A Penn State colleague who we were fortunate enough to meet at (and before) Drupal Camp WI blogs about how we might keep the momentum of this event going. He’s right that there are a number of similarities between our schools, and hopefully this will be an incentive to keep the connection alive. Sharing ideas about technology was great, but the real take-away was the idea of forming a Drupal in Higher Education consortium. What makes this idea special is that we, as universities, face challenges that are different from other sorts of Drupal users–both technological and political. I’m not sure whether it would be attached to other Drupal camps, the CIC, or just be an online group (one thing that ComETS has taught our campus is that events are key to keeping connections alive). I wonder if a good way to start might be to find out who is interested, and then to find out what the strengths/needs of each are. We found a lot to agree about–even regarding the role of central vs distributed systems–so it would be a shame to let geography keep these good ideas from coming to fruition.
About John
John is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He studies the social impact of media technology law and policy, with a special emphasis on copyright.
John doesn't update his blog often, and many of the thoughts are probably half-baked. While the web has sort of an eternal memory, the current and future reader is urged not to take all of this too seriously.
Think of this blog as "John thinking out loud."
(For more on this idea and why I blog, please see this category.)