HE SASH

UPEL STUDENT NEWSPAPER editor-in-chief sean BRADY copy editor aimee ARSENAULT production manager adam MacISAAC

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Fa arn ri al by Sean Brady * Managing Editor

Every once in a while you see something that you know is going to be big. Ever have that feeling? Like you know that you'll be looking back at that moment someday, telling an "I remember when" story. Well, this week | had one of those moments.

Go to Google sometime soon and search "UPEI." Do you get the university home page as your top result? You won't for long. The stuff that's actually on the bot- tom of the first page of hits already, will continue climbing to the top. Weblogging and open source soft- ware is the future of UPEI, I'm pre- dicting it here and now.

Weblogging, for those who don't know, is, at it's barest, the ability to read, respond to, or cre- ate discussion threads on-line. Add a few spices into the mix and it's amazing what you can come up with. Some open source soft- ware, Billy Gates’ nemesis, can provide some amazing creative computing capabilities meaning that, pretty much for free it's click- ie-clickie for 5 minutes and any professor or student could update a personal or class webpage/weblog with whatever you wanted, available to anyone to read. I'm not touting idealism here either. I've actually seen this stuff work.

Got your attention now? Imagine. No ITEC waiting line! (Nothing personal guys. It's not your fault, it's the system.)

Here's where the age gap fits in, or at least that's what | chalk it up to. Maybe it's ignorance but | haven't found any other reason- able explanation. Remember the "moment" | had? Well at the same time that | was pointing to the mountain in a "there's gold in them thar hills" fashion, a number of the professors in the same room saw little more than a mole-hill. Some just didn't see it at all and some

(the don't click anything without asking first I'm to scared to break it crowd) were too afraid to look.

Commonality? They didn't know what they didn't know. Allow me to sell it a little differently to all the faculty out there: how'd you like to lighten your workload while at the same time providing your students with a massive educa- tional tool? Decentralize guys. Imagine it. Instead of having 15-60 students from one class all coming to you, or possibly spawning off into groups of convenience or requirement everyone would be able to communicate with each other. Not only that. It'd continue to exist after 4 months were up - a growing data pool of student dis- cussions regarding class topics available for future classes to query and learn from and for pro- fessors to analyze and identify trends.

The kicker is that's only where it begins. It's unlimited. UPEI as it is now is a "great small University" but it sure as hell isn't tight. Business, Science, Nursing,

Education, Psych.... The list of degree programs is endless and the students are many, but instead of all existing as UPEI students many of us have fallen into the separations of our programs. Instead of a campus community we have a campus of sub-divi- sions.

That's why | think | saw something big the other day. It was meant to show professors how to help their students but it showed me how we can help ourselves. Communication. On everything and anything. You want your satire, there you go. Your news, there you go. Your crude jokes, updates on a pub crawl, books for sale, apartments to sublet, elec- tion platforms, commentary on everything under the sun, peti- tions, rally organizations, drop messages to clubs, connect when you're traveling.... there you go. Such a university wide forum might not exist yet, but it soon will.

| feel it in the wind. Change is blowing in. | can't wait ‘til next year.

| have seen the future.

UPEI Cadre March 29, 2004 page 2