Help Me Take The Next Step
Something strikes me as oddly interesting about the Internet2 Member Meeting. It is a bit of cognitive dissonance for me. I think it points to the core meaning of one of Kevin’s core themes: “Recognize and affirm that IT at Penn State is larger than ITS, and strengthen our relationships with campuses and colleges.” Let me explain.
When I talk to the people who are here from other schools, they are not exclusively, or even mostly “classical” IT people. Sure there are CIO’s here, but there are professors and researchers and administrators. Not even IT professors and researchers and administrators. They are from fields as diverse as art and music to psychology and medicine to mathematics, physics, and astronomy.
We have been accused of locking ourselves into silos. I will admit that I think of my job as IP data transport, and if that is not a silo, I do not know what is. On the other hand, I accept that IP data transport is only useful in that it somehow supports the mission of the university: teaching, research, service. That is all about the user.
If it’s all about the user — the professors, researchers, and administrators — why is it that when I come to these events, I only see other ITS employees from Penn State?
If “IT at Penn State is larger than ITS,” what good does it do for me to recognize that, if the people outside ITS — including IT staff, but also faculty, administrators, and students — do not share that recognition?
I suddenly see that core theme as simply a first step. Now that we recognize and affirm that IT at Penn State is larger than ITS, how do we take that next step. How do we strengthen relationships where none exist to begin with? How can I find the people at Penn State (outside ITS) who care about and would benefit from attendance or even presenting at an Internet2 meeting and how do I convince them that they do care and will benefit?
I’d be happy to hear your opinion in the comments to this entry.
Labels: i2mm
Delicious
Facebook
posted by Mark (the Brush Valley Brewer) @ 10/11/2007 01:57:00 PM 2 Comments
![Subscribe to Posts [Atom]](http://www.personal.psu.edu/mhl100/img/feed-icon-28x28.png){kind=icon}
2 Comments:
I often have a couple of standard suggestions for what I think this question is. And I usually break it down into two categories - students and faculty. The end game is the same in either case, however, and that is to expose one's self to something,anything that matters to them. Walk a mile in their shoes in their neighborhood and all sorts of possibilities emerge.
Find a student group who does something that interests you. Go to a couple of their meetings and listen. Attend an open meeting of any student organization and listen. The first, second or third such exposure might not create an inspirational moment but it will come.
Attend a department's symposium or outreach kind of event. Watch the faculty interact on a subject that interests you.
In either case, insight to process is revealed and then one can more accurately go on a hunt for content and process that might be begging for "Internet2 capabilities" - whatever they might be.
And I'll apologize in advance if the response is - "duh, I was looking for something I /didn't/ know." In short, it's like starting up any other relationship: casual meetings, coffee, lunch, dinner, a movie, etc.
I can offer a few possibilities:
* In my time at PSU, one of the things I've noticed is that organizations like I2 and Educause have been held very close to the ITS vest. If they're talked about at all by ITS staff, it's almost always in retrospect. Few know in advance when these meetings are, or what (if any) value there might be in attending. It's difficult to get interested and go to an event if you don't understand it or know about it ahead of time.
* It's my impression that ITS staff tend to be focused in one area of IT: Networking, big systems, small systems, labs, etc. Most of the non ITS staff in IT tend to be generalists and don't typically have the time to go in depth in a particular silo to the point where an I2 or Educause meeting would seem worthwhile. (based on limited knowledge of what the meetings are) Again, remember that while your day job is focusing in moving IP datagrams around, my day job is focused on running servers, running desktops, supporting users, software development and moving IP datagrams around. That variety makes it difficult to spend time "just" on an I2 meeting.
Post a Comment
<< Home