Humans Need Not Apply
This is a very intriguing video about the consequences of smarter and more numerous robots. The end of the video, where the author outlines an argument for those industries which will be hit the hardest, is scary.
ServiceNow – Early Assessment
In January, Information Technology switched to ServiceNow, an IT service management platform that is widely considered to be one of the best in the world. ServiceNow is currently used to support our incident management process (e.g., tickets) and service management (e.g., ordering, accounts, software). In the future, ServiceNow can support virtually all of the things [...]
What is work?
It seems like a pretty basic question. But we've learned through experience that classifying our work into different categories allows us to plan our time more efficiently and document what we do resulting in greater transparency. So, what is work? Work is defined as anything that expends human resources. In IT, we divide the work [...]
The Way Forward
It seems that lots of Tier I Universities are paying millions of dollars to consultants to assess their IT offerings and make recommendations. One example is Cornell, who had their assessment done by Bain a number of years ago. After watching this video, I was surprised by the similarity not only of our current IT situation [...]
Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?
This morning, the Chronicle reported a data breach at Indiana that was a result of a file copied to the wrong folder. It included data affecting 146,000 students - BAM! The kicker was that the file had been sitting there for "nearly a year" and nobody realized it. This type of breach needs to be [...]
Resistance is futile
The EDUCAUSE Horizon Report 2013 gives wearable computing a four to five year horizon before we begin seeing a significant showing of the technology in our hallowed halls. Checkout this video from CES this month. The possibilities are very intriguing.
Where Are MOOCs Headed?
WHAM! A new article published by the Chronicle of Higher Ed recounts some serious self-appraisal from the founder of Udacity, Sebastian Thrun. It seems that MOOCs work if you already have a degree or are among the demographic of highly self-motivated individuals that largely already have access to higher education. This flies in the face of [...]
CryptoLocker Threat and Response
A new computer malware program called CryptoLocker is spreading across campus. Several individuals' computers and even some college share drives have been attacked. The program will make all of your files inaccessible and ask for a ransom to access them again. CryptoLocker disguises itself as a pdf or zip file attached to an email. When the [...]
Tragedy of the Commons
A recent ECAR report cites a tragedy of the commons playing out in the ether of university wireless networks. It seems that the number of "Internet capable devices" is increasing at a steep rate among campus humanoids, most sharply among students. In fact, the prediction is that there will be four devices per student on [...]
The Mobile Quandry
Like many of my colleagues in higher education, I’m struggling to get my head around this mobile thingy. […]