johan's Journal

Well, i was just about to venture out of downtown Phoenix to get some Navajo fry bread and i remembered i'm doing dinner with Bb people. But now that i've heard of "fry bread" i'm curious and want some. I read something saying it was the Arizona state food. Humidity is 12% here. it's wonderful, even when it's 90F (32C) but i definitely feel like i'm drying out.

Wow, this speaker should be a ventriloquist, i can barely see his mouth moving. When i first heard the voice coming out of the PA, i thought it was someone else speaking, even though he was standing at the podium, nary 6 meters away.

So i went to a Bb building blocks discussion section, which was interesting in and of itself. But what was more interesting was information from other attendees regarding political structures at other universities. There was a Bb admin from another Big State U, and from what he said, they have the same problems with the school being so anarchic that one struggles to acquire funding to develop and maintain important, central services. (The individual Colleges just all want to do their own thing.)
There were two people there from Western Europe (UK & Belgium). Apparently they do not have this problem. If they need something like a software license for campus, it's purchased in the same manner as at any other sane organization (company, foundation, etc.) What a novel concept.
When we were discussing this later, the other Big State U Bb admin said exactly what i was thinking, "Hmm... maybe i should send some resumes over there."
I don't think either of us is that eager to leave. It's more that the notion of escaping the consequences and frustrations that inevitably arise from having such a Balkanize institution. I just want to help students and instructors get their work done. Why i hell do we have institutions which makes this so difficult?
(later that day)
"SIS Integration & Advanced Data Management"
so far, all of this is unpleasantly familiar. (From my poking around in the bowels of the feed from the Registrar.
This guy -- Greg Devine, Senior Manager, Global Services, Blackboard, Inc. -- has a calm, well intonated, low voice. Not quite as low as a radio DJ, but pretty close. Pleasing to listen to, but hopefully it will not become soporific.
"dsm" is "data source manager"
Wonderfully, i find him saying the same things Cerda & i always do: special case modifications of course or user data should be avoided whenever possible, because later, it greatly complicates automated manipulation of data.