March 2007 Archives
Two weeks ago (I did some traveling over spring break) at work, I relied significantly on PSU email, Gmail, Blackberry mail, Oracle Calendar, Google docs, Google spreadsheets, Google Calendar, IM, twitter, a handful of wiki's, del.icio.us, and Google reader - with which I stay on top of 11 different ITS web sites (most of which are blogs), 2 higher education web sites, 6 security web sites, and 10 technology web sites (and more). I also go "native" to digg, reddit, slashdot, news.google.com, and the BBC (they cover regions nicely and make it easy to get the news about the area from which my father was born).
In several ITS-internal meetings over the last month, I talked a fair amount about communication and collaboration. I framed the discussion by reminding people how exciting it was to get an email from someone back in the early 90s. Any digital migrant would remember that. Today, those same people (myself included) cringe when an email shows up in the InBox. The good news, and really to me it is great news, is that there an overwhelming number of communication and collaboration tools that give me that same feeling that I had way back when e-mail was just starting.
Communicating and collaborating is invigorating and makes what we do better, and there is really no good excuse not to try and re-capture that feeling - all the while participating in "conversations" that make us all smarter. Some folks like to dismiss the tool of the day as a fad and to a certain extent they are right. Some tools come and go before anyone really notices. But effective communication and collaboration isn't a fad - it's fun and immensely useful.
What are some tools that you use during aa given week that I didn't list above?
If you work or study at Penn State and you haven't heard this acronym (CTSA), you probably will sometime soon. And if you don't, it is a rather large effort that is good to know about.
CTSA stands for Clinical and Translational Science Award and is a program funded out of the National Institutes of Health. NIH is replacing the GCRC (General Clinical Research Center) program with the CTSA program. Penn State was awarded a GCRC back in 1985. While I'm no expert on it, I have been volunteered to co-chair the Biomedical Informatics group that is part of the Penn State effort to develop and submit a successful CTSA proposal. There are 8 groups in total that are developing plans in all sorts of areas:
* Development of Novel Clinical and Translational Methodologies
* Pilot and Collaborative Translational and Clinical Studies
* Biomedical Informatics
* Design, Biostatistics, and Clinical Research Ethics
* Regulatory Knowledge and Support
* Participant and Clinical Interactions Resources
* Community Engagement
* Translational Technologies and Resources
* Research Education, Training and Career Development
Lots more information about the elements of a CTSA proposal and award can be found
on NIH's grants pages. There is hardly an academic discipline that isn't involved in this, it truly is a Penn State effort. I'd love to hear if anyone else bumps into CTSA conversations and goings-on over the next year or so.
I visited the Immersive Environments Lab (IEL) Open House yesterday. The facility is just wonderful and the energy and passion of those involved is infectious.
I'm pretty familiar with the Access Grid capable 3 walled system used to aid in the design process for student projects that is the centerpiece of the IEL, but I got to see some other tools in action as well.
There were some flat-screen 3D devices that Brian Orland demo'ed using some local GIS data. The effect was pleasing and insightful. A goal, according to Brian, is to allow someone to navigate geological and geographical spaces in a 3D space AND across time. Very cool idea.
George Otto gave me the scoop on how folks (in the College of Arts and Architecture) are working with people at Carleton University in Canada. I learned of a project called Eucalyptus
that comes out of CANARIE. Eucalyptus is interesting on many fronts. The area that stuck out to me was that it is a driver for developing infrastructure controls that enables user controlled light paths (UCLP). In short, this means that end-users can setup and use light waves on national (and hopefully international) fiber-optic networks.
My favorite aspect of the open house though is the student involvement and ownership of the facility. The faculty involved with the IEL have created an incredible learning environment in Stuckemann building. And ITS staff in the Visualization Group have played a key role in making it all happen.
Like Men in Black and Toy Story, the sequel to Googlization of the Libraries is going to be a good one. It is taking place on March 14 and I'm sorry that I won't be able to make it. In fact, there are going to be 3 follow up sessions to the first one. This next one will cover:
We have asked six subject specialists to share case statements describing characteristics of users in the sciences (Bonnie Osif and John Meier), social sciences (Carol Wright and Helen Sheehy), and arts & humanities (Henry Pisciotta and Eric Novotny). After very brief presentations on these three groups of users, we will spend the majority of our time discussing the similarities and differences between the user groups, and identifying how we can effectively meet their needs now and into the future.
Many of us are doing some sort of dance with Google. Even if you aren't working in direct support of the library you may be surprised at how relevant this discussion will be to anyone in IT at Penn State.
If you are interesting in attending, you'll need to register by sending an email to Deb Ellenberger.
"It's a small world", hands down. I've taken that "ride" many times and even when I'm enjoying it I'm annoyed by it. I have to admit though, it is a good reminder that we aren't alone. I believe that we (IT folks at Penn State) need to create some reminders for ourselves about how small the world is.
Every vendor we deal with operates in a global marketplace. They have operations and employees all over the world. In all that they do, they must think about how it fits into the world.
The bar for innovation has never been lower. Anyone in the world with a good idea and an IP address can start to change the world.
In 2008, Penn State will begin accepting students in the recently announced School of International Affairs.
Penn State faculty collaborate daily with colleagues all over the world.
The approximate 83,000 students attending Penn State this year come from 130 different countries.
Some days, the cozy surrounding of our mountains here in Happy Valley make it easy to forget about the rest of the world. I love the feeling of being home - but I try not to ever forget that we're serving people all over the world. What do you do to "think internationally"? What do you or your group do to "think internationally"? Some of us can't avoid it because of the nature of our positions, but others of us can sometimes lose sight of this. We're teaching, learning, and doing research on the planet.
I had something happen in the living room this week that almost immediately made me think of the workplace.
You know all of the jokes that start with, "There are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who are
It wouldn't be fair and there's no need to go into the details of the matter, but here's one of the thoughts that came out of it.
In some ways, I think some of us (and even more of us, some of the time) think there are two kinds of people in the world - those who don't make mistakes and those who do. Clearly, that perception is wrong because we all make mistakes. And if you aren't making any mistakes you aren't taking enough chances or making enough tough decisions. Even though the world isn't as simple as being made up of two of anything - I think a better and more realistic way to look at this is:
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who make mistakes and learn from them (implying that the mistake is also not repeated) and those who make mistakes and don't learn from them, cover them up, and shrivel when confronted with future opportunities to make mistakes.
The whole episode at home reminds me that we all need some percentage of our work (and life) portfolio that helps us embrace the cycle of try, fail, learn, try again, succeed. It also reminded me that even if we fail outside of the portfolio where we can safely embrace this cycle - we need to apply the same courage when the stakes are higher. Admit the mistake, fix it, take the time to make changes to prevent it from happening again, and move on.
