You and Your Campus Benefit When You Write for CAUSE/EFFECT Copyright 1993 CAUSE. From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 16, Number 2, Summer 1993. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear,and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu YOU AND YOUR CAMPUS BENEFIT WHEN YOU WRITE FOR _CAUSE/EFFECT_ A message from the chair of the CAUSE Editorial Committee by Gerald V. Bernbom Each issue of _CAUSE/EFFECT_ brings into our professional lives the experiences, insights,and hard-earned understandings from a group of our colleagues in information technology. In the form of Feature Articles, Viewpoints, Good Ideas, Current Issues, and more, they tell us about their work and share with us what they learned in the process. They tell us, too, how the landscape of information technology management looks as a result of what they've done and learned. All of us as readers clearly benefit from this sharing of knowledge, experiences, and ideas. What may not be as apparent is how much each author and his or her institution has benefited from making these contributions. Writing professionally for publication provides opportunities and rewards that are unavailable in any other way. Based on my own experiences of writing for _CAUSE/EFFECT_, and because I want to encourage others to write for publication, I offer these thoughts and observations. As a fellow reader of this magazine and a colleague in the IT profession, I encourage you to consider the benefits to you of writing for _CAUSE/EFFECT_. And if you are an IT executive or manager, I hope you will consider the value that your organization and institution will realize by having members of your staff contribute articles for publication in the magazine. The investment an author makes in writing for _CAUSE/EFFECT_ is paid back in many ways. Writing is a disciplined process of reflection, analysis, and organization. When we take the time and energy to reflect and think in this way, we are given the valuable opportunity * to acknowledge our accomplishments and examine our failures * to organize and synthesize our experiences into useful knowledge * to capture and record our knowledge, so that it persists and becomes a part of the documented record of our institution and profession, and not just a part of our local culture's oral history. And in writing for publication we are also given the opportunity * to re-examine and scrutinize what we think we experienced and learned, and in the process validate or refine our insights and understandings * to generalize what we learned so that we can see its place in a broader context--its significance to our institution or its place in the larger field of information technology management * to make public what we know, so that our work has a greater value as part of the foundation for future work in our own institution and in the IT profession. When we finish writing a paper for publication we have a greater appreciation for our own accomplishments; we have a clearer understanding of what we did and why it mattered. In some sense, the work we do and the experiences we might write about only come to full completion when they are analyzed, refined, and communicated. A professional publication can be the proper summation of and conclusion to a stage or piece of our professional work, or it can be the mile-marker that allows us to consolidate what we have learned so far and prepares us to move forward. In either case, the author and his or her institution are typically the first and greatest beneficiaries of this investment in reflection, analysis, organization, and communication. Of course the rest of us, the readers, benefit greatly from the care and thought that go into the writing of an article for professional publication. And in this way the author receives a final satisfaction in knowing that the knowledge base of our profession has been enriched and that colleagues can now benefit from the experiences and insights that have been shared. Information about _CAUSE/EFFECT_ _CAUSE/EFFECT_ magazine is published four times each year. Its focus is on effectively managing and using information technology in higher education. "Information for Contributors" on the inside cover of the magazine describes the mechanics of submitting a paper for publication. The magazine publishes articles of various types, written by professionals in our field: * Feature Articles. Substantive treatment of a topic of timeliness and significance to the management of information technology in higher education (typically 3,000 to 6,500 words in length), usually sharing an actual campus experience. * Current Issues. Overview articles about issues facing the profession, especially those which are emerging or haven't yet been resolved, in which various aspects of the issue are identified and explored from a management perspective (1,500 to 3,000 words). * Viewpoints. Articles written by members to express their opinions on issues relevant to information technology in higher education (750 to 3,000 words). * Good Ideas. Brief articles describing technology applications or management techniques that have been successful on a campus and could be implemented elsewhere (750 to 1,500 words). Topics of current interest _CAUSE/EFFECT_ seeks articles on all topics related to enhancing the administration or delivery of higher education through the effective management or use of information technology. Some topics of current interest to all of us in the profession are highlighted below. These topics are offered to stimulate you to think about an idea for a _CAUSE/EFFECT_ article. What have you done on your campus to respond to these management challenges and to work toward solutions? What matters most is your real-world experience and the insight you can bring to the analysis and understanding of that experience. I hope this message and brief description of the magazine will move some of you who are reading this to submit an article for publication consideration. I hope, too, that those of you who direct and manage in IT organizations will support and encourage members of your staff to write for publication. ********************************************************************** CALL FOR ARTICLES What have you done on your campus to respond to these management challenges? * Managing with financial constraints -- limited resources and budget reductions -- tying the budget to the planning process -- outsourcing, downsizing, rightsizing -- assessing the impact and measuring the value of IT * Reengineering, transformation, and new management paradigms -- IT reorganization -- staff retraining, new staff skills, and new job definitions -- administrative process reengineering -- quality programs -- external and internal partnerships (especially joint IT/library efforts) * Technology and change -- client-server computing -- changing computing platforms -- new systems development methodologies, such as CASE, rapid/joint application development, prototyping, use of fourth- generation languages * Building the technology infrastructure -- building campus-wide networks -- integrating network technologies (voice, data, video) -- establishing information architectures and infrastructures (for example, through campus-wide standards, policies, common user interfaces, CWISes) * Supporting effective use of information technology by faculty and students ********************************************************************** Gerald V. Bernbom is Assistant Director, Data Administration and Access, at Indiana University. As part of University Computing Services, his unit is responsible for data administration, database administration, security administration, data dictionary management, campus-wide information systems, and the information center. You and Your Campus Benefit When You Write for CAUSE/EFFECT