Enterprise Research Systems

Our activity can now be tracked through Sharepoint. Some updates will still be handled through this blog when appropriate. However, our inventory and activity is now fully available and maintained in Sharepoint. Please click below if you are an ASU student, faculty, or affiliate.

ERS Sharepoint Site

Here’s an interesting list of ways you may be breaking the law without even knowing it.  Unfortunately you’ll still be held responsible, either legally or through work-related actions, whether you intentionally broke the law or not.  In some cases you’re responsible even if you didn’t actually commit a crime.  While the intent of these laws may be noble you’ll want to be careful as a you search the vast wilderness looking for pertinent clip art, code snippets, or blog material because their enforcement could be a bit, well, messy.

Here are some specific Arizona Internet-related laws:

1. Internet Gambling
2. General Arizona Internet Crime Information
3. Internet Safety/Stalking

Arizona University Policies

1. ASU’s Internet Use Policy
2. UA’s Internet Use Policy
3. NAU’s Internet Use Policy

URL: http://sharedresources.asu.edu

A complete rebuild/redesign of the Shared Resources web application which helps ASU associates locate research resources available throughout ASU.  Further improvements including scheduling, billing, and more are underway.

URL: http://sden.asu.edu/

Through the Sun Devil Entrepreneurship Network (SDEN), local businesses gain access to the extensive student talent base at ASU, while students gain the valuable experience of working in an entrepreneurial environment.

URL: http://asuventurecatalyst.org

The Catalyst is the next step in Arizona State University’s (ASU) evolution of helping ventures find critical resources to succeed. ASU aspires to make a positive global impact and transform global society through integrating use-inspired research, education and entrepreneurship to leverage the unique personality and substantial assets of Arizona. ASU sits at the center of Arizona’s innovation ecosystem with vast resources, talented faculty and students, and a commitment to accelerating global innovation.

Take a moment to peruse this gallery of “innovative” ideas in the field of knowledge informatics at the turn of the century just passed.

Then reflect on the changes you’ve seen in just the past twenty years and imagine where we might find ourselves in the next 20.

Ok, time’s up.  Now put that bluetooth device back in your ear, fire up your iPad, download “War and Peace” to your Nook, set up tonight’s Netflix movie on your Wii, and just relax…

In an attempt to increase IT support efficiency and avail themselves of quantity discounts many enterprises constrain their knowledge workers by limiting the tools in their toolbox to those that are pre-approved and sanctioned for use.  The question is whether this approach actually increases dollar-wise enterprise efficiency or just the penny-wise efficiencies of the IT support team?

Are you free to use the tools that enable you to do your job in a way that is best for you, or best for your support staff?  For example, how easy is it for you to acquire an extra monitor in a move that clearly increases overall efficiency?  How about industry-specific applications that might fall outside the radar of consumer awareness but that are uniquely tailored to your specific needs?

This article shines a light on the value of the “bitsmith,” referring to those of us who are in the business of helping knowledge workers do their jobs in a manner that is both efficient and supportable.

If you find yourself struggling to make your tools fit the goals you’re tasked with you might want to spend some time researching alternative applications or talking to the development team at your enterprise.  If you’re part of the research community at ASU be sure to check out the off-the-shelf applications that might be useful to you.  If you need something a bit more specific maybe the Research Strategy Group of the newly created Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development team can help you out.

These days it seems we always have something feeding us news, noise, or nonsense.  Nary a moment passes in the day without a tweet, tune, feed, or poke.  Devices are perched in our ears, cradled in our palms, or nested in our pockets ready to satisfy our every whim.

No time for downtime.  No time for quiet.  No time for, well, boredom.

So where’s the harm in that?  After all, it’s said that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.  But what about idle minds?  Read this very provocative blog entry and find out why Peter Bregman wrote in the Harvard Business Review blog that he found this lack of idleness at the hands of the iPad to be a bad thing.

Is this really a question of access to technology taking over our lives, or just an excuse for a lack of willpower and responsibility? What do you think?

Two ASU websites have been recognized for excellence in design and content with five Communicator Awards from the International Academy of Visual Arts. Both sites, produced by ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, were designed to share ASU researchers’ ideas and discoveries with the public.

Research Stories explores research and creative activity at ASU through articles, profiles and multimedia.

Chain Reaction is an online science magazine and website for students in grades 4-8.

The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. The 2010 Communicator Awards received more than 7,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms, and public relations firms.

Two days ago, Blackboard released Blackboard Mobile Learn, which extends Blackboard to most popular smartphones, including phones running the Android, Blackberry and iPhone operating systems. Later this year, a mobile web version will be released allowing any web-enabled phone to use Blackboard.  More info can be found in the official press release.