IT celebrates 10 years of increasing technology

At a celebration for the 10-year anniversary of IU’s 1998 Information Technology Strategic Plan, IU President Michael McRobbie attributed the success of the University’s Information Technology services in the last decade to the University staff and faculty.\n“It is the people that have led us to the position we are in today,” he said May 20 to a packed house at Ruth N. Halls Theatre. He went on to name IT staff members and colleagues in the audience who contributed through the years.\nThe celebration gave McRobbie, Vice President for Information Technology Brad Wheeler and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis Chancellor Emeritus Gerald Bepko a chance to thank those who helped implement the 1998 plan and announce the launching of a new IT plan that will help IU build on its technological successes. Video presentations also described projects, research and departments that have come out of the 1998 plan. \nWheeler introduced a video presentation that described how the 1998 IT Strategic Plan came about when McRobbie was IU’s first vice president for Information Technology. Myles Brand, IU’s president at the time, gave McRobbie the task of creating a plan to increase the use of technology on IU’s eight campuses. The video then outlined the plan, which included 10 “General Recommendations,” including providing all campuses with desktop computers and basic technology, providing network access at any time of the day, getting faculty and staff involved and providing technology support for students. The plan also involved 68 specific actions the University would take.\nThe new 2008 IT Strategic Plan will be created by IT staff, faculty and students, and headed by Kelley School of Business Associate Dean Frank Acito, Wheeler said. \nAs he gave the opening remarks, Wheeler joked about changes in technology since 1998.\n“Ten years hence, we think back to the zippy signal of 33.3K modems,” he said to an eruption of laughter in the audience.\nAll of the speakers noted the creation of projects encouraged by the 1998 IT Strategic Plan, including a new IT building on the IUPUI campus and the creations of Oncourse and the School of Informatics. \n“Indiana University showed the larger world ... that large-scale concrete change can take place,” Bepko said of the 1998 plan. “IU could execute a plan just as well as any business or organization.” \nDuring the ceremony, Wheeler highlighted a number of departments and people on the IU campuses who use new technologies including performances using digital technology in the Jacobs School of Music and an IUPUI study of fluid dynamics during wind storms. For his work over the past decade, McRobbie was also given an entirely computer-generated work of art at the end of the ceremony titled “Heart Packets” by digital artist and assistant professor of Fine Arts Margaret Dolinsky.\nWheeler presented a video demonstration from a Sony 4K projector, which showed nature and city scenes in extremely high definition. The projector, worth $40,000, was being shown as a possible investment for IU’s IT in the near future. It came through IU’s partnership with Sony, which Wheeler announced in December 2007.\nAs he talked about the new IT Strategic Plan, Wheeler asked IT staff, faculty and students to share their input throughout the process and explained why it’s important to keep up with new technologies.\n“IU should not only cope with an ever-changing landscape but put together a plan to master it,” he said.