Community

This list of general topics for next fall’s Educause Annual Conference provides some perspective on the breadth, complexity and significance of information technology in higher education:

• Future Trends
• Globalization
• Next-Generation Technologies
• Social Networking
• Sustainability
• Administrative Solutions and Business Process Improvement
• Collaboration Tools and Portals
• Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, and Decision Support
• Document Management and Records Retention
• Enterprise Course Management Systems and Tools
• Integration Solutions, Service Oriented Architecture, and Web Services
• Open and Community Source Solutions
• Digital Content Creation, Preservation, and Retrieval
• Information Literacy and Supporting Scholarship, Teaching, and Learning
• Innovation and Transformation in Information Resources, Outreach, and Services
• Scholarly Communication, Intellectual Property, Copyright and Fair Use
• Accessibility
• Leadership
• Legal Issues, Regulatory Compliance, Campus IT Policies, and Ethics Education
• Managing Resources and Services
• Organization, Staffing, and Funding
• Planning and Assessment
• Professional Development, Mentoring, and Succession Planning
• Strategic Alliances, Collaborations, and Partnerships
• Identity Management
• Infrastructure and Infrastructure Support Services
• Middleware and Integration Services
• Research Computing and Advanced Networking
• Data Privacy and Classification
• Encryption, Cryptology, and PKI
• Regulatory Compliance, Legal and Ethical Issues
• Risk Assessment
• Security Management and Remediation
• Security Policy and Procedures
• Security Technology, Infrastructure, and Architecture
• Course Content
• Faculty Development, Incentives, and Engagement
• Learning Spaces
• Online Learning Distributed, Distance, and Blended Learning Environments
• Student Experience
• Teaching and Learning Assessment and Evaluation
• Classroom and Lab Support
• Client Support and Help Desk
• Desktop Support and Management
• Supporting the Student Experience
• Training

Tags: Governance, Leadership and Management, Policies, Strategy by Gordy Pace
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IT inventories and roadmaps have been added to the IT website. Inventories provide a snapshot of current IT services and resources. Roadmaps depict strategic directions for a number of major IT initiatives. Currently, roadmaps are available for the campus network, identity management, student single sign-on to enterprise systems, and a notification system.

The inventories and roadmaps will continue to expand and evolve. We welcome your comments and feedback to make these resources more helpful.

Tags: Communication, Governance, Leadership and Management, Strategy by Gordy Pace
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An inventory of IT policies is available on the web at http://www.umt.edu/it/inventories/policies.

This “work in progress” attempts to aggregate IT policies and policies with IT implications in one place. It includes Board of Regents policies, official UM policies, and a few departmental operating procedures that have broad impact.

If you have comments, questions or suggestions for improvement, please leave a comment below, or email Gordy Pace.

The policy inventory is one of several IT inventories available at http://www.umt.edu/it/inventories.

Tags: Administrative, Governance, Leadership and Management, Policies by Gordy Pace
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Marketing guru Seth Godin provides us ten principles for creating a great website.

There’s more detail in the post, but here’s a teaser:

1. Fire the committee.
2. Change the interaction.
3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.
4. What works, works.
5. Patience.
6. Measure.
7. Insight is good, clever is bad.
8. If you hire a professional, hire a great one.
9. One voice, one vision.
10. Don’t settle.

What do you think? Can a complex organization like UM meet these standards? Should we even try?

Speaking of #9, some progress was made toward one vision during a campus-wide web strategic planning effort last spring.

Tags: Communication, Governance, Leadership and Management, Strategy, Web by Gordy Pace
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I think it’s critical to involve stakeholders in decisions. I get perturbed when leaders shun input, squelch ideas and horde control of decisions.

I was proud of my colleague Randy last week when he sought feedback from stakeholders about what new soda pop should be added to the IT pop machine. Randy created an online survey (or a ballot . . . the distinction is important) to find out what people wanted. After a few days, the survey (or ballot) closed and Randy emailed the outcome to all concerned.

Like Tom Brokaw declaring Al Gore the winner in Florida in 2000, Randy announced Diet Dr. Pepper to be the winner. The Rootbeerlicans went nuts, quickly declaring the election (or survey) results invalid.

Diet Dr. Pepper, one of 10 choices on the survey-slash-ballot had received six votes. Root beer—a write-in candidate—garnered four votes (there is some evidence of tampering and coercion  in the root beer write-in campaign). The Rootbeerlicans argued that had their candidate been provided equal consideration on the ballot, it would have easily won a spot in the pop machine.

Techie geeks of all caffeinated and carbonated political leanings clamored for influence on the soda pop supreme court, where the final decision appeared to be headed.

Turns out the IT pop machine is ruled by a despot. In a tersely worded edict, Randy declared, “it was a survey, not an election! Diet Dr. Pepper is the winner. Happy Holidays, damn it.” (or something like that).

Your challenge

We make decisions every day that affect our stakeholders. We know we should ask for input, but so often the results are just like the pop machine story. Our decisions polarize and alientate. Create factions. Rile people up. When the next decision needs to be made, we’re wary. It’s human nature to protect ourselves from an onslaught of criticism and vitriol. We start to make the decision in secret. Or we identify potential troublemakers and exclude them from the process.

How would you improve the pop machine decision-making process? How can we ensure that all stakeholders have a voice and still make rational decisions that everyone can accept?

Think about it, then click on the “Add comment” link and share your ideas.

Tags: Governance, Leadership and Management, People, Policies, Strategy by Gordy Pace
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