Son of SoTI

University plans 100 ‘targeted’ job cuts while increasing student numbers.

The ISP will begin a trial within days to monitor 40 percent of its network in order to gauge unlawful file-sharing levels. Virgin Media is to monitor its customers' data packets in an effort to gauge the level of unlawful file-sharing on its networks. The company announced on Thursday that it would perform a trial of deep packet inspection technology from Detica to gauge the levels of unlawful file-sharing on its network, on behalf of music companies and other rights holders.

Something bad, sad and mad is happening in the UK. Bad for the quality of our democracy. Sad for freedom of thought. Mad for common sense. As is so common in life, it is driven by honest sentiments and by people who have stronger hearts than they have knowledgeable heads.

Our government and its lower layers is becoming obsessively prescriptive about how UK universities should behave. This is damaging. It will do the reverse of what is intended. The latest attempt is in the design of something called the REF. This will be unreliable and is suitably named – I write this article after the handball, missed by the referee, by Thierry Henry that put Ireland out of the World Cup.

The acronym stands for the Research Excellence Framework. I don't know about you, but when I read words like "excellence framework" my head and heart always take an unhappy turn. Such phrases make me think of the days of the Soviet Union (a country and system known, in the data used by researchers like me, for producing exceptionally poor mental health among its citizens, and a lot of tractors in the wrong place). I expect the later sentences in any such document to reveal mostly the reverse. On inspection, and I have just read it, the REF document that was recently released to universities, telling us how to score goals and avoid a red card, has that predictably Soviet-ish feel.

In my life I have met about 30 Nobel Prize winners. They spanned disciplines, but one thing I noticed about them was an extreme disregard for waffle. This is because you make waves in academic life by getting on with fine work not talking about the need for elite-sounding, technocratic, puffery titles for organisations.

The REF is to replace the RAE (the research assessment exercise). From assessment to excellence in one movement by the UK, you may think.

After 2012, according to the current proposal, this REF will be used to allocate research cash to universities. Its central innovation is that it wishes to reward impact outside academia, and the plan is to put 25 per cent weight (in other words to allocate a quarter of UK university research-funding) according to this impact.

This is illogical and dangerous. It will get universities to put a lot of effort into doing things that they are not meant to do.

Universities are not firms, or newspapers, or quangos. UK universities are good at what they do, especially given the level of resources available to them, and should be encouraged to stick disinterestedly to discovering what is true.

It sounds strange, but universities are not meant to influence the world – not, at least, in any remotely immediate sense. If you are sitting on the Islington Omnibus, you may think that an odd and incorrect line to argue, but it is important to be clear about why it is.

Human knowledge rests on the discovery of fundamentals – on what we might call basic truths. Your Omnibus is running, right now, because of scientific research done decades ago by people with no interest whatsoever in powering your bus. They cared about differential equations, about the crystalline structure of glass, about the coefficient of friction, about the science of braking distances, about the inside of hydrocarbons, about more things with long Latin names than you and I have had salad lunches.

Our problem here is ultimately with politicians. They feel obliged to be busy doing things in arenas where they have no expertise.

A little while ago, I was invited, with three others, to go and see one of the UK's best-known political figures. It is always interesting to meet a household name (I do not mean that is what he was thinking, I fear). This man, who certainly has a terrific brain, asked us in turn what he should do with the UK's universities. Every time I explained "leave them alone", he would listen courteously. Then he would think. Then he would turn to me. Then he would go back, each time, to a sentence that began something like, "But we put all this taxpayers' money into universities, and I just feel...".

Universities are not meant to be practical; other organisations are for that. If you think UK universities are meant to have "impact", you have not thought about the issues hard enough.

The writer is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.

The next version of Flip’s cutesy Mino pocket camcorder will have a built-in Wi-Fi connection.

The Mino was a huge hit when it first hit the market last year, practically inventing a whole new product genre all on its own. Flip followed it up with the MinoHD earlier this year, which sweetened the deal by bringing high-def shooting to the table.

But with rivals great and small snapping at its heels, Flip is now dangling wireless capability in front of pocket cam enthusiasts, which will let you fling video effortlessly from the Flip to your computer without the need for the pop-out USB connector.

Wi-Fi aside, the third-gen Flip Mino will also feature a much bigger screen, which will slide back to reveal the record and menu buttons tucked away underneath, though it won’t be a touchscreen. The only bad news is that you’ll have to wait until early next year to get your hands on one.
Read Next Flip Mino will have Wi-Fi on FiveFWD

Image via Wikipedia

I've spent a fair amount of time reading university social media policies over the past few weeks. Here's an example that is representative of how most universities are approaching it:

University Officially Recognized Social Media Accounts

The University has established an application process for groups to be recognized by the University as official social media accounts.

The policy only applies to social media accounts created to represent groups, departments, programs, entities, etc. and does not apply to private individual accounts.

In other words, you're only allowed to participate as a department or some other organizational entity. No personal identities allowed. If you're using your real name you're on your own. Do not speak for the university. Don't even think about wearing your university hat.

This is sad. It's the old industrial era concept of a work and personal life. Like we're naturally schizophrenic? We all know this is a total myth. These attempts to remove the person from their social media strategies (and that's what they are, strategies) are doomed to fail.

I found the whole exercise of looking at the policies a bit depressing. So when I saw this blog post by Andrew Douglas it spoke to me: B2B's Big Hurdle: Developing a personality in social media:

Know what doesn't work in social media? Twitter or blog posts by nameless corporations. And that's going to be the biggest hurdle for people like me who do B2B public relations.

The rules of successful social media engagement -- frequent updates, transparency, engagement with other users, personality -- don't mesh with corporate PR 1.0.

Or university PR 1.0. The approaches the universities are taking to social media are not going to work. They are not designed to be engaging, conversational, or transparent. They will lead to the old push, broadcast, sterile world of old. This is not what the people are wanting. You can't get real while hiding behind an organizational facade.

So here's my advice. Dump the policies. They aren't going to work anyway. Turn your faculty and staff loose. Tell them they represent the university 24x7. Just like they represent themselves 24x7. The only policy required is common sense.

Image by curiouslee via Flickr

At one point, a college leader asked the panel from Google if Wave would be compatible with IMS Global standards, which helps education software from various vendors work together.

Is this going to eliminate my job bottling knowledge? Will faculty be able to engage students in learning without using our million dollar Learning Management System? Are we going to need some policies that will keep faculty from using this? Just saying, cause this would be really bad for our budget and my job security.

The person asking the question was a very astute observer. They cut straight to the chase. They could see the threat of Google Wave and thought, "We better get this under control before it eliminates our reason for existance." We can only hope.

All this money being spent on these silly control-freak standards could be much better spent cutting tuition costs. When was the last time you heard a university leader talk about cutting costs and making their institutions more affordable? There are plenty of places where costs could be cut. Learning Management Systems would be a good place to start.