Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63446
WE MUST BECOME MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR TEACHING PEOPLE HOW TO NAVIGATE THE INFORMATION DELUGE THAT TECHNOLOGY CREATES. faculty, staff, and students about the change a year in advance. We knew that some would be reluctant to make the change, so very early we started to explain what a portal is, what it does, and how to use it." Implementing such a large tech- A City That's Wired for Wireless nological change involves some risk, explains Griffy-Brown. A school must not only allocate the upfront financial costs, but also rethink online security and administrative procedures, retrain faculty and staff, and assign personnel to maintain and develop the site. The site itself requires a full-time portal administra- tor who maintains and updates the portal's content. In all, six full-time staff members are required to main- tain the portal, manage the hardware and software, arrange use of virtual classrooms, and oversee the portal's deployment and development. However, she notes that the return on investment promises to be high. For the initial $1 million set aside for the project, the school already is enjoying returns in added efficiency and capabilities. In the future, the school hopes The wireless network capabilities that many universities already enjoy are now being applied to an entire city. Man - chester City, England, debuted the world's first urban wireless network last fall, according to Europemedia.net. The University of Manchester INSEAD Takes Exec Ed Program Online Institute of Science and Technology is currently a test site for the network. In addition, Manchester Business School is currently considering imple- menting the network on its campus, says Janet Cusworth, the school's press and information officer. The wireless network, supported to expand the portal to include alumni and corporations. For exam- ple, Graziadio School of Business delivers an MBA program onsite for Boeing, a company that also uses Plumtree software. "We would like to connect our portal with Boeing in some way. Eventually, we would like to belong to a federation of portals, in which information is shared," says Griffy-Brown. "Companies are becoming more by the UK-based company Netario and Swedish company Blue2Space, is called Speedwave. It uses "blue- tooth" technology, a short-wave radio technology that allows wireless interaction between networked devices. Users with devices with wireless capabilities, such as laptops, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers, can access the Internet and other devices using the new system. Speedwave is set to be expanded to 70 networked "hotspots" throughout the city. Largest Employee Portal multinational and beginning to integrate across different bound- aries," she says. Joining portals together in a larger community, she observes, "is a step many companies are considering." Last November, General Motors launched one of the largest employee intranets in the world. Called mySocrates, the portal will serve 180,000 employees. The portal offers employees access to company-specific information, as well as general Internet access and cable service for $3 to $5 per month. However, GM's portal still doesn't approach the size of the largest intranet in the world. That distinction belongs to the United States Army, whose portal connects more than 1 million individuals worldwide. Last fall, INSEAD of Fontainebleau, France, launched INSEAD Online, a site designed to provide lifelong learn- ing opportunities for executives. Initially, the site will offer seven online courses, to be expanded to 13 early this year. The courses can be taken individ- ually or as part of a larger degree program. More important, notes Jane Sommers-Kelly, director of INSEAD Online, students can direct their own learning in the online environment. "INSEAD has more D ATA B I T than two decades of experience in comput- er-based learning tech- niques that simulate complex business chal- lenges facing managers in large corporations today," she says. Through INSEAD Online, she adds, "we believe we have a market-leading offering for companies who wish to provide busy managers a more flexi- ble way of accessing the best business school education." The new online source is an extension of INSEAD's efforts to expand its offerings and reach a global market, says Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Technology and e-Learning at INSEAD. "The launch of INSEAD Online marks the next stage in INSEAD's evolution into a leading source of global business knowledge and education for major corporations. We opened up the Asia Campus in 2000 and now we have further extended the breadth and depth of our offering with the addition of e-learning capability." ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 57 A study from Forrester Research finds that 44 percent of Global 3,500 firms plan to spend more on disaster recovery and security, by an average 18 percent and 22 percent, respectively.