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.

The article includes some tech that is specific to corporations (such as Green Grid computing), but it also demonstrates the now constant interplay of social and work technologies (Twitter, Yammer, Blackberry, iPhones…). Many knowledge workers do not want the redundancy of multiple devices, accounts, or passwords when the social computing technology admirably supports both work and personal communication.

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

As our Digital Business group evolves and gathers more momentum, we will continue to study, consult and advise on the appropriate uses of advertising as part of a web company’s business model. One thing is clear though, the investment community remains very optimistic that whomever controls the marketplaces for online ads will be a winner no matter what may come!

Update: Time magazine covers the story as well.

Good news! The National Science Foundation has funded a second phase of the interdisciplinary Future Internet research project with Golisano Computing colleague Dr. Nirmala Shenoy for approximately $250,000. As before, the Saunders College team will identify and model the business impacts/ adoption patterns that are likely for a novel Internet technology. The complete award note is available at the NSF website.

This research is funded by NSF’s FIND (Future Internet Design) program which is a new long-term initiative  to envision and plan a future internet by bringing together researchers from many different disciplines.

If you are interested in helping with this research effort, contact me at: vjpbbu@rit.edu

Education Upgrade

Colleges shake their reputation as late adoptersBy Lorna Collier

This article looked at the findings of the Horizon Report, which identified Digent as a novel way to support collaboration. Now, I cannot find any sign of this article, but it was partially reprinted with quotes from me here:

http://mainiactheresa.blogspot.com/2008/05/51508-good-karma.html

Good news, nonetheless!

Update August 20: The full encarta article is available from the Author’s website: http://www.lornacollier.com/horizononmsn.pdf

Hiya, Google released their 3D world to beta today. It is called Lively.  I found much easier to use than secondlife, but with less power. However, it is a power-to-the-people kind of thing so if the community around it grows bigger there will be lots of free virtual goods. I even made my own island on my first visit.

http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-3922051443420242239

dotSyntax, LLC has taken 4 of the 6 awards at about.com’s 2008 IM awards!

View the full article here: http://im.about.com/od/imreviews/ss/IMBestWinners.htm

1. Most Improved IM
2. Best Third-Party Instant Messenger
3. Best IM Feature
4. Developers of the Year

Congratulations to RIT’s own Steve Shapiro and team!