Using IT when you work in IT
Submitted by mikeb on Mon, 09/26/2011 - 19:40
When you work in IT, you spend the vast majority of your time focusing on making the experience of using technology better for other people. Sometimes though, you need to spend some "me" time thinking about how to use technology to make yourself more efficient and effective. This article dives into a few tools I use plus some problems I need to solve.
Operational IT vs. strategic IT in higher education
Submitted by mikeb on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 12:49
When I talk about IT in a corporate context, I believe there are two types of IT investments: operational investments and strategic investments. Operational investments are the types of things that fall into best practices in an operational context, commonly seen as improvements in infrastructure. Strategic investments are those that allow the organization to offer new products and services or deliver products and services in ways that are significant improvements over past methods. In higher education, we can look at IT investment in the same way, in a way that demands that we make sure our infrastructure measures up to best practice.
Looking at your career strategically
Submitted by mikeb on Wed, 05/25/2011 - 13:02
After a disappointing event at work recently, I began thinking about the vision I had for my career direction. As I reflected on my current situation and the future, I realized that I could put some strategic planning tools to work in order to break through the uncertainty and gain a fresh, purposeful perspective. With perspective, I will hopefully be able to be even more effective in moving my career the direction I want it to go.
My Thoughts: Resignation of Sally Jackson
Submitted by mikeb on Fri, 05/20/2011 - 13:24
When you crowdsource your blog topics, you have to expect that you will get topics that you may not wish to discuss. Being an extroverted introvert though, I have a willingness to share what I am thinking about topics in the right context. So it is that I finally sat down to share with you some of my thoughts about Dr. Sally Jackson's resignation from her position as CIO of the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois.
