The Seamless IT Initiative
Enabling scholarship
"Managing information in all of its forms is perhaps the greatest enabler of scholarship in the university. In the absence of the enabling character of state of the art information systems a modern intellectual enterprise grinds to a halt." --Dean Kushner
With those words Dean Kushner in his opening remarks challenged attendees of the first-ever College of Engineering IT Summit to develop a new plan that would transform the computing environment of the college impacting education, research, outreach, and business.
What emerged from that Summit is an ambitious plan that we call the Seamless IT Initiative.
How big is your imagination?
Imagine a computing environment where
- students and faculty have open and easy access to computing facilities and resources throughout the college;
- students and faculty--regardless of location--use one log-on name and password, one home directory for file storage, and one method for printing
- data and information are widely available, easily exchanged, and well-managed.
Our goal is to create a computing environment that is
- limitless, not limited,
- flexible, not rigid,
- consistent, not chaotic, and
- collaborative, not exclusive.
This is the vision of the Seamless IT Initiative.
Sounds ambitious, doesn't it?
This initiative is ambitious! In fact, this is the most ambitious IT initiative in the history of the college. It won't be easy, and it's going to take a lot of hard work. Fortunately, the College of Engineering has arguably the best pool of IT talent and IT leadership in the university.
We're going to use that talent and leadership to move quickly on a number of core projects that will begin to bring our infrastructure together and lay the foundation for more changes to come. In fact, a number of important projects have already been completed.
Each project, led by one of our more than 20 IT staff throughout the college, will develop leading-edge solutions using industry standards and feature-rich technologies.
We're not going to settle for ho-hum, poorly developed, hack solutions that will only lead to user apathy, frustration, and what's worse, failure.
We need your help, too!
As we move quickly forward, there’s always the possibility that we’ll miss something along the way. Your input and feedback is invaluable to us. We don’t want you sitting on the sidelines keeping your good ideas to yourself.
If you want to participate in one of our many projects, let us know! Several of our active project teams already include non-IT staff. But, be prepared! These teams are fast-paced with extremely aggressive deadlines.
For more information
If you have a question, suggestion, idea, or just need to speak with someone about these changes, we invite you to come and talk with us. There are many IT staff who can talk with you in person, over the phone, or via e-mail. Contact Chris McCoy, Director of Computing (mccoy(at)iastate.edu /294-7337), your department IT support person, or any of the project team leaders.
Final thoughts
Twenty-five years ago computers were a curiosity. Fifteen years ago they were unique tools. Today, they are an indispensable part of everything we do. Computers are at the intersection of our teaching, our research, our outreach, and every decision that our leaders make.
We can no longer simply approach how we use and manage our computers in an ad-hoc, disorganized fashion. And, just as the industry continues to evolve to exploit IT, so are we. As Dean Kushner so succintly pointed out in his comments to the IT Summit attendees,
“The existence of state of the art IT systems does not alone guarantee that we will meet our goals as a university. But in the absence of the enabling character of state of the art IT systems, we will surely not meet those goals.” --Dean Kushner
