Currently the centralists are using the wiki, creating new pages, chatting via I sight, using IM, and someone has Sub Etha Edit and a working document going.

This is an amazing experience. We just had a visitor from Shanghai named Pat Dulaney. He will be teaching a class on blogging and takes the centralist view. (Pat blogged too)

So it appears that we have support from around the globe. Currently, there is a bit of chaos. Folks are learning to use the tools, talk about the issue, and interact via chat from folks around the globe! Amazing experiment!

Apparently our centralists are primarily Mac users. Ironic since Macs tend to be separate from managed and 'centralized' computing. In any case, we are attempting to collect information and examples on centralized technologies.

Some people in our group aren't familiar with iChat, so we are assiting one another. Our fearless leader is communicating with someone in Shanghai. We are also using a program called SubEthaEdit, that allows our group to read and edit a document simultaneously through Rendezvous. Neat!

blog submitted by Al Matthews from University of Pennsylvania

We have no idea how it will fly, this is a total seat of the pants experiment. It will be interesting to see how the session is carried out given that the presentation rooms are mostly classrooms with this little teeny wooden desks that are welded to the floor.

Look here later for updates directly from guest bloggers during the live session.

You will find details on what the purpose is for the blog, and the parts of the wiki we ask you to help build.

Read on for the details!

Both the costs and benefits of a full-scale distance learning (DL) program at this campus have yet to be identified. It seems clear, though, that USC is heading towards top-down control of distance education. In his white paper, "Distance Learning: Challenges and Questions" (May, 2000), Provost Lloyd Armstrong Jr. said a centralized approach would be a means of "creating brand value" and assure the "consistent quality and effectiveness of courses." 

and farther down:

Almost every attempt to move USC ahead in technology stumbles over the lack of wiring and connectivity needed for the campus to function as a high-tech environment. And the problems associated with centralized Information Technology - mostly software, systems management and consulting services - seem to get more difficult each year. This function is expensive and becomes more so as the private sector bids up demand for scarce technical resources, especially qualified, gifted personnel. Does it make sense, then, to create another centralized technology unit? That probably will depend on which business model the university selects. At least three options - and many permutations of each option - exist:

The Superstar Model. The university could create a corporation that would manage, produce and distribute a "line of products." The corporation would draw course materials, lecturers and teaching assistants from designated schools. Revenues would flow back to the faculty members involved and, presumably, to their schools. The emphasis would be on selecting the most highly marketable courses and, most likely, maximizing profits.

Sure, set up an OS copy of a CMS for a handful of courses, but can you handle say 1000 courses? Integration with registration systems? Use of publisher provided content?

For more, just see what is detailed on the current raft of centralized, deployed, and successul CMSes fas outline in the EduTools site.

Ka-ching! Centralized.

But for the purposes of this presentation and demo, only a few, or perhaps only one person will have the keys for creating entries in the weblog. Sure we could keep more, but blogs have this individual or small group perspective. So this Centralist blog will be the announcements, the calls for action, the posting of ideas/resources we found, more or less the group publishing arm.

The Centralist Wiki, on the other hand, is the wide open empty whiteboard. It is the group thinking area, the brainstorming area, and anyone can participate. So what would go there? Wikis are great for collaborative resource building, or group writing, or just working out rough ideas, like an electronic cocktail napkin.

So use the wiki to post data, resources, ideas that support the Big Blue Centralists. Check the blog for new information, and post your comments here to share your ideas or feedback. Write entries on your own weblog and be sure to send a decent Trackback ping here. Make sure your blogs include in the title or the RSS feed the key phrase (NMC 2004).

Just kidding! There are no cults, we are all level headed, un-emotional professionals!

Okay, what this blog really exists for is the purposes of a presentation I am doing June 15 with colleagues Brian Lamb and D'Arcy Norman for the 2004 New Media Consortium Summer Conference.

Our session, "Small Technologies Loosely Joined: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" not only mixes more than metaphors, but we are trying to mix up the notion of the stale conference presentation.