As expected, I learned a lot on my recent trip to the AMCIS conference in San Francisco. One striking thing is the incredibly high quality of new Ph.D.s in MIS. I met so many talented people, and interviewed as many as I could for our faculty position at RIT (http://bitly.com/ritmis). While advantageous for RIT, the true shame is that there are not enough faculty jobs for these talented people- not by a long shot. The fact that there are so few positions creates a dangerous situation where a whole generation of educators/researchers could be lost (thanks SWH for this idea). At this moment, there is not a lot that we can do about it.

However, longer term there is one obvious thing to do-increase the enrollments in MIS. I believe there are two paths to that: better communication about the discipline, and recentering the discipline on the knowledge areas of its faculty. As an example of communication, the chart above (thanks Chuck Wood) shows clearly that MIS starting salaries have been the highest in the business schools for some time. Employers REALLY want the combination of technology and business and are willing to pay for it. MIS people end up doing a wide variety of things in organizations, but their tech/business/communications skills make them the key players in a lot of what happens. My friend Richard DeMartino comments how well MIS students do in entrepreneurial teams, and I am proud of what this group accomplishes.

A second important approach to reviving the discipline is to find ways to capture the intellectual curiosity and new knowledge developed by its faculty. While for some researchers this is already happening, for many of us the curriculum is a standard that is far away from our interests. At AMCIS, I learned that MANY people are researching things that will never be taught in the standard curriculum. I feel that this is a shame, and possibly a detriment to the discipline.

The MIS discipline has room for lots of different subjects in its conferences. We should find the way to bring them back to our students, because that natural energy that comes from doing what you like does not have a substitute. Students feel it, and become interested themselves. Take the now-500 strong DigEnt social network.

Along the way, we have received local and national media attention, benefitted from the wisdom of individuals throughout the world, and created connections that are today advancing new business ideas, while creating great educational experiences for students.

http://feedroom.businessweek.com/linking/index.jsp?skin=oneclip&fr_story=4ff1e4b3a9adab1fad937c0f767acc92c93cf3ae&rf=ev&hl=true

Another quarter has come and gone and there are lots of ideas floating around at various stages of implementation. Students in my Object Oriented Analysis and Design course as well as those in Digital Entrepreneurship have created a set of 20 or more great business ideas. I have mentioned on numerous occasions the RIT Business Plan Competition as a way forward.

DigEnt community member Valerie Perotti (aka Mom) has brought forward an alternative. Kluster is an interactive website and process that brings together ideas and allows a community to judge them and pursue implementation. Check out the New York Times article here

Next students in residence at DigEnt will be our Freshmen learning community completing their one year innovation experience. Look for the brilliance and freshness of youth!

VP

Good News! Our DigEnt Community (http://digent.rit.edu) has been listed as a leading example of a Collaboration Web by the New Media Consortium (http://nmc.org). Community member Joeann Humbert made the connection between DigEnt and NMC. Congratulations to all community members whose work received this acknowledgement!

See pages 14 and 15 of the Horizon Report http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

About the Horizon Project:
As the centerpiece of NMC’s Emerging Technologies Initiative, the Horizon Project charts the landscape of emerging technologies for teaching, learning and creative expression and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report.

About the New Media Consortium:
The consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression, and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration, and recognize excellence among its member institutions. Through its many projects, its comprehensive website, and its series of international conferences, the NMC stimulates dialog and understanding through the exploration of promising ideas, technologies, and applications.

What I learned quickly at this meeting is that the FIND community are a VERY impressive group of researchers who are actively designing what might/could/should be the next Internet. They represent an incredible assembly of ivy league schools, research companies, think tanks and more. Needless to say it was exciting to be there! Unfortunately, my ignorance was pretty vast going in. I collaborated with some real Internet pioneers (e.g. Bob Kahn and David Clark to name two) without even knowing it! Furthermore, the technical nature of a lot of the subject matter was stretching my 1980’s era computer science knowledge and memory to say the least.

The good news is that the FIND group is engaging a wider set of collaborators, and I am honored to be one of the few business/economics types there. In fact, my input helped to add to the design of the “information”-centric design philosophy which has become part of the record for the larger group.

What this amounts to, dear readers, is a whale of an opportunity. We have a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation, now all we have to do is use it! What do you think the Future Internet should do? How should it enable society or business? Let me know, and just maybe we will see your ideas in the Future.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/facebook/

I am happy to say that it is happening again.

0102-554-01 Seminar in Management: Digital Entrepreneurship is available to all students at RIT who have at least junior standing. We will cover a range of topics from Web 2.0 and social networking to the latest business models and much more all for a mixed audience of different colleges and students.

Check our community at: http://digent.rit.edu for more info,

Well, the RIT Entrepreneurship Conference was a big success. Really big, I would say, for our region and our school. Among the many things I heard during the day was about physical things interacting with the Internet. There is a long history of this kind of thinking and ideas. Some highlights:

1999 Kevin Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy advises “Embrace the Swarm” so that we might all consider how networking EVERYTHING creates a new paradigm

2005 Tim O’Reilly coins the term Web 2.0 to include several ideas. One that gets little mention is Software Above the Level of a Single Device. I usually refer to this when talking about hybrid Mobile/Desktop access, but really it includes ideas of how physical devices get linked into the web. Example is iPod.

2005 (November) Guitar Hero is released for playstation with guitar as interface

2006 (December) Nintendo Wii is released with innovative physical interface

2007 Nintendo Wii is labeled as the market leader of console games by the Financial Times

late 2007/early 2008 WiiFit is released to bring together fitness and gaming

2008 (March I hope) Shenoy and Perotti present at the Internet of Things conference in Zurich

http://www2.rit.edu/entconf/2007/

BUT HURRY! Last year we filled quickly and we are headed that way again. You need to register to ensure your participation.

Discuss the conference at DigEnt, our digital entrepreneurship community.