Users to Choosers Mobility, the Cloud, and the End of Enterprise Authority

Ron Yanosky

EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research

Michigan State UniversityAugust 12, 2010

Spindle, fold, mutilate

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Meet the new boss

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How to be a user, Part 1

Member of institution?

Able to reapply?

Get lost

Get ID

Next page

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Enterprise system

available?Able to DIY?

Submit change

request?

Dept system available?

Give up

Wait

Wait some more

Approved?

Spend $$$

Take risks

D O W O R K!!

Authorized? Make mistakes

How to be a user, Part 2

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IT Federalism

Central IT

School 1 IT

School 2 IT

Admin 2

Enterprise Vendors

Admin 1

Consortia, etc

Dept

Dept

Dept

Dept

Dept

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Find resource (e.g., on Google)?

D O W O R K !!

Back to institutional IT

hell

How to be a chooser

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The cloud, c. 2010

• The network really is the computer

• Consumerized• Web 2.0 makes

computing social• Mass digitization• Digital environments

begin to simulate real ones

• A real revolution in scientific research

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Smarter networks, dumber devices

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Simplicity: liberating…

• Less product bloat• Fewer sys admin tasks• Cloud friendly• Immediacy• More “social” and casual• Less “enterprise”

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… but also constricting

• Power to the provider• Desktop => Content

management system• Browser => App• Market => (Company) store

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Consumer stackonomics

Open Closed

Bumpy Smooth

Diverse Homogeneous

Choice Coherence

“Make it my way” “Make it happen”

Low vendor exposure

High vendor exposure

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Trouble in paradise?

• Security and privacy

• Integration

• Invisible institutional dependencies

• Support (especially multi-vendor support)

• Cultural terra incognita

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Who speaks for the institution?

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Edge versus core

Innovation in institutional engagement comes from the edges. Authority and capacity to act on all things digital should be located at the edges, rather than centralized in the university system.

-- Yochai Benkler

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Governing chooserdom: Roles for IT

• Certification

• Support

• Architecture

• Overseeing governance

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Cloudy transformations for IT

From... To...

Scarcity Abundance

Monopoly Consumer choice

Real Virtual

Expert Amateur

Local Global

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Cloudy transformations for Higher Ed

From... To...

Scarcity Abundance

Monopoly Consumer choice

Real Virtual

Expert Amateur

Local Global

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So:• The era of “personal computing” is ending• The enterprise is no longer the optimal

aggregation point or the default provider• Computing is becoming an environment we

inhabit, not a machine (or network) we use• Technical complexity is giving way to social

complexity• Guiding choices, not managing resources, is

IT’s future

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An amazing time

• A time of liberation• IT begins to fulfill its promise• Openness becomes a movement• Convergences are happening daily• IT can make the extraordinary difference

– Lower the cost of mission– Integrating the institution and the society it

serves

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Thanks!

http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandthecloud

Ron Yanosky

Acting Director and Senior FellowEDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research

ryanosky@educause.edu

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