Viva Vivek! New Federal CIO Brings IT Openness To Taxpayers

Vivek Kundra has been named the nation's Chief Information Officer by President Obama, promising a rapid overhaul of federal technology practices, from the sharing of information to the way IT contracts are awarded. Focusing on accessibility and efficiency, Kundra's approach will leverage the cloud to put government information, services, and contracting opportunities online in platforms both innovative and familiar. Formerly Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, Kundra comes with a record of successes in leadership, vision, and effectiveness.

Read more below, and check out Kundra's D.C. CTO blog to see him in action.

New federal CIO Vivek Kundra wants a Web 2.0 government --ComputerWorld, March 5, 2009
Mini-profile: He likes Facebook's approach, cloud computing, dislikes proprietary tech, big IT contracts

Vivek Kundra: Federal CIO in His Own Words --O'Reilly Radar, March 5, 2009
The article contains several audio excerpts and transcripts from Vivek Kundra's first conference call as the newly appointed Federal CIO...

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra Outlines Priorities --Information Week, March 5 2009
Fresh from his appointment by President Obama, Kundra stressed the need to lower costs and increase accountability as he wrestles to streamline the $71-billion in annual federal IT spending.

ICPSR Webinar: Analyze Data Online on Demand - an Introduction to SDA!

Take advantage of Trinity University's ICPSR membership and attend a free-for-members webinar on the Survey Documentation Analysis system, SDA. "SDA is an online (Web-based) data analysis tool developed at UC Berkeley and offered by ICPSR. In this webinar, we will introduce the tool, locate studies that have this option, and demonstrate how to use it. This tool is offered on select studies that are freely available and those limited to ICPSR members-only access."

More on SDA can be found here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/

This webinar is open to the public - please share this invitation with any who may be interested.

Title: ICPSR Webinar: Analyze Data Online on Demand - an Introduction to SDA!

Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/886620306

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Learning Ecology Through Field Mapping

Trinity Biology Professor David Ribble was awarded the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Grant: Mobile Mapping of Field Data to Improve Interdisciplinary Environmental Education, which included 21 HP tablet pcs and funds to purchase lightweight GPS units to take into the field. This spring his Ecology (BIOL 3434) course used them to gather birth and death date data at the San Antonio Cemetery, part of a larger lesson in species population dynamics.

Equipped with the ArcView geographic information systems (GIS) software, the tablets bring the power of the computer lab into the field, allowing students to record data directly into the same application they'll use to perform analysis and visualization. The tablets also provide an instant record of both current and previous fieldwork, helping to avoid data duplication and making historical comparison possible in the midst of on-site data collection. A stylus and smart screen let students write notes, click, and draw features while the keyboard is tucked away under the screen, which easily flips into standard position for more traditional use.

Long a champion of experience-based learning, Dr. Ribble is used to adopting new technologies to realize his teaching goals. In the fall, he used a tablet pc to capture his classroom lectures and annotations, turning them into media files to be stored in TLEARN for students use to in review. This was facilitated by Instructional Support Manager Robert Chapman, who also helped Dr. Ribble and others in the Biology department make successful use of wikis as platform for student-authored class notes. To optimize the use of tablets and GIS software in the field, Faculty Technology Liaison Jeremy Donald created a custom data entry form for ArcView and joined the class in the field to provide technical instruction and support. He also designed a data structure to allow for the easy management of new data and its subsequent aggregation into a master file for use in later spatial analysis exercises.

Future efforts will include using the tablet pcs to take relevant scholarly literature, video tutorials, and media capture tools into the field in an effort to minimize the practical barriers to hands-on, active learning about scientific methods and inquiry.

Data Visualization and Evolutionary Biology

Darwin Day is nearly upon us, and today's New York Times has a great piece on the role of technology in managing and visualizing evolutionary trees of life, the first of which Darwin sketched in 1837. See Zimmer, Carl. "Crunching the Data for the Tree of Life," NYT, Feb 10, 2009. Choice quote: "'What I'd really like is the entire tree of life on a small hand-held device,' Dr. Hillis [UT Austin] said. Biologists would be able to put a tissue sample from a plant, animal, or other organism in the machine, which would then scan its DNA and find its place in the tree of life, even if it's a new species."

To access Darwin's writings and the works that influenced him, visit the American Museum of Natural History's Darwin Digital Library of Evolution. Another comprehensive site devoted to providing access to Darwin's papers is Darwin Online. The Coates Library is currently home to the Darwin Bicentenary display, a collection of books, images, specimens, and replicas related to Darwin's life and the theory of evolution. It will be on view through February 14th on the library's main floor.