For-Profit Colleges Change Higher Education's Landscape

Nimble companies gain a fast-growing share of enrollments

Noah Berger for The ChronicleThe U. of Phoenix's San Francisco Learning Center, in the financial district, offers information-technology, business, and other degrees. As of this month, the university's total enrollment is 455,600.

By Robin Wilson

For more, http://chronicle.com/

Publication: The Chronicle of High Education

Are we truly ready for Cybersecurity ?

Official Summary

11/7/2009--Introduced.Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009 - Directs specified federal agencies participating in the National High-Performance Computing Program to:

(1) transmit to Congress a cybersecurity strategic research and development plan and triennial updates; and

(2) develop and annually update an implementation roadmap for such plan. Provides for the award of computer and network security research grants by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the research areas of social and behavioral factors, including human-computer interactions, and identity management. Instructs that applications for the establishment of Computer and Network Security Research Centers include how such Centers will partner with government laboratories, for-profit entities, other institutions of higher education, or nonprofit research institutions. Requires the NSF Director to carry out a program of awarding fellowships to encourage young scientists and engineers to conduct postdoctoral research in the fields of cybersecurity and information assurance, including the research areas under which computer and network security research grants are awarded. Requires the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director to convene a cybersecurity university-industry task force to explore mechanisms for carrying out collaborative R&D activities. Requires (currently, permits) the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director to establish priorities for the development of checklists of settings and options that minimize security risks associated with computer systems that are, or are likely to become, widely used within the federal government. Requires:

1) development or identification and revision or adaptation as necessary, of checklists, configuration profiles, and deployment recommendations for products and protocols that minimize such risks; and

(2) development of automated security specifications respecting checklist content and associated security related data. Ensures that any products developed under the National Checklist Program for any information systems, including the Security Content Automation Protocol, be disseminated to federal agencies Requires conducting of intramural security research activities under NIST's computing standards program. Instructs the NIST Director to:


(1) ensure coordination of U.S. government representation in the international development of technical standards related to cybersecurity;

(2) implement a cybersecurity awareness and education program through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program; and

(3) establish a program to support development of technical standards, metrology, testbeds, and conformance criteria with regard to identity management research and development.

Is it time for a Chief Social Media Officer (CSMO) at today's colleges and universities?

As we enter 2010 there are new challenges facing colleges and universities. It is important to consider the fact that social media will play a major role in communication with faculty, staff, students and alumni informing the overall image of our organization. Once again we are in a race to the unexplored regions of technology, and our basic everyday struggle between what’s new and cool, and how we as administrators keep up to date with new trends in technology for communication and educational purposes


In a conversation that I had the other day with senior administrators, we began to discuss the overall effect of how social media was being used on their campus. Even though the conversation was interesting, I did not take it seriously at first. After the meeting I went out on the web on some basic social media sites; Facebook, MySpace, twitter, friend feed, YouTube and a couple of others. This college with about 7000 students and less than 600 faculty and staff, had approximately 128 social media sites linked to the college or university. However, there were only 4 sites that the cabinet members were aware of. It was amazing to me when I considered the amount of time University presidents and Chancellors spend building a organization and pondering their over-all image to the world, that the biggest communication trend in the world to-day, social media, has no administration oversight.


This always leads to the interesting question is this a technology problem or a policy problem? Even though there are certain technologies that can be used for monitoring and oversight, I truly believe that this is a policy problem and a Public Relations issue. Administrators must truly look into the effects that social media can have on their organization's image internally and externally. I would seriously doubt that any major college or university today has a person who's solely responsible for monitoring the web, blogs, Facebook, MySpace and the hundreds of other social media sites for how the organization's image is presented in the world of cyberspace. In a world where one is never sure what can go viral (when a simple statement or blog posts becomes very well known and gets hundreds of thousands or millions of hits). Can we truly afford to leave our organizations image to chance?


How can we ensure that no one is writing things that are not true, negative, inflammatory, or even ensure that members of our  own organization are not posting incorrect information to the web? Even small errors or misstatements can lead to mass confusion in any organization. In considering this issue on a larger scale, in the University arena one has to pose a very interesting question, "Is it time for a Chief Social Media Officer (CSMO) at today's colleges and universities?", to oversee the communication and to help with the transfer of information that might affect the overall organizations communication strategy and the overall image of the organization in the cyber-world? I would argue that the time has come.


P.S. After this conversation I decided to take a step back and review how I manage my own image on the web. I'm one of those people who love innovations in cyberspace. For many years I have tried to be on the forefront of all new technologies and understand the total impact that these technologies can have. Amazingly when I began to look at my own image on the web I have approximately 15 sites that are part of my over all cyberspace image and reputation. As I step back to review how other people who are searching the web would see me it became apparent To me that I do a very poor job of managing my over all cyberspace persona. So, I made a promise to myself. After I finish this Blog I will dedicate some time to correcting the great injustice I have done to my own reputation by not monitoring how I would like to represent Leon Lewis Jr. to the world of cyberspace.

NCCU Adopts Facebook Connect For Campus Portal

NCCU Adopts Facebook Connect For Campus Portal: "The web team at North Carolina Central University has been working hard these past few years developing a foundation by which to offer more dynamic information with a hint of social networking.

Today, Web Services has successfully connected its MyEOL portal with Facebook through its Facebook Connect API.






What Does This Mean for the University?

The team recognizes that many students, alumni, and prospective students are already using Facebook on a daily basis. University departments are sprouting new groups and fan pages weekly and Web Services would like to help connect the social power of Facebook with the University's own portal.
 The first step to achieve this connection is to allow the NCCU community to login to MyEOL with their Facebook account. The initial launch will make this feature available to prospective students and alumni.
 Once logged in, the community will be able to update their Facebook status through NCCU's Twitter-like application, Eagle Status. Additionally, users will update their Facebook wall with notifications after receiving new badges and other campus achievements.
 Other benefits of Facebook Connect on the NCCU campus is to help further the OpenID movement. With each new web site, users are continuously creating new usernames and passwords. This opens the door to security breaches and identify theft.

Web Services would like to offer the community alternatives to yet another account. If the United States Government is eager to adopt OpenID standards, the team also believes it should follow their lead.

What Took So Long?

There are some that may ask the question, "Why has it taken so long to connect Facebook with NCCU?" The challenge has been getting Facebook's API to work with our ColdFusion environment. Once the guys roll out the option to login to NCCU's MyEOL with Facebook credentials, the team will make this code available to all ColdFusion developers, universities, and Facebook Connect representatives.

Final Thoughts

I would like to personally thank Derek Brinson and Darin Tyler for their dedication and tireless efforts to make Facebook Connect work on campus.

The date for final release has yet to be set, but I am excited to hear the team has made it this far and curious to find what other colleges and universities are doing with Facebook Connect. Let's talk about the opportunities in the comment section below. If you have a link to a university or college that uses Facebook Connect, please share a URL

Definition of Chief Information Officer in Higher Education

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working with a client of mine, to define a new job position of Chief Information Officer at their college. In my initial conversations with the college administrators it quickly dawned on me that they had no idea what a chief information officer was or even did. So I began to lay out the major differences between a Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Director of Technology.


Duties and responsibilities of a Chief Information Officer, is to have a total understanding of the mission of the college or university and facilitate the technology needs to meet the spoken and unspoken goals of the organization... To have an overall grasp of all upcoming and new technologies that will affect teaching and learning as well as day-to-day business at the college or university. To assist in the transfer of information between the University or College and all major stakeholders I.E. (public-relations, library, television, radio and technology) To have the ability to plan and prioritize A strong strategic plan for long-term stability and data integrity of all of the University or College's information. To have a total understanding of all federal state and local regulations and laws that affects the flow of information at their organization. To facilitate the implementation of technology that will help move the college or university forward to meet all of their necessary technological needs.
Duties and responsibilities of a Chief Technology Officer is to have a overall grasp of all upcoming and new technologies that will affect teaching and learning as well as day-to-day business at the college or university, To implement a strategic plan for long-term stability and data integrity of all of the University or College's information. To have a understanding of all federal state and local regulations and laws that affect the flow of information at their organization. To facilitate the implementation of technology that will help move the college or university forward to meet all of the necessary technological needs. To have the ability to translate technical matters into simple speak. To have A strong understanding of the time it takes to implement new and emerging technologies. To have the ability to understand upcoming technologies and be able to tell the difference between fads and IT trends.
Duties and responsibilities Director of Technology day-to-day information technology operations, Planning and implementing strong IT infrastructure, Assisting in budgeting and IT purchases of equipment, Planning and implementing information technology equipment rotation schedules servers, desktops, laptops, switches and all other hardware. Insuring customer service to all constituents, Assist in planning with overall strategic plans and goals, so that the information technology can meet the overall University goals, assisting in implementing new technologies for teaching and learning and administration.
Please find a standard matrix below that I use to help organizations to hire the right person, score between 40 and 60 you are looking for a Chief Information Officer, if the score is between 20 and 39 you are looking for a Chief Technology Officer if the score is less than 19 you need a Director of Technology. Please give each box a rating on a scale of 1 to 3.

(1) Needs some understanding
(2) With some experience
(3) Expertise

	Ability to motivate information technology staff
	Ability to run day-to-day information technology operation in a stable environment
	financial planning and budgeting
	The ability to build collaborations throughout the organization
	The ability to implement a long-range strategic plan
	The ability to keep up with new and emerging technologies
	The ability to secure outside funding sources and grants for information technology initiatives
	The ability to translate technical matters into simple speak
	The ability to work with administrators
	The ability to work with faculty
	Understanding of all federal state and local information laws
	Understanding of all information technology trends in higher education
	Understanding of customer service and customer service models
	Understanding of how technology affects day-to-day operations in a educational institution
	Understanding of information technology governance
	Understanding of library science
	Understanding of pedagogy
	Understanding of public relations and communications
	Understanding of research computing
	Understanding of The University or College missions and goals

Uncategorized The New Ways To Do The business: MBA or CIO?

This new situation strong demands a new MBA program including the General Control Theory, the control engineering, the new business technologies, the Management by Exception concept automated by computer systems, the Feedback Control System and several other subjects like Internet Marketing & Sales.

As we know the CIO is the abbreviation of “Chief Information Officer” and is a new professional, usually between the CEO and the other Directors including the IT Director. He don’t replace the IT Director, with the exception in small companies.


A CIO Chief Information Officer has entrepreneurial experience and at the same time technical experience in Information Technologies. The entrepreneur usually has only the entrepreneurial experience and the IT manager has only on technical matters. However business is more and more the information system and the information system is more and more the business.

The companies are more and more electronics, as for examples the ERP Enterprise Resources Planning, the CRM Customer Relationship Management, the Voice over IP VoIP, the sophisticated Call Centers, Business Intelligence BI, the Internet, the new Internet Marketing, etc. Therefore, to survive a modern business administrator must learn those new ways to do the business and how to manage those modern enterprises.

In other words, the current MBA will be substituted by a CIO in a very short period of time. And a recent report from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the primary accrediting body in North America lambasted its members for maintaining a curriculum that is out of touch with modern business practices. As a matter of fact, the current MBA it’s an 60-years old curriculum in the begin of this digital age.



About the Author:


J.C.Melo is a 73-years old IT professional with 54 years of experience in computer science & technology entrepreneurship. He was the owner of the first minicomputer factory in South America and Consultant for the U.S. Government in several contracts. Now is the CEO of the organizationhttp://mba-open-university.net and http://online-learning.distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net