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IT in Review 2004: From the Biggest Non-Story to the Biggest Real Story
12/22/2004
Well, the biggest "non-news" item of 2004 was that we did not have a major repeat of the August-September 2003 worm/virus disasters on campus! I think that many on campus still look back to August/September of 2003 and consider that one of the toughest times they've ever had dealing with the flood of infected machines that students brought back to campus just as a couple of particularly nasty worms were released. But apparently we've learned. There were some problems on every campus and large problems on a few, but network procedures and student education, plus help-desk routines and preparations kept the nasty micro-beasts at bay in 2004.
But there was plenty of real news. 2004 proved that we have once again only scratched the surface of the IT/knowledge revolution. And it proved that higher education is central to that revolution--partly because it is getting clearer that colleges and universities are the economic hearts of their regions and communities. Here's more from 2004…
Oracle/PeopleSoft Merger/Battle
The financial and legal war between the leadership of Oracle and PeopleSoft was a constant news story throughout 2004, as it was through much of 2003 as well. In the end, the merger's going to happen and the PeopleSoft shareholders are doing okay. That leaves us going into 2005 with the hope that nothing bad will happen soon to all us PeopleSoft users, with assurances from Oracle that it will support the products for quite some time. But will there be any new developments in PeopleSoft software? Don't bet on it. Everyone's going to end up having to move to Oracle, probably renamed something special.
Acacia Technologies
The less said the better about the kind of "software" company that has more lawyers than it d'es technologists and which buys up and then tries to extort money from colleges and universities based on questionable patents. It was a pleasure to see a coalition of institutions get together to defend as a group against Acacia Technologies.
Wireless Expansion
We got more and more wireless. Small institutions without any at all began putting it in a few places. Larger institutions completed plans that made wireless ubiquitous on their campus. Case Western Reserve University announced plans to work with the City of Cleveland to cover the entire Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Other cities--small and large, such as Philadelphia announced that they, too, were in competition for the metro region with the best wireless coverage.
RFIDs--More Implementation and More Concerns
RFID technology means more than privacy issues, of course. More and more libraries are already using it and people who have to track items love it. But concerns about stealthy use of RFID transmitters and receivers to track people's behavior and movements were not quelled by announcements of a few people having them implanted in their bodies for security purposes.
Other Privacy Issues
These ranged from a lot more reporting on hacks into systems containing personal data--partly due to better reporting that was generated by a new California law and partly due to more hacking--to better and sneakier spyware and phishing schemes.
Recommended Reading
- Campus Security :: June 27, 2008
:::::: NETWORK SECURITY
: Delivering Slices of Network Securely at USC
:::::: CAMPUS SECURITY NEWS
: VMware Finds Home on Campus in Disaster Recovery Planning
: Microsoft Advisory Targets SQL Injection Attacks
: Mobile Security To Surface in Sybase iAnywhere Suite
: Southeast Missouri State Says Former Employee Took Student Data
: Universities Deploy Procera Hardware to Prioritize Network Traffic
: Dartmouth Launches 2-Week Crash Course in Security
: Survey: Many Microsoft Patches Are Going Uninstalled
: New Bluetooth Patch Fixes XP Security Hole - IT Trends :: Thursday, June 26, 2008
:::::: FOCUS
:: Lyon's 1:1 Laptop Program Aims To 'Level the Playing Field' for Students
:::::: IT NEWS
:: Windows XP's Death Is for Real, Microsoft Rep Explains
:: Temple To Deploy Wireless LAN Across 8 Campuses in Philly
:: Adobe Releases Acrobat 9, Creative Suite 3.3
:: Microsoft Open XML Converter Arrives for Mac
:: Pentaho's BI Platform Released Under GPL
:: New Bluetooth Patch Fixes XP Security Hole
:: New 11.0 openSuSE Linux OS Released - C-Level View :: June 25, 2008
:::::: EXECUTIVE VIEW
: The Educational Software Paradox - Can We Learn to Unlearn?
:::::: WORTH NOTING
: D2L: Blackboard's Comments 'Contempt(ible)'
: Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
: New Green Supercomputer Powers Up at Purdue
: Western Governors U Offers New Online Degree in Health Informatics
: Foothill-De Anza CC District Deploys Abaca for E-mail Protection - SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, June 27, 2008
:::::: VIEWPOINT
: Podcasting in Instruction: Moving Beyond the Obvious
:::::: NEWS and PRODUCT UPDATES
: D2L: Blackboard's Comments 'Contempt(ible)'
: Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
: Samsung Launches Pint-Sized Projector
: Mediasite 5.0 Debuts; New Classroom Recorders Coming in July
: Mitsubishi Launches Wireless, Short-Throw Projectors - News Update :: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
:::::: NEWS
: Sao Paulo University Taps Sun Technology for Computing Cluster
: Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
: New Green Supercomputer Powers Up at Purdue
: Mediasite 5.0 Debuts; New Classroom Recorders Coming in July
: Intel 'Holding Back' USB 3.0 Spec, Says Nvidia
: Allegheny College Launches Energy Reduction Program
: Virginia Tech Automates User State Management with Kaseya
: Tokai U Uses PTC MCAD Software To Design Car that Competes at Le Mans - IT Trends :: Thursday, June 19, 2008
:::::: CASE STUDY
:: Job Scheduling Software Smooths Data Transfers at IUF
:::::: IT NEWS
:: Blackboard Continues Pursuit of Desire2Learn
:: IBM Launches 'Carbon Strategy' Service in Project Big Green
:: Microsoft Joins Open Source Census Group
:: Swedes Deploy Dual-Boot 'Green' Supercomputer with IBM, Intel Chips
:: U North Texas To Roll Out ImageNow for Document Management
:: Cambridge Installs Panasus Parallel Storage System for Research Support
:: Novell Joins Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program, Runs Windows Server 2008 On SUSE Linux Enterprise
