National Survey of Information Technology

Concerns about network and data security have displaced academic issues as the top priority of campus technology leaders, according to a survey by the Campus Computing Project.

Inside Higher Ed headlined a post about this survey with "Security Fears". To me, the more interesting stats are the following:

• File-sharing. More colleges are adopting “appropriate use” policies to deal with concerns about copyright violations and lawsuits. Of survey respondents, 81 percent report having such policies, up from 76.3 percent in 2004 and 66.2 percent in 2003.

Do file-sharing policies help of hinder our ability to support our students? Does this involve server based AT or alt-media exchanges? Will our halcyon activities ‘under-the-radar’ come to an end? Or, are such policies beneficial?

• Open source. Increasing percentages of colleges see open source as a solution to some of their IT needs, but interest decreased slightly at public universities in the last year.

Please see previous posts on this blog regarding open-source accessibility.

• Wireless campuses. Of colleges in the survey, 64 percent have strategic plans for wireless networks, up from 55.5 percent a year ago and 24.3 percent in 2001.

The idea of tying students down to an AT lab is already dying- but how do we balance the need for specialized hardware and software with a students right to wi-fi freedom?

Discuss amongst yourselves ...