CIO Web Musings

The future of the research university and information technology – Episode I

In my first blog, I mentioned the Seminars in Academic Computing. Given that the University of Illinois is now embarking on a strategic planning process, I thought I would share as food for strategic thought some important ideas that came out of one of the keynote presentations at the meeting. Not to be too melodramatic, the conclusion I draw is that advances in information technologies, especially in terms of accessible, powerful communications, are changing the very nature of the university and the global society beyond. We in CITES, in IT groups in the colleges, and in IT-intensive organizations like libraries, need to be part of preparing and supporting them within our campuses.

Charles Vest, president emeritus of MIT, gave an outstanding keynote presentation on “OpenCourseWare and the Emerging Global Meta University.” While one might have imagined a presentation that would impress us with the resources and brilliance of MIT (and its innovative OpenCourseWare initiative), President Vest took a refreshingly different approach: he emphasized not only that the revolution under way in higher education is too critical to fall to just a few, elite players, but that it is the very diversity in approaches across and within American (and global) universities that is key to our success.

The keys to this “revolution” are the dramatic changes in the nature of “community” enabled by the Internet. But what has caused these changes? The answer is: the explosion of information technologies— low-cost computers, ubiquitous telecommunications, and powerful software— that allow individuals anywhere in the world to interact with, learn from, and share information with anyone else, often with wonderful if sometimes disruptive effects. While these changes extend far beyond universities (see Thomas Friedman’s excellent and readable book, The World is Flat), universities have been the source of and driver for many of the technologies and the key proving ground for them, and this state of affairs is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

This state of affairs is obviously good news for our faculty and students. It is especially good news, though, for IT organizations and IT-intensive providers like libraries: if we understand and play our role well, we will thrive as partners in innovation. If we do not innovate, we risk becoming the IT version of Amtrak: expensive, out of date, and unreliable. (Note: I love trains: I have taken the train to the SAC meeting several times, but I have never depended on one for getting me anywhere on time!)

But Vest’s most important point, building on Friedman’s notion of the “flattening” of the globe due to technology convergence, is that academic excellence is tied to some very simple, broad-based values, ones that we ignore at our peril. These values are essential for the well-being of American universities and, perhaps surprisingly, of the country. I’d argue, they are ones we need to be sure we embrace in Information Technologies.

So what are these values? I'll comment on these in Episode II of my posting, coming soon to a blog near you.