Cyberinfrastructure

The latest issue of Educause Review just came across my desk, and unlike most times, I had the opportunity to do more than just glance at it. I am glad I did—this issue focused on cyberinfrastructure (CI), which refers to the “infrastructure based upon distributed computer, information and communication technology.” ALS and HSL are trying to do their part to enhance the CI on the ECU campus by creating and launching ScholarShip, ECU’s Institutional Repository. In all truth, the ScholarShip pilot has not progressed with the speed that we had hoped, but we are now aiming for a live pilot sometime early in the Fall 2008 semester—so stay tuned. But back to Educause—I would recommend the entire July/August issue, but there are two articles which particularly spoke to me—Things to Do While Waiting for the Future to Happen and Games for Education: 2008. The former sets forth many of the basic issues facing the Academy and the creation and maintenance of a “cyberinfrasturcture,” including, of course, the disconnect between open source, digitally available scholarship and the fact that “tenure is still tightly tied to print monograph publication.” The latter clearly makes the case for libraries to host game nights and to collect games, noting that “games are digital objects from which learners can learn and that can be duplicated.”