March 1998 No. 57

ISSN 1071-5223

About INFOBITS

Infobits is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and select from a number of information technology and instruction technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.

Document Drafts in the Digital Age
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
Report on Public Policy and Global Learning
Mobile Computing on Campus
Technorealists
Roundtable on Managing Intellectual Property in Higher Education
IAT Librarian's Links
Update

DOCUMENT DRAFTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

"The draft is a document with its own history inscribed upon it. It is thought and process made visible--or rather, left visible." What is the equivalent of the paper trail in a digital-only environment? How can scholars study the course of change in written works, inventions, and other intellectual property when the final copy is the only copy? In "World History" (Metropolis, February/March 1998), artist Nick Bourbakis discusses the implications of not being able to chart the course of changes that take place between the initial idea and its final expression. He also examines some software solutions that may preserve draft versions of written and graphic works. The complete article is available on the Web at http://www.metropolismag.com/new/content/tech/fe98wor.htm

Metropolis [ISSN 0270-4977] is published by Metropolis, 177 East 87th Street, New York, NY 10128 USA; tel: 212-722-5050; fax: 212-427-1938; email: edit@metropolismag.com; Web: http://www.metropolismag.com/
Annual subscriptions are $24.95 (U.S.); $44.95 (Canada); $65.00 (outside North America). Call 800-344-3046 or 815-734-4151 or go to the subscription Web page at http://www.metropolismag.com/new/subscribe/subscribe.htm

NATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND HIGHER EDUCATION

On March 17, 1998, Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina announced the creation of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The Center is an "independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to ensuring educational opportunity, affordability, and quality in American higher education. The Center provides action-oriented analyses of state and federal policies affecting education beyond high school," including two- and four-year, public and private institutions. "Concept Paper: A National Center to Address Higher Education Policy," by Patrick M. Callan, describes the major themes and core activities planned for the Center. The report is available online at http://www.highereducation.org/reports/fs_concept.html

For more information about the Center, contact them at either of these offices:
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 152 North Third Street, Suite 705, San Jose, CA, 95112 USA; tel: 408-271-2699; fax: 408-271-2697; email: center@highereducation.org; Web: http://www.highereducation.org/
or
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 310, Washington, DC, 20036 USA; tel: 202-822-6720; fax: 202-822-6730; email: kconklin@highereducation.org; Web: http://www.highereducation.org/

The Center also publishes a quarterly newsletter, National CrossTalk, which is available at no charge either in print or online. Electronic copies are available at http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/index.html

REPORT ON PUBLIC POLICY AND GLOBAL LEARNING

A new white paper, describing the impact of information technology on higher education and society, offers a "vision of the challenges higher education will face in the next century and recommendations for information technology financing and investment strategies." The report, "The Public Policy Implications of a Global Learning Infrastructure," by Robert C. Heterick, Jr., James R. Mingle, and Carol A. Twigg, is based on contributions made by state representatives, educators, and policy experts attending a joint NLII-SHEEO Symposium held in November 1997. (NLII is Educom's National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, and SHEEO is the State Higher Education Executive Officers organization.) Some of the recommendations put forth were: state investments in broadband digital networks should be used to leverage price and service advantages from telecommunications providers; state funding should encourage collaboration across departments, institutions, and states; and intrastate delivery of electronic curricula should be deregulated.

Printed copies of "The Public Policy Implications of a Global Learning Infrastructure" are available at $5.00 per copy from Educom Publications Department, 1112 16th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-872-4200; fax: 202-872-4318; email: pubs@educom.edu. A copy of the paper is also available on Educom's Web site at http://www.educom.edu/program/nlii/keydocs/policy.html

For more information on Educom, contact Educom, 1112 16th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-872-4200; fax: 202-872-4318; email: info@educom.edu; Web: http://www.educom.edu/

For more information on the NLII, email: nlii@educom.edu; Web: http://www.educom.edu/program/nlii/nliiHome.html

For more information on SHEEO, contact State Higher Education Executive Officers, 707 Seventeenth Street, Suite 2700, Denver, CO 80202 USA; tel: 303-299-3685; fax: 303-296-8332; email: sheeo@sheeo.org; Web: http://www.sheeo.org/

MOBILE COMPUTING ON CAMPUS

The theme for the January/February 1998 (vol. 2, no. 1) issue of IEEE Internet Computing is mobile computing. In addition to the featured articles, the issue includes links to several academic projects that are incorporating mobile computing technologies (p. 16). The project links are also available on the Web at http://www.computer.org/internet/v2n1/mobile.htm

Subscribers to IEEE Internet Computing can read the full text of the articles and non-subscribers can get access to the article abstracts on the Web at http://www.computer.org/internet/ic1998/w1toc.htm

IEEE Internet Computing [ISSN 1089-7801] is published bimonthly by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) Computer Society, 1730 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036-1992 USA; tel: 202-371-0101; fax: 202-728-9614; email: internet-computing@computer.org; Web: http://www.computer.org/

Annual subscriptions are available at reduced rates to members of the IEEE Computer Society and other technical organizations. For information on member and non-member rates, contact IEEE Computer Society Publications Office, 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle, P.O. Box 3014, Los Alamitos, CA 90720 USA; tel: 800-272-6657 or 714-821-8380; fax: 714-821-4010; Web: http://www.computer.org/subscribe/

TECHNOREALISTS

Earlier this month, a group of 12 "technology-savvy" writers and commentators, calling themselves "technorealists," released a statement of principles in an attempt to provide middle ground in the debate between the "techno-utopians" who embrace technology with few reservations and the "neo-Luddites" who view technology as a potential threat to society. Read more about the group in "'Technorealists' Hope to Enrich Debate over Policy Issues in Cyberspace," by Jeffrey R. Young, in Academe Today's March 23, 1998, Information Technology section. The article is available on the Web at http://chronicle.com/data/internet.dir/itdata/1998/03/t98032301.htm
(Academe Today is an online service of The Chronicle of Higher Education.)

An overview of the group's positions along with a list of suggested readings is on the Technorealism Web page at http://www.technorealism.org/
An online technorealism discussion forum, sponsored by Feed magazine, is available at http://www.feedmag.com/html/dialog/98.03dialog/98.03dialog_master.html

For information on subscribing to Academe Today and The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] link to http://chronicle.com/about-help.dir/about.htm

ROUNDTABLE ON MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

A special Roundtable on Managing Intellectual Property in Higher Education, hosted by the Johns Hopkins University, was convened in Baltimore, Maryland in November 1997, and was sponsored by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Pew Higher Education Roundtable. "To Publish and Perish" summarizes the findings of the group of university presidents, provosts, faculty, librarians, counsels, and representatives of scholarly societies and university presses who attended. The essay is featured in a special issue of Policy Perspectives (vol. 7, no. 4, March 1998, pp. 1-12). The group concluded that "a moment of opportunity is at hand, occasioned by the potential for peer-reviewed electronic publishing and a sense of desperation spawned by runaway acquisition costs. Missing this opportunity will mean more rapidly accelerating costs, greater commercial control, and, in the end, less access to scholarly communications." An overview of the Roundtable is on the ARL Web site at http://www.arl.org/scomm/pew.html

Policy Perspectives is a publication of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable and the Knight Collaborative. Individual print copies of the March 1998 issue of Policy Perspectives are available from the Institute for Research on Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania, 4200 Pine Street, 5A, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4090 USA; tel: 800-437-9799. The issue is also available on the Web at http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/pp-cat.pl#V7N4
Readers will have to register to get access to the file; there is no charge for registration. The issue is in PDF format; a link for downloading the Adobe Acrobat reader is included on the Web page.

The Pew Higher Education Roundtable is a national laboratory that seeks to identify and test "best practices" for academic restructuring. For more information visit their Web site at http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/her/her-main.html

The Knight Collaborative is a network of the colleges and universities that have convened on-campus conversations as part of the Higher Education Roundtable. Its agenda includes the "design, testing, and implementation of alternative academic models for guiding the postsecondary enterprise, delivering educational experiences, and managing resources." More information is available at http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/knight/knight-main.html

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a not-for-profit membership organization comprising 121 libraries of North American research institutions. Its mission is to shape and influence forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication. For more information see the ARL Web site at http://www.arl.org/

The Association of American Universities (AAU) assists its members in developing national policy positions on issues that relate to academic research and graduate and professional education and provides them with a forum for discussing a broad range of other institutional issues, such as undergraduate education. For more information see the AAU Web site at http://www.tulane.edu/~aau/index.html

LIBRARIAN'S LINKS

The following IAT Information Resource Guides were updated this month:

Electronic Performance Support Systems: Readings and Resources
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-47.html

Extranets: Readings and Resources
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-50.html

Intranets: Readings and Resources
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-34.html

UPDATE

In addition to Christina DeMello's list of university Web sites mentioned in the February 1998 Infobits, see Braintrack at http://www.braintrack.com/
Braintrack organizes its list geographically, and the index is searchable. Thanks to Carole Leita for notifying me of this site.