Here we are at the start of a new semester. Savielly Tartakower was a Polish chess Grandmaster and his observation on the beginning of a chess match was, “The mistakes are all there waiting to be made.” A rather pessimistic view of a new beginning, but maybe appropriate for us. Much of IT is viewed as a commodity by our users. It is supposed to work and work well. When it does, no one notices, like expecting the light to come on when you flip the switch. If it doesn’t, however, then people notice—we failed or we work too slowly, etc.
What we do isn’t easy, but we make it look easy—and that is good. So first and foremost, we need to do the basics well and do them as efficiently as possible. Then we want to put the rest of our effort into helping NYU move forward. We have a new president, Linda Mills, with a great set of strategic pathways for NYU. We will not make progress on any of these without IT. As people across NYU work to advance on these pathways, they might not have the perspective that you do. Look for ways to engage them and help them understand the best ways we can move NYU forward.
Speaking of moving forward, Jennifer Sparrow has just joined NYU as the AVP for Research and Instructional Technology. She is the best person that I know in helping people to leverage IT. Hopefully, you will get a chance to meet her soon.
I want to close by acknowledging Data Privacy Week. One of the considerations of using IT is privacy. We all understand that our personal privacy on the Internet is pretty limited. NYU has different privacy values than commercial companies. As IT experts we need to understand the way we implement those values and help others to do the same as we leverage information. Expect to hear a lot more, but for starters here is a great resource. Global Privacy and Data Strategy
If you think you’ve got Privacy wired, take this quiz and see how you do.