Yesterday at the quarterly Information Technology Policy Meeting, we spent some time talking about Green IT.  Our discussion group observed that we need to be more intentional as we move forward. An effective “green” IT campaign will require leadership and education.  The leadership must come from the highest levels on campus and the education must be engaging and far-reaching. Our students are ready to be involved and our faculty and staff want to help us get to a better place. Green IT is a priority in the IT Strategic Plan and recognized nationally as a higher ed priority.

At UW-Madison, we are working on digital imaging to reduce paper and ink consumption, we have made great progress in recycling computer equipment, we are adopting virtual server environments at an unprecedented rate, and we are all very conscious of our resource consumption.  This fall, the IT community will initiate a more formal program in conjunction with “We Conserve” and our students to show that Wisconsin can lead the way in Green IT. Look for announcements and ways to participate as the fall semester begins.

Jim Phelps (IT Architect) shared an interesting article/blog with me the other day -

http://www.peterkretzman.com/2009/07/07/it-the-cio-and-the-business-need-for-roof-projects/

He characterized the article as "a pretty good metaphor for those projects we have to do that really don't change what the end-user experiences."

I agree with Jim's comment, but the article also made me think about something else. I talk a lot about the importance of infrastructure projects and the need to do more things as a campus through federations or common solutions. In many ways, "roof projects" are infrastructure. If done well, "roof projects" should provide protection and cover for those things we agree to do together. When roof projects fail or come up short, the consequences can be disastrous. Worse yet, not undertaking "roof projects" in a timely manner can result in considerable risk for our organization.

I think information security, architecture, policy, and identity and access management are clearly "roof projects." What are some others that we are not giving enough attention to?

Yesterday afternoon all of the team leads from the campus IT strategic planning work met and shared the status of the work products. These dedicated folks have made a lot of progress organizing and articulating how we should move forward as a campus to better support all of us through IT service.

 In the upcoming weeks and months we will more widely share their work and begin planning next major steps.

 Thanks to all of you who have committed so much time and energy to this process.

I just spent an amazing two days in Fargo North Dakota.

We are meeting here to celebrate the "turning on" of the North Dakota portion of the Northern Tier Network. As the President of the consortium, I am honored to be a small part of the event.

At the ceremony yesterday, we heard from the system Chancellor, university presidents, state legislators, and a senator. They all spoke of one thing.  This breakthrough in network capability for North Dakota is vital to the region's future prosperity in commerce, research and education. North Dakota was able to align resources and approaches to establish this in a way that will change their state forever. Not only did they get the work done but when it was done they were able to articulate a common vision concerning what was accomplished and how to move forward. I was jealous and I was proud to be a small part of it.

Now that we know what we are in for as far as furloughs go, we all see a challenging road before us. The demands for IT service will not be diminished.  In fact, UW-Madison and UW System employees will need IT services more than ever before. In these tough times, the leadership we show can further enhance our stature in our higher ed community.  I hope we can each challenge ourselves and our colleagues to accept the situation, not let it detract from our focus on service and ensure that those we serve have the tools and the services they need to make our university successful. I know that this will not be easy. I also know that we can find it within ourselves to move forward in a positive way. I also know that our staff and our customers are looking to us to provide leadership that continually enhances all we do.

I talked with several people over the last few days that have expressed concerns (in a positive way) that there is complexity and some divergence in the IT Strategic Planning process. Too many things going on; maybe not enough coordination.

My view of the IT Strategic Planning process is that we are continuing on the course we set as a campus many months ago.  The phase we are now entering takes the 40+ strategic priority goals and organizes them into 9 or 10 groups for additional work.  No new goals have been created.

The work teams we are assembling resulted from a "call to participate" over the past two months. I attempted to reach out widely to campus (MTAG, VC Admin Group, Provost's Executive Group, the AC, ITC, APR, ComETS, CTIG, research advisory groups, DoIT, and many others) to seek participation.  The team leads are people that volunteered through that process.

The work we will now undertake simply takes the priority goals the campus has established and begins to put more detail to them. Essentially, the goals state "what we wanted to do" and now we need to begin to describe "how we might do that."

The work many groups are doing are an important part of that and any group that wants to reconnect with the IT Strategic Planning process to ensure that the work you are doing aligns with the the IT Strategic Plan, I am open to work with you to accomplish that.

Please let me know your thoughts.  If there are anxieties about how I am proceeding, I am also open to meeting with you to discuss them.

I read this fascinating article last night by Malcolm Gladwell "When Underdogs Break the Rules."

In the article, Gladwell describes situations in which unconventional strategies are used and the results are positive.  He uses basketball, war gaming, and business situations to make his point. Two quotes really struck me - 1) "The world runs in real time, but the government runs in batch" and 2) "But let's remember who made that rule: Goliath. And let's remember why Goliath made that rule: when the world has to play on Goliath's terms, Goliath wins".

This all got me thinking about the value of how we approach service; who is Goliath in our world of public higher education; who makes the rules; and how we can influence the rule-making process to better serve our students, faculty, and staff. 

If you get a chance, read the article.  It will challenge you to think about things a little differently.