We’ve been working on an iPhone Application for the IDM Department for a few months now and we are excited to release a version to the Apple iTunes App Store soon!  Dustin Hume and I have been working very hard on this App and the App (and our iPhone skills) is steadily improving.  We’ll make another announcement here when it’s uploaded and accepted to the App Store.  Once it’s out, please give it a try and give us feedback. 

Dr. Babb

There is a problem with the internet and that problem is the World Wide Web.  Well, okay, there’s nothing wrong with the WWW so long as we want to view basic documents marked up in HTML.  However, the public has made it clear that Web 2.0-like experiences is what they’re after (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Google (maps and such), etc.).  The problem is that we’ve had a number of proprietary (Flash, Silverlight, Applets, JavaFX, etc) and kludgey (AJAX) solutions to the problem generated by our over-extension of HTTP/HTML beyond its original design.  We could do like the military and extend the life of the basic design for decades (viz. the B-52 or the C-130), or, we can just move foward to a new paradigm (MQ-1 Predator or the MQ-9 Reaper to keep the military analogy alive). 

So what is the new paradigm? 

The new paradigm would be HTML 5.  Among the nicer elements of HTML5 is the full support of SVG.  We need something like SVG more than ever as the screen resolution of the typical “web experience” is so varied now.  Moreover, new tags would be implemented for the uniform handling of many of the required elements of the typical web page/surfing experience:

• audio
• canvas (for achieving flash-like motion)
• progress
• time
• video

Simply stated: HTML5 will make standard many of the proprietary add-ons that feel standard now, but are not.  One of the hallmarks of the Web 2.0 movement, YouTube, is now 5 years old.  Lucky for us, Google paid a princely sum to take ownership of this very viral and near-essential facet of the web.  I say this as Google is now offering to place their web browser, Chrome, as a plugin into your existing browser so that you can get closer to full-on HTML5 goodness.  Ask your favorite website/ISP/blog/what-have-you, when they’re gonna move to HTML5!  While Chrome isn’t fully there yet, I am personally VERY HAPPY to see a move towards HTML5 – the old ways are not extensible in the long term.  Now, how’s about IPv6?

Dr. Babb

What went wrong with Microsoft. A good article by the X-Tablet Executive

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?ref=technology

it is worth reading
Musa

So a study was able to link the size of areas of the brain associated with learning and memory to video game aptitude. I’m not super surprised, but it’s interesting none the less.

http://tinyurl.com/y8gu6lr

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So,  I hated Physics in college, but, a lot of really fun and crazy research comes from Physics (the advanced stuff, not the stuff I had to learn).  Including the recent story about the baguette (which may be from the future) which may have shut down the Higgs particle experiment.

Brief refresher: no one has ever seen a Higgs particle, but most physicists are convicted that they exist.  Discovering them will explain many of the persistent questions about our universe, such as where does mass come from.

In order to observe a Higgs particle, scientists built a 10 billion dollar, 17 mile long particle accelerator / collider on the boarder between France and Switzerland (They were going to build it in Dallas, but they decided it was too expensive… but a 1.3 billion dollar football stadium isn’t too expensive…) .

Some people were worried that there is a small chance that they might create a black hole that could swallow the entire universe.  Ofcourse any black hole that they create would vanish before it could become very big and do any real damage, but certainly bending the laws of physics can create uncertain outcomes….

Anyway, it takes several days to fire these things, the entire 17 mile collider has to be cooled to a temperature smaller than space,  it consume more power than the nearby city of Geneva.

Right when they were getting ready to run the experiment, the power went out?  After an investigation, they found a baguette (piece of bread) in one of the above ground power stations.

Most people think a bird carried that piece of bread from the nearest town and just dropped it, and that messed up the entire power grid. But a few scientists have a more interesting explanation:

Since the experiments that they are running can send shockwaves through the space time continuum, perhaps sometime in the future that collider did create some disturbance, which might have caused the power outage in the same location as the disturbance, but at an earlier time (i.e., yesterday).  If that is the case, where did the baguette come from?

Science is fun..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091111/wl_time/08599193737000

I posed this question to students in my IDM4372 course in Data Visualization and Interface Design and received various and interesting answers.  Being interdisciplinary in nature, many of the answers from my students amounted to: “A little of this and a little of that.”  While such an answer is somewhat oblique, the ambiquity is both a strength and a weakness.  Are we designers and developers of information technologies, or, are we managers and integrators of said technologies?  Well, a little of both actually.  We certainly have techology and systems design in our hearts, but we can also be quite managerial and behavioral.   

It is certainly true that we are in flux: Web 2.0, outsourcing/offshoring, Service-Orientation and vacillations in an increasingly global ecnomony and marketplace have taken us on quite an interesting ride in the last decade.  However, times have never been better.  Our tools are more powerful, our research tradition is maturing and our opportunities for communicating ideas, concepts and information are greater than ever.  However, the rate of change and general instability certainly challenges extant notions of professional disciplines and Thomas Khun’s concept of paradigms of professional practice.

We may start to ask what IS is not rather than what it is.  While I am very certain that the development and integration of Information Technologies for the betterment of organizations will remain in our blood and our Raison d’être, I also feel that many IT professionals will be able to utilize and extend the Service-Oriented model such that they become technology artisans who sell their skills in an open market.  Future graduates might not go work for the Fortune 500 IT shop as much as they used to, but they certainly have opportunities to market and sell their skills to Foture 500 companies and beyond.  Interesting times.

Below is a diagram my students came up with which explains their definition of Information Systems:

Dr. Jeffry Babb

We are pleased with your interest in our CIS department and programs.  We have created a dynamic and interactive learning environment that extends beyond the classroom experience, with the goal of preparing students for successful professional careers in a rapidly changing, digital economy.

While we are committed toward building academic excellence, we are also concerned about our students’ success and their professional growth.  When you enroll in the IDM Department programs, you will be joining a department that is committed to student learning and student success.  We provide our students with a learning experience that is relevant and practical in an ever-changing business environment.

Our programs provide a strong foundation in business fundamentals and strategies, and managerial issues related to information technologies.  Special interest is given to emerging technologies and their role as facilitators of strategic advantage in the marketplace. We offer degree programs at the undergraduate (BBA) and graduate (MBA) levels.  We offer students comprehensive education in the various dimensions of computer information systems including database management, systems analysis and development, data communications and networking, web-based applications development, data mining, business intelligence, security, video gaming design, and visualization.

Our faculty consists of experienced specialists who have attained significant academic credentials in their fields; and they bring practical and relevant experience to enrich our students’ classroom learning-experience.  In addition, a variety of financial assistance is available, including grants, scholarships, graduate assistant positions, and part-time employment.

We have been relentless in our effort to enhance the quality of our academic offerings.  We have been successful in our efforts to raise scholarship funds and internship opportunities to attract and retain high caliber students. Again, thanks for your interest in our programs, and we are confident that WTAMU’s CIS programs are the right choice for preparation for a business technology career. We look forward to meeting you soon.

Dr. Amjad Abdullat
Department Head
aabdullat@wtamu.edu