September 2008 Archives

All fun and games aside, Penn State's College of IST is an iSchool, and no one seems to really understand what a iSchools are.  The question about what is IST's flavor is really valid.  It's hard, because no two iSchools are the same.  See, many iSchools come from a history in some other field.  Library Science seems to be a popular place for iSchools to grow from, but some come from a Computer Science background.  So, what kind of iSchool is Penn State's College of IST?

It's important to note a little history.  Penn State's Computer Science program changed in the late 1980's and early 1990's into a program heavy in operating systems and computer architecture.  Because Penn State also had a Computer Engineering department that did similar work, it made sense (to some) to consolidate the two programs, which was completed in 1993.  However, that left the high-level languages, databases and AI folks without a true home.  There was a vacuum at Penn State for these types of interests.

When IST was created, it filled this void.  Some wondered if IST was really going to be "Compsci-lite".  It could have been, but there was a significant addition to these technical programs.  Penn State identified that there was more than just a need for a "technical" iSchool, but more of a merger of all components of the I-T-P triangle.  The addition of faculty with expertise in sociology and social psychology balance the other side of the triangle - on the people side.  Faculty from the College of Business added a perspective on the information and the organizations.  Faculty with an interest in society and policy balanced on the people/society side of the triangle.

So, one could say that IST was born out of "Death by Chocolate".  I'd say that it's more "Peachy Paterno" now.

 

P.S.  I personally prefer Death by Chocolate.  Give it a try sometime.

If you have known me for at least a little while, you probably know that I like ties.  I think that professional attire sometimes gets a little too stuffy.  Sure, we have to "suit up" and there are times when that is appropriate and times when it isn't.  However, personal expression while "in the monkey suit" is important.  We all can't wear the red power tie.  If we did, then it wouldn't be powerful, now would it?

So, here's a picture of me in one of my favorite ties.  Please - please - comment!  Let me know what you think!

-- Nick

It might be better to describe why I didn't finish my degree in Computer Science or in Biology.  Sure, there are good reasons - like poor scholarship - but the real reason is that these programs failed to really keep my interest.  See, I was an undergraduate in the early 90's, before iSchools existed.  There was no program that really helped to bridge the gap between disciplines.

There were the departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, MIS and Communications.  Compsci and Comp Eng were too rooted in the low-level architecture for me and I wasn't really interested in databases design, either.  I was more interested in the APPLICATION of operating systems and databases and other topics for use by real people with real problems to solve.  MIS and Communications were too soft - too tied to business and not tied down to enough of a real problem to solve.  They were too abstract in their own ways.  I wanted to do SOME ONE THING - not ANYTHING.  I needed focus.

So, I went out into the world - without finishing my undergraduate degree.  I went out to do something - and apply technology for people.  A few years later - Penn State started IST.  I eventually returned and finished my undergraduate degree in this program and really enjoyed the interdisciplinary opportunities.  More importantly, it is the application of these technologies to solve real problems in other disciplines that makes IST interesting.

I did look at other iSchools - not for me - for my brother, actually - because for me the question was more about locality than it was about anything else.  However, I did look.  I was amazed to find the vast variety of programs.  Each iSchool has a different flavor.  Many are born out of their roots in Library Information Systems.  While I'm sure that this excites some people - my passions are not in the classification and retrieval problems that these researchers focus on.  Using the I-T-P Model, I'm more on the T-P side of the triangle.  My interests are in how people use the technology to get their jobs done and how the technology forces them to do their work.

So, other iSchools have different focuses.  Many other programs have a strong computer science background and connection.  This focus on the technology is different than just straight computer science.  The implication of how the technology affects the people is paramount.  There are even schools that are tied strictly on the societal impacts like CMU's public policy focus.  However, few programs are as integrated into the social sciences as much as Penn State's College of IST.  Sure, they all have a psychology and sociology background somewhere, but this is where Penn State shines above the rest.

In my last 15 years of being a practicing IT professional, I often have joked about the psychology of computers.  I'm convinced that there is a relationship between the full moon and computer problems.  However, I am not sure whether the full moon's gravitational pull affects the electrons in the silicon of the chips or whether the full moon affects the users and makes them do dumb things with their computers.  I also usually reference the OSI data model's unpublished Layer 8 when referring to an error that occurs between the keyboard and the chair.

So, why did I choose an iSchool?  Why did the iSchool choose me?  The truth is that the iSchool is my home, the one that didn't exist when I went to school the first time.  It's the program I needed and wanted and I'm so glad it's here.

I have a personal desire and drive for service.  Yes, you saw in my previous posts that I was a Boy Scout and that I'm also a volunteer firefighter.  Those are aspects of the same internal drive that pushes me personally and professionally.  I like helping other people to get things done that they want to do.

Professionally, I have always been the intermediary between the end-users and the geeks.  Whether that was between the new users to the Internet back in the early 90's, or later in my life between the doctors and the computer systems they needed for record keeping and billing, or today between the life scientists and the complex systems that they have to use - I have always been the middle-man translator.

I understand other people.  I *get it* when they *don't* get it.  I can figure out the technical - or computer - or geek perspective and turn it around and help the non-geek understand it in ways they couldn't before.  I know how much to explain and when to stop.  Am I some kind of genius?  I don't think so.  I just have this natural ability to bridge the gap.  I enjoy doing it - because I get so much back from those non-geeks - they really appreciate what I do.

The geeks like it, too.  They like getting clear, concise requirements from the end-user that they can use to go "build it" - whatever "it" might be.  They don't have time to spend with the user explaining all of the details of how stuff works.  The geeks are too impatient.

So, there's my drive - being the bridge that connects two different groups - the geeks and the non-geeks -  the users and the implementers - the techies and the technophobes.  They all come to me and I help them work together.

Ok, so that was a bit cheesy.  Sorry.  :)

Well, a few years ago, I would have had to tell you a long, sad tale of an undergraduate who really didn't get it when he was in school.  I got HORRIBLE grades as an undergrad and didn't finish my degree program.  Which program was that?  Well, that was part of the problem.

I started out at Penn State in the pre-med program from the Biology side.  After a single semester, I realized that biology and med school wasn't going to happen for me.  I had more of an interest in computers.  My favorite class that semester was CMPSCI 100 - where we wrote computer programs in Pascal on the IBM Mainframe.  I thought I was so cool, because I had a dual-floppy laptop and a 2400 baud modem.  I could connect to the mainframe from my dorm room and write my programs.  The funny thing was that I had no idea how to set up full-screen terminal emulation, so I did it in LINE MODE!  At the end of the semester, when I told my instructor, Nancy Roberts, what I had done all semester, she almost fell out of her chair!  Line mode is a very low tech way of interacting with an online system.

Anyway, I figured computer science was for me.  However, the computer science that I wanted to learn was high-level languages and artificial intelligence.  The CMPSC department at Penn State had just started its change into a low-level operating system design department and then later merged with the computer engineering department. Well, needless to say, I lost interest in low-level design.  Frankly, computer architechture is not terribly interesting to me.  Well, genetics WAS interesting - kinda.  Can you imagine why I didn't finish school?

So, skip ahead a few years - like 15 of them, and I find myself working in an different IT support job at the University.  My boss tells me his academic story - that he was able to do his bachelor's and Ph.D. while working as a lab technician.  He encourages me to return to complete my bachelor's degree.  Of course, the IST building is basically next door to where I'm working, so I figure it can't be all that bad.  After my dismal grades the first time around, this experience was very, very different.  I was INTERESTED in the coursework.  That makes a lot of difference.  Well, needless to say, I got much better grades.

I started to ask myself questions - like why do IT Professionals do what they do?  Why do we implement the systems we implement in the ways we implement them?  Why don't we design and implement systems the RIGHT way?  This started my questions that led me to graduate study.

See, I worked professionally in a graduate program in Kinesiology, so I understood from a very high level the idea of graduate education.  It's not about learning more stuff, it's about learning how to ask the interesting questions - and then figuring out how to answer those questions.  Heck, I can do that just as well as anyone else.  IST is such an open field, that it should be easy (well, easy in a very relative way) to stake a claim on a part of the field for myself.

So, I have this interest in IT security and the implementation of systems that actually provide visbility into what is happening on the network.  Have you ever looked at a snort log?  Does the comptuer network administrator REALLY KNOW what computers are on the network?  How is the information protected from hackers, viruses, hardware failure and natural disaster?  There are lots of technical solutions out there - most driven from the "T" ot the "I-T" side of the I-T-P triangle.  Very few take into account the People, and from my professional experience, it's the people that make or break this stuff.  You know - you try to make it idiot-proof, but they keep making more ingenious idiots.

There might be many different ways to describe me, depending on how you know me.  Let me explain...

Maybe you know me professionally.  I have been working in the IT field for the last 15 years, mostly in and out of the Penn State Community.  I work in the field of computer networking, Windows servers, desktops, TCP/IP and a lot of other related stuff.  I'm a facilitator of IT systems for the people I work for.

Currently, I work for the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State, but I have also worked in the Office of Telecommunications - which is now TNS - also at Penn State.  I was one of many people who ran the Penn State Backbone, or the routers and switches that connected all of the networks at Penn State together and provided high speed (10-100-155 Mbps) connections across campus, and aggregate them for high-speed internet access (45+Mbps).

I have also been a pre-sales network design engineer for a company that worked with cable companies and other multi-service operators (MSOs) to provide high-speed metropolitan area networks (MANs) for school districts and government entities all over the country.  This company also developed its own H.323 video conferencing systems.  In my last year at this company, I was the product manager for the H.323 product line.  This job gave me the real-world experience of working the customers, understanding their requirements as well as working with our hardware and software engineers to develop the products that our customers needed.

I have always worked best as being the intermediary between technology-focused and non-technology focused people.  A number of years ago, I worked installing computerized billing and note-taking systems for chiropractors' offices.  Working with clinicians helped me to understand that even though these people are very technical in their own fields, doesn't mean that they are "computer-savvy".  There is always some translation, training or other other intermediate facilitation that needs to be done to work between the two groups.

In my current professional capacity, I continue to work the life sciences/IT relationship.  My end-users are researchers in biomechanics, motor control, motor behavior, physiology, sport psychology and athletic training.  All of these life scientists are very competent and technical in their own fields, but it seems like information technology helps some, hinders some, and stymies yet others.

That's because these kinds of end-users are not involved in the system design process.  It is my position to facilitate the implementation of the technology on my end-users' behalf.  I enjoy most my ability to communicate with my end-user, figure out their needs and devise a solution that delivers.  So, if you know me professionally, I can only hope that you see me in the same way that I see myself.

Maybe you know me from my volunteer work.  I am involved in a variety of volunteer activities ... well, maybe not as many right now as I start graduate school, but I am still involved as much as I can be.

I am a volunteer firefighter and ambulance attendant.  I think that this is a great balance to what I do professionally and academically.  Firefighting is a very aggressive and physical activity.  It's kinda fun, too, especially when you get to rip open the walls of a house to find hidden fire inside the walls or use hydraulic tools to rip the doors off of a car.  However, the most reward I feel is when I am working in my EMS role.  I'm not an Emergency Medical Technician, but I do get very hands-on with my patient, whenever I can.  I have worked a number of different kinds of incidents - anything from minor cuts and scrapes, to medical calls, major trauma calls and a number of cardiac arrests.  I am very happy to have helped on a CPR call that saved the life of a Penn State student.  However, most of my calls, all I get to do is just "drive the bus".  If you ever look at my belt and wonder what the "batman effect" is all about - feel free to ask me sometime.  I'll be glad to tell you of the silliness of our county radio system and how the Motorola pager bands separate our "fire" and "med" frequencies just enough to require those of us who do both to have to carry TWO PAGERS.

Maybe you know be because of my family life.  My wife, Lisa, and I have been married for almost 13 years now.  We have three children, Stephen (10 year old boy), and Elizabeth and Natalie (7 year old twin girls).  We live in Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania, just outside of State College and near Bellefonte.

I am involved in a number of activities around my kids.  Ask me sometime about Scouting, swimming or monoamniotic twins.