The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has convinced most climate scientists that humankind is changing the earth's climate. A review of recently observed 20th-century climate change will be presented and compared with climate model simulations, which will be described and extended into this century and beyond. If we shift globally from a fossil fuel–based energy strategy to other sources, computer simulations can show future climate change. Finally, scientific uncertainties and societal impacts will be discussed, along with an analysis of policy options including possibly geoengineering the climate system. The issue of environmental justice will also be addressed.

This session reports on two initiatives from the National Science Foundation's DataNet Program. DataNet Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) represents a new virtual organization that will enable new science and knowledge creation through universal access to data about life on earth and the environment that sustains it. The Data Conservancy (DC) embraces a shared vision: data curation is not an end, but rather a means to collect, organize, validate, and preserve data to address the grand research challenges that face society.

Representatives of several learning management system options (Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai) will discuss the pros and cons of adopting proprietary versus open-source solutions. Issues addressed will include total cost of ownership, licensing, options for application hosting and technical support, and how new features find their way into a product.

The quotation marks around the title word indicate the increasing sense of irony of the term associated with academic publishing. Other terms that qualify for the ironic grammatical tag include "press," "warehouse," "library," and "repository." Academic environment is a term also fast approaching a status qualifying for quotation marks. This presentation will explore the emergence of irony in traditional vocabularies associated with academic publishing, delve into the discrepancy between surface and emergent meaning, and examine the ontological implications for the future of scholarly communication.

The role of the CIO has changed dramatically from leader of the central IT organization to key player at the executive level. Complying with federal and state regulations, securing critical infrastructure and data, and managing the new application of technologies (in facilities and safety, for example) and large-scale application projects mean that the CIO must provide critical risk-management leadership for the institution. Simultaneously, unprecedented opportunities for strategic applications for IT are arising with the significant changes in institutional mission wrought by economic turmoil, globalization, and shifting demographics. Join us to hear how today's CIOs are handling these challenges.

The UK Access Management Federation is the largest education and research federation in the world, potentially serving every school, college, and higher education institution in the United Kingdom. Others addressing similar challenges can hear about the lessons learned in addressing the policy, strategy, and operational challenges required to meet the needs of such a wide membership. There still remain many fresh challenges, including encouraging service provider participation and interfederation with other U.K. and international organizations.

In this talk, Lawrence Lessig will review the progress of the "open access" movement in education. He will make a call for educators to finally resolve this issue in a way that enables the potential of technology for education.

It's been a breathtaking ride, watching computers and their networks change from curiosities to ubiquitous technologies over the last five decades. Moreover, George Strawn will suggest that, over the next five decades, IT developments will be even more breathtaking and more disruptive to higher education as we have known it.
WINNER: 2009 EDUCAUSE Leadership Award. Award sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

“The future has already arrived; it just isn't evenly distributed.” —William Gibson
William Gibson's quote accurately sums up the state of federated identity management systems, an approach to the seamless and secure use of resources hosted on campus, in the cloud, or at partner’s site. It’s coming to an institution near you. This session will discuss the rise of federated identity and the challenges that still remain in connecting us all together.
WINNER: 2009 EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award. Award sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

A significant contributor to rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the information technology and communications industry itself. As campus researchers increasingly employ computational and cyberinfrastructure technologies, these tools are coming into question due to their growing contributions to GHG emissions. Consequently, some universities and R&E networks are exploring new CI architectures that will both benefit research and reduce associated GHG emissions. Optical high-speed research networks and distributed zero-carbon CI data centers with network virtualization, web services, and grids are critical to this emerging architecture. This session will review trends and spotlight projects that offer hope for averting a cybercarbon crisis.

As Duke University extends its reach as a global "campus," long-standing assumptions about academic "community" and physical presence are evolving. From Durham to New Delhi, Singapore to St. Petersburg, the combination of infrastructure technologies with existing and emerging collaboration tools—telepresence, video podcasting, blogs, LMS—are central to supporting a global campus strategy. These technologies will help to facilitate the growth and coherence of our community by extending educational opportunities across distances and cultures.

How might cloud computing, however it is defined, change the services and economics of IT at our institutions? The transition of IT services and responsibilities for infrastructure, functions, and support from institutions to either larger-scale enterprises or consumer providers is important and under way. Agility, personalization, and convenience are strong motivations. What kinds of enterprise activities lend themselves well to extramural sourcing? What risks are involved, and how do we act to mitigate them? Join us as this panel explores the impact of cloud computing.

This talk will trace the history and modus operandi of The Open University in the United Kingdom, placing it in the context of trends in higher education across the world. The pressures arising from demographic change and widening participation challenge both traditional systems and the assumptions on which they were based. Add an economic crisis and the seismic shifts prompted by technology, and it seems that traditional systems will be seriously disrupted. Drawing on experience as president of two universities, one in South Africa and another in the United Kingdom, Brenda Gourley will share lessons for leadership and management.