Is computer science education keeping up with pervasive computing?

Thanks to Prashant for this link: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int030607.html. This podcast (or associated transcripts) discuss computer science education in a way that is relevant to IS and, to a lesser extent, telecom eduction.

A New Direction for University Presses

Here is the beginning of an article about university presses in today's Inside Higher Education

July 26

Ideas to Shake Up Publishing

With some regularity, reports or op-eds note the economic struggles of most university presses and the difficulties they face publishing monographs that are vital to individual scholars’ careers, but that typically aren’t read by that many people — and that libraries can’t afford to buy. Concerns about the relationship between university presses and tenure, for example, led the Modern Language Association to propose moving beyond the “fetishization” of the monograph.

Today, a new report called “University Publishing in a Digital Age” is being released by a group of experts on scholarly publishing — and they too are proposing radical changes in the way publishing works. The report — from Ithaka, a nonprofit group that promotes research and strategy for colleges to reflect changing technology — is based on a detailed study of university presses, which morphed into a larger examination of the relationship between presses, libraries and their universities.

The report and its authors are suggesting that university presses focus less on the book form and consider a major collaborative effort to assume many of the technological and marketing functions that most presses cannot afford, and that universities be more strategic about the relationship of presses to broader institutional goals.

Get the rest of it at http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/26/ithaka

Electronic Medical Records and patient medicine

This item is interesting and ought to be of relevance to SIS.

"In essence, we found little difference in the quality of care being provided by physicians with electronic health record systems, compared to those without these systems," Dr. Randall Stafford, a Stanford associate professor of medicine and senior author of the research, said in a statement. The research is scheduled for publication Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The issue isn't necessarily that electronic records don't help make better decisions. For one thing, many systems just transferred previously paper records into electronic form without adding extra abilities such as checking for negative drug interactions. For another, doctors often don't necessarily take advice from an electronic system.

Security design and corporate objectives: the iPhone case

I found this item to be interesting. Quoting the article:

The phone has heavy armor, they found, to prevent users from doing things that undercut profitable activities for Apple, such as loading a ringtone without paying for it. There was more of a cardboard fence when it came to actions of little financial consequence, such as reading the iPhone owner’s e-mail and downloading his or her address book.

12 IT skills that employers can't say no to

You might find this item interesting, especially given the curriculum reform efforts underway in the BSIS, MSIS, and MST programs.

Many recruiters say there are more open positions than they can fill, and according to Kate Kaiser, associate professor of IT at Marquette University in Milwaukee, students are getting snapped up before they graduate. In January, Kaiser asked the 34 students in the systems analysis and design class she was teaching how many had already accepted offers to begin work after graduating in May. Twenty-four students raised their hands. "I feel sure the other 10 who didn't have offers at that time have all been given an offer by now," she says.

Suffice it to say, the market for IT talent is hot, but only if you have the right skills. If you want to be part of the wave, take a look at what eight experts -- including recruiters, curriculum developers, computer science professors and other industry observers -- say are the hottest skills of the near future.

New Librarians

"With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is 'looking to put the "hep cat" in cataloguing.'" See Kara Jesella, "A Hipper Crowd of Shusters," New York Times, July 8, 2007, Section 9, p. 1, 2, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html?_r=1&ref=style&oref=slogin