved "Directory lookup" feature. Working with University Relations, we believe this will help users across the campus find people more easily.

Clicking the "Directories" link at the top of any UMM web page now brings you to directory.morris.umn.edu/ - feel free to bookmark this page! I would like to share a few notes about the new "Directories" page:

Looking for someone at the Morris campus?

• The new "Directories" page has a "Search for People" that defaults to Morris, making it easier to find people. You can do partial name searches - on the first name, last name, or both. For example, searching for "J Hall" or "Jim H" will quickly return results for "Jim Hall". More complete information will give a better search.

Looking for something on a web site?

• As always, you can search the University of Minnesota web site using the "Go" box in the right-hand column of any UMM web page. The new "Directories" page has a "Search Web Sites" with the option to pull up advanced search options, to quickly narrow down your search to just those pages that interest you.

Need a printed directory?

• The printable telephone directory is available as "Telephone Extensions" on the right-hand column of the new "Directories" page. This is the same as the blue printed directory, which is distributed across campus every other year.

We have removed the student PO box lookup function, as email is the official student communication at the University of Minnesota. This email policy was adopted by the vice chancellors in 2007.

However, we understand that some faculty and staff sometimes need to send printed materials to student PO boxes. The Office of Information Technology at the Twin Cities campus is working to add PO box information to the "Search for People" when searching for Morris students. Until this is ready, Clare Dingley (Registrar) has made a version of the PO box data available through NetFiles. Please contact Clare directly if you need access to this.

If you listened to KUMM on Sunday, November 7, you heard the announcement that the University of Minnesota Morris is migrating its e-mail service to Google. Through our arrangement with Google, all faculty, staff, and students will have access to Google Apps Mail and Calendar using your University account. Your e-mail address does not change.

I would like to share our status in this effort:

• Staff units have completed their conversion to Google. If you believe your group was missed, please contact me.

• Through discussion with the Consultative Committee, faculty divisions (including Athletics) will migrate starting in November. I am scheduled to meet with every division during this month.

• We have activated all faculty, staff, and students for the migration to Google, but you pick the time to opt into the new service. You can do your e-mail migration at a time that is most convenient for you. (Note that Google opt-in may be unavailable until Sunday, November 21 for some new users, due to server maintenance at the Twin Cities campus.)

• Retirees and alumni will be contacted at a later time with details. The Twin Cities campus is working out additional details necessary to support these users. This will be a separate communication, and should go out before Spring 2011.

Migrating to Google is simple:

1. Go through your e-mail, and make sure you don't have any messages that are larger than 25MB. The migration process is unable to transfer e-mail this large, and will not let you start the conversion if you have messages over 25MB.

2. Towards the end of the day, when you will not use e-mail for a while, login to your Internet Account Options page.

3. You should see a link to "Google Account Options". Click this link, which will guide you through the rest of the steps to migrate your e-mail to Google. The migration process is automatic; you do not need to remain logged in after starting your conversion.

4. The next day, login to your new Google Mail account - or, click on "Webmail" at the top of any University of Minnesota Morris web page, then click on "Gmail".

For more details, visit our Google Initiative page.

During this transition, the Cougarmail service will remain available to everyone. However, Cougarmail is scheduled to be retired after May 2011. Similarly, UMCal will be retired Summer 2011.

Following up on last week's post about writing well, I'd like to address another important area of communication: impromptu presentations.

A few years ago, I had lunch with University president Robert Bruininks, as part of a celebration for a large project having just been implemented. He joined us late into the event, and happened to sit next to me. During lunch, our table shared stories and milestones about the project. I noticed Bruininks would occasionally take out a Post-It, and jot down a note.

When lunch was over, president Bruininks gave a short speech to the collected audience, thanking us for our hard work on the project, and giving his own view of how this project will benefit the university.

And throughout his speech, he continually referred back to his Post-It note. That was his speech! Unless I'd been sitting next to president Bruininks during lunch, I'd have thought he was reading from a prepared presentation. It was a great example of how to make a great speech on short notice.

Here are a few tips I gleaned about giving an impromptu speech:

1. Tell a story. Providing the background for a project, putting it in context, can make your speech more interesting. This also helps fill in the initial gap while you put your thoughts in order. "Five years ago, we had a vision to ..." or "When we started this project, our goals were ..." are great starters.

2. Keep a few stock phrases handy. If you know these phrases well, you can recite them automatically while composing your next thought. For example, these are often the same phrases you memorize as "elevator discussion points" about your project, to quickly and easily summarize the effort when someone asks you about it on the way to work.

3. Know your numbers. While I'm sure this was an unprepared speech, president Bruininks was familiar with the numbers and was able to give us a few on the spot. In particular, how much this would save the University in terms of budget dollars.

4. Find a new "Umm". This is something I've tried to adopt. Stuck for the next thing to say? The default for most people is to say "Umm", but that just signals that you are searching for a thought. Instead, train yourself to use a different bridge. "For example, ..." and "Next, ..." are good short pauses that won't lose your audience.

5. Keep it smooth. A key to giving a good unprepared speech is to maintain your cool, and don't race through your presentation. Give every talking point the time it needs. Signal your ending with "Finally" or "In conclusion" so your audience stays with you.

Michael C. Munger's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly, is an excellent "top 10" list for improving your written communication. Munger writes:

Most academics, including administrators, spend much of our time writing. But we aren't as good at it as we should be. I have never understood why our trade values, but rarely teaches, nonfiction writing.

In my nearly 30 years at universities, I have seen a lot of very talented people fail because they couldn't, or didn't, write. And some much less talented people (I see one in the mirror every morning) have done OK because they learned how to write.

1. Writing is an exercise.


2. Set goals based on output, not input.


3. Find a voice; don't just "get published."


4. Give yourself time.


5. Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant.


6. Pick a puzzle.


7. Write, then squeeze the other things in.


8. Not all of your thoughts are profound.


9. Your most profound thoughts are often wrong.


10. Edit your work, over and over.

As IT leaders, we often get caught up in what the IT world is doing. What's the next generation "server" going to look like? What will virtualization bring? What is the future of computing, and how does the Web fit into that vision? Here's one to pay attention to: Handheld devices.

I believe the next generation of Web-based computing, or "Web 3.0", will be focused on the handheld device. How do mobile devices change the game in other areas of IT? Jennifer Howard writes in her article Publishers Join Forces to Sell E-Books to Libraries from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the future of the E-book on campus.

You know about Amazon's Kindle or Apple's iPad, how you can purchase electronic copies of books to read on this new breed of digital devices. E-books and E-subscriptions turn the traditional publishing industry on its side, and that industry must adapt to it.

But as IT leaders, we need to respond to that change, as well. How will you work with your Library to effect this new paradigm? What changes are required in your organization (IT and abroad) to support electronic delivery?