CODE: Committee on the Digital Environment at Rice

The Committee on the Digital Environment at Rice (CODE) is established to develop an ongoing strategy that encompasses the complex circumstances and conditions relating to digital phenomena at the University. This digital environment is defined in a comprehensive way, and representative members of CODE will include those presently responsible for the maintenance, management, and development of digital content and infrastructure, as well as those constituencies that contribute to our digital resources and tools and routinely extract information from it. Members will also be drawn from academic initiatives and programs that focus upon information and information delivery as areas of research. This encompassing definition is itself meant to foster recognition of a pervasive, currently disaggregated set of activities that requires a more coherent, deliberative program to achieve the aspirations of the university.

The process of this committee will entail three phases. Phase One: we will inventory the various elements of the digital environment at Rice and note briefly the strengths and challenges in those areas. Phase Two: we will outline the desired evolution of those elements and the means needed to bring greater cohesion to the environment as well as facilitate more creative applications in the pursuit of teaching, research, and internal study. The third phase will focus on calculating the costs associated with this proposed program.

Elements of the digital environment that CODE will likely undertake to study:

Information Technology

network
Av/Media
Student Services
Classrooms and Labs
telecommunications

Library

digital content provision and maintenance
digital based services
teaching/consulting

DACnet

Web development
middleware
expanded service potential

Research and Development

wireless
Connexions
CITI and its programs
Bioinformation
NanoInformation
digital library focused research

The Digital Library

existing models
examples of programs and projects
means to achieve strategic goals

International University Bremen

Internet connection
curriculum development
research program support

Texas Medical Center

image processing
multimedia searching
OPAC development

Academic Constituencies: Profiles of Needs and Usage Patterns

undergraduates
graduates
alumni relations
Deans Council
Provost's Office
profiles of scholarly methodologies within schools and disciplines

Administration: Profiles of Needs and Usage Patterns

President's Office
Resource Development
Enrollment Management
Budget Office
F & E
Institutional Research

General Sections

data at Rice
emerging technologies: how to plan for and integrate
network architecture
benchmarks and evaluation of digital environment
corporate/business/vendor relationships
the competition: assessment of digital environments at peer institutions