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Information Technology Forecasting Project

The Office of Information Systems and Computing (ISC) invites the University community to attend a series of panel discussions describing the potential landscape of information technologies available to academicians and administrators over the next five years. The goal of the discussions is to help those engaged in long-range planning make informed projections about the role of technology in their organizations. The discussions will also furnish information to Project Cornerstone, an effort sponsored by the Provost and the Executive Vice President to develop information architecture principles, standards, and models for Penn's next generation of administrative systems.

The moderated two-hour panel discussions, featuring experts from both on and off campus, focus on eight technology areas. Each session will be audiotaped and, whenever possible, videotaped. Tapes will be made available after each session, along with pointers to other relevant information on the topic.

In conjunction with the panel discussions, ISC staff are available to advise Schools, centers, and administrative units on technology opportunities as they develop their five-year plans. Academic Computing Services (ACS) will help evaluate the use of technology in research and instruction. University Management Information Services (UMIS) will advise on the use of technology in administrative areas in the context of Project Cornerstone and the emerging architectural standards.

Listed below are the forums scheduled for this month and March, as well as those that have already taken place. Because planning for many of the forums was not complete at press time, some descriptions may change. For additional information contact project cochairs Noam Arzt (898-3029 or arzt@dccs.upenn.edu) or Donna Milici (898-0426 or donna@acs.upenn.edu).

Publishing Technologies

Topics: Publishing software; imaging; document interchange; optical and other advanced storage media.

Desktop and Mobile Computing

Exploration of the future of the user's "desktop device," whether it's actually on a desk or not. Topics: Operating system trends; hardware futures (processor and configuration); alternative input devices (other than mouse and keyboard); mobile computing (remote and telecomputing); laptop/notebook computing; personal digital assistants (PDAs); work environment/ergonomics.

Data Management Directions

Topics: Database development, including relational database management systems (RDBMS) and object-oriented programming; client/server computing and cooperative processing; expert systems and other query and data analysis tools; application development tools.

Networking Futures--Mid to late February

Topics: Workgroup, enterprise, and wide-area networking; various network technologies, including ethernet, "short" ethernet, FDDI/CDDI, gigabit networks, wireless networks; network security.

Classroom/Presentation Technologies--Mid to late February

(Also a special satellite teleconference to be broadcast on February 23) Topics: Emerging multimedia initiatives; classrooms of the future; the changing teaching environment.

Workgroup Computing Applications--Late February to early March

Topics: Electronic mail and business software of the future (spreadsheet, text processing, image processing); workgroup applications of the future (calendar, group authoring, group collaboration).

High Performance Computing--Early to mid March

Topics: The role of the mainframe on the campus of the future; high- performance processor developments; parallel processing and multiprocessing computers; related topics.

Scholarly Information Resources--Mid March

Topics: Electronic resources available to scholars (searching, locating, retrieving); National Education and Research Network (NREN); intellectual property issues; related topics.