Mark Greenfield

Yesterday I added a new feature to this site. Feedburner has a tool called link splicer that allows you to splice your blog feed with new links you have added to your del.icio.us account. These daily posts are only viewable through the RSS feed. They do not appear on the actual site. (I have added the del.icio.us tag cloud and latest links to the actual site.)

Please let me know if you find this a valuable feature.

First we had software and hardware. Soon we will be entering the age of everyware. Everyware (The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing) was written by Adam Greenfield (no relation) and describes the move from the desktop computing paradigm to where the technology is embedded in our environment and becomes virtually invisible in our lives.

This idea is also referred to as the World Network. A USA Today article titled “Next big thing: The Web as your servant” detailed how the convergence of the Internet, GPS, cellular networks and RFID will make this possible. The article quoted web creator Tim Berners-Lee who said “The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people.” Motorola CEO Ed Zander added “The big change is going to be when the Internet follows you, not you trying to follow the Internet.”

We are now seeing the idea of everyware and the world network being implemented in interesting ways in higher ed:

• MIT has introduced iFind which allows “you and your buddies can instantaneously exchange your locations on campus, talk to users nearby, and microcoordinate more effectively.”
• Esuds is an online laundry system that gives students the ability to check the availability of washers and dryers and be notified that their laundry is finished via text message or e-mail. Google e-suds to find links to numerous colleges that are using esuds
• GPS systems are being added to campus buses and shuttles that allow their location to be tracked in real time via cellphone. I would love to see this at UB where we have two campuses and very cold and snowy winters.
• Rave Wireless has a service called Guardian that takes campus safety to the next level by allowing students to set a timer on their cell phones if they feel unsafe (i.e. if they are crossing campus alone late at night). If the student doesn’t deactivate the timer, campus police are notified with the student’s GPS location and personal profile.
• NJIT’s Smart Campus Project which will will allow NJIT students to locate their friends or find how many people are currently using the library or computer labs in real time.

Over the past few months I’ve been happy to see many of my colleagues at UB and other institutions starting to use social networks. Not only are they on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, they are actively using them to build relationships.

The next step will be the development of niche social networks. Think of it as the intersection of social networks and the long tail. While Facebook and LinkedIn attract millions of users, these users have very dissimilar interests and share little in common. They were not built to be flexible. Niche social networks have the potential to allow like-minded people to connect in a much more meaningful way than the larger sites.

Many new tools are emerging to build social networks including Ning, CollectiveX, and Elgg. I am currently testing both Ning and Elgg to build an “Academic Network” which will allow students to connect and collobarate around shared academic interests.

As the number of social networks grow, social network overload will become a major issue. How can we keep up-to-date on the activity across numerous social networks?. Tools that aggregate your social websites are emerging as well including profilelinker, spokeo, and Profilactic.

Many of the projects I’m working would benefit from a niche social network. From a homeowners association to an elementary school to a community tennis association, a common goal is to bring people with shared interests together.

Related Resources

• The Nearly Never Ending Market for Niche Social Networks
• The Long Tail: Social Networking is a feature, not a destination
• Metcalfe’s Law Recurses Down the Long Tail of Social Networks
• Social Networking: Time For A Silver Bullet
• Social Networking’s Next Phase - New York Times

This is the first in a series of posts on my top ten web trends. We will work our way from #10 down to #1.

Trend #10 is the end of print. The web has always provided many advantages over print including greater efficiency, quicker publishing cycles, wider availability, and substantial cost savings due to the elimination of print and distribution costs. That being said, most people continue to print longer web pages because of the difficulty of reading from a computer screen.

The tide is turning. E-reader technology has matured over the past few years. The Sony E-reader was introduced last year and helped revive interest in e-books. Recently Amazon unveiled the Kindle which adds internet connectivity to the equation. The cover story of the November 26, 2007 edition of Newsweek magazine is called “Books Aren’t Dead - They’re Just Going Digital”. Jeff Bezos states “Books are the last bastion of analog… Music and video have been digital for quite some time, and short-form reading has been digitized, beginning with the early web. But long form reading really hasn’t.” Bezos hopes the Kindle will be the beginning of Book 2.0. This article provides an excellent overview of the issues and impact in digitizing books.

Time will tell if the Kindle will become the IPod of reading. I’m a voracious reader, a trait not shared by a growing segment of our population. The recently released NEA report “To Read or Not to Read” reaches a simple, alarming conclusion - that Americans area reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at alarming rates, especially among teens and young adults. Maybe the Kindle can reach this generation using technology that they understand and help reverse this trend.

Related Articles

• Amazon Sets eBook World Alight with Kindle - Finally, Time For Read/Write Books!
• Envisioning the Next Chapter in Electronic Books
• NY Times publisher: Our goal is to manage the transition from print to internet
• Faculty Members Prefer Digitized Texts

Part of my presentation on higher ed web development getting flattened explored the importance of developing your right brain. I came across this intriguing visual of a dancer. If you see her spinning clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of the time I see her spinning clockwise, but occasionally I see her spinning counter-clockwise.

How about you? Take a look and let me know what you see.

The time has come to think outside the proverbial box. It is no longer about your web site. Instead, it is about your web presence. Information and commentary on your school is no longer confined to your site, but instead lives in numerous places including Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube and countless individual blogs.

So free your content. Syndicate it across multiple sites both inside and outside your institution. Monitor your web identity and participate where appropriate.

I’m off to Vermont to give the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. I’ll be talking about the future of the web and using a David Letterman style top 10 list as the framework.

So what do you think is the top trend in web development?  I’ll give you my answer after my speech. (I don’t want to spoil the suspense for my friends in Vermont )

I just finished reading A University for the 21st Century. The author is James Duderstadt, President Emeritus at the University of Michigan. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the challenges and opportunities for higher education in the new millennium.

I was particularly interested in the last two chapters which addressed many of the issues we discussed at my presentation at HighEdWedDev 2007. Here are some quotes from the book:

• The system of higher education that emerges in the century ahead will almost certainly be far different from today’s. Higher Education will either transform itself or be transformed as financial imperatives, changing societal demands, emerging technologies, and new competitors reshape the knowledge enterprise.
• Most colleges and universities are now looking for ways to control costs and increase productivity.
• In recent years, we have seen an explosion in the number of new competitors in the higher education marketplace. It is estimated that in 1998 the revenues of for-profit and proprietary educational providers were in excess of $3.5 billion and growing rapidly.
• Higher education is an industry ripe for the unbundling of activities. Universities will have to come to terms with what their true strengths are and how those strengths support their strategies - and then be willing to outsource needed capabilities in areas where they do not have a unique advantage.
• Universities are under increasing pressure to spin off or sell or close down parts of their traditional operations in the face of new competition. They may well find it necessary to unbundle their many functions, ranging from admissions to counseling to instruction and certification.

I would add web development to that last list.

Many people who hear my presentation on “Higher Ed Web Development Gets Flattened” leave thinking that none of us will have jobs five years from now. That is not my intention and I don’t believe that will be the case. In fact, I think the opposite is true. The role the web plays on college campuses is undervalued. When the time comes to disaggregate the functions of the university, the forensic accountants will quickly see that the web provides true value and should get more resources, not less. That being said, I do think our jobs will change dramatically. The best approach is to think about this proactively not reactively. To quote Will Rogers - “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

This week I’ve made a vow. I am no longer going to refer to the people who visit and interact on my web sites as the audience. My paradigm has officially shifted. It is no longer about one-way communication to an audience. It’s about two-way conversation with a community.

To learn more, read Jay Rosen’s influential article The People Formerly Known as the Audience. I highly recommend the book Communities Dominate Brands. Also, visit the blog for the soon to be released book Now is Gone.

The goal is no longer to inform an audience, but to engage a community.