ECAR Symposium 2007

The 2007 Program: Higher Education IT: New Boundaries, or No Boundaries?

When the Internet became a mass phenomenon, higher education IT providers acquired huge new constituencies and responsibilities. The scope of new services was a challenge, but a few critical means of influence—such as control of the network, deployment and support of enterprise applications, and ownership of user support—allowed IT units to mediate the circumstances of IT life. Like the academic departments they served, IT units were both expert authorities and popularizers, encouraging exploration of IT's great new possibilities while enforcing the rules of legitimate participation.

But today, almost every trend in contemporary information culture is working to dissolve these powers. Ubiquitous wireless networks put users in charge of their own connectivity, which they can access with a growing diversity of mobile devices. Service oriented architectures are challenging the monolithic application and rewriting the rules of integration. Web 2.0 technologies allow users to mobilize in complex ways for advocacy, self-help, collaboration, and socializing. The boundaries between enterprise and non-enterprise realms are increasingly fuzzy and permeable.

What's more, these emerging capabilities aren't just redefining IT authority. Through wikis and blogs, social networks and media distribution channels, virtual and "enhanced" reality, they're bringing transformational change to libraries, publishing, and the academic disciplines—in short, to higher education itself.

ECAR Symposium 2007 will consider how emerging networked services and the social practices that go with them redefine the boundaries of the IT unit and the institution. What does an "enterprise" resource look like in an age of permeability? What services should IT units provide, broker, or leave to other parties? How can IT leaders help institutional executives confront the self-organized and defiantly unauthorized sources of knowledge now proliferating on the Web? Please join us for presentations and working sessions addressing the unbounded potential of the new age of interconnection.

Agenda

You can view the full conference agenda, detailed program information, or follow the links below for schedule information for specific dates.

• Symposium agenda (Full details)

Symposium overview

The ECAR Symposium is a subscriber-only event, held at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton, Florida. Up to two individuals from ECAR participating subscriber institutions may participate and receive complimentary registration. The Symposium brings together world-class researchers and analysts whose study of higher education and information technology evolves either from work occurring under the aegis of ECAR or from complementary efforts. The ECAR Symposium program is designed in particular to balance experts from academe with ECAR fellows and research partners. Participants in the ECAR Symposium help shape the ECAR research agenda for the next 18 months. Significant time is allocated to an open-forum assessment of research priorities and evaluation of hot topics for research and analysis, including discussion of speaker and topic priorities for the 2008 Symposium.

To assist you with travel plans, the ECAR Symposium schedule is:

• December 5: Reception and dinner (5:30 p.m.)
• December 6: Symposium sessions (8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.)
• December 7: Symposium sessions (8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.)

Confirmed speakers for this Symposium include:

• Guy Creese, Senior Analyst, Collaboration and Content Strategies, Burton Group
• Nicole Ellison, Assistant Professor of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, Michigan State University
• Michael Macedonia, Vice President and General Manager, Forterra Systems Inc., and former Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation
• Peter Scott, Director, Knowledge Media Institute and Centre for New Media, The Open University