Key Takeaways:

• Big Data is very frequently about predicting what’s going to happen rather than describing what’s already happened. Today, when we talk about business intelligence it is mostly saying “This is what happened” verses Big Data which is about saying “This is what we think is going to happen”
• As companies figure out Big Data and try to find ways to obtain value from data, watch for privacy issues as these companies are now able to use data for predictive behavior e.g. Target’s Pregnancy Prediction Score.
• Watch for companies that use data obtained from cellphones via mobile apps on the phone or via GSM sensors reporting data to applications developed using GNU Radio (e.g. shopkick or Path Intelligence) to track how people interact and move around in malls and stores and then offer promotions based on the stores you’re likely to visit
• The classic mobile HTML5 vs. native mobile app question continues to read its head as companies opt to develop an HTML5 mobile app over a native app purely to obtain more click-stream data
• The future belongs to the companies and people that can turn data into products

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Ms. Sankar said her biggest challenge is convincing professors that they can use a technology tool that is not officially endorsed by their colleges. She intentionally does not seek out deals with campus technology offices because she feels that what type of tool to use should be left up to individual faculty members. That’s a shift that could change the way technology is supported on campuses.

Students Endlessly E-Mail Professors for Help. A New Service Hopes to Organize the Answers.

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1. Technical Support
2. Software discounts
3. Hardware discounts
4. Printers and Printing
5. Residence Hall Room network restrictions
6. Wireless Access
7. Seminars and Training
8. Computer Labs and Social Spaces
9. Off-campus access to restricted resources
10. File Space

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For those not familiar, EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to help advance higher education by promoting the use of information technology.

I’m going to try and make it to tomorrow’s sessions but because we’ve just started work on a BMC Remedy project I’ve been missing out on some great sessions that happened today. A number of my colleagues are at the conference and are using Twitter to keep others in the loop. If you’d like to tune in, check out posts with the hashtag #MARC09 (i.e. Mid Atlantic Regional Conference 2009), or simply visit the Twitter search page for Marc09.

Conferences like EDUCAUSE are a great way to network with fellow peers within the education industry and especially a chance to monitor trends that may be worth investing in. For example, for a day that I missed, here’s a sampling of topics that were covered in today’s session that I would have liked to attend:

1. Help Desk Outsourcing: Lessons Learned – Interesting given the general negative perception that some Fortune 500 companies have faced as a result of outsourcing their Help Desk operations. At a time when universities are trying to increase alumni giving, one would expect that keeping Help Desk operations in house would actually help improve customer satisfaction which might directly correspond with an eventual increase in alumni giving. I like to say Customer Loyalty = Customer Satisfaction + Customer Relationship Management
2. Teaching in Virtual Worlds (Second Life) – Another interesting area given that Second Life seemed to be the big area for marketing a brand and slowly seems to have lost steam over the past year. I was glad that I never invested in Linden Dollars and with so much educational material now available on Youtube I’m curious how or what was taught in SecondLife. Either way, Second Life is still running unlike Google’s Lively which closed on January 1 2009.
3. Effective Strategies in Supporting a Campus Through Major Technology Initiatives

Some links that a colleague shared through out the day via Twitter that are truly reflective of the gems that you take away from the various sessions include:

1. Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2008 - Are you using at least the Top 10 tools?
2. Dr. Michael Wesch’s YouTube videos - Check out the video ‘A Vision of Students Today’
3. Project Tomorrow - How are today’s students being prepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world.

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