ICT News, January 2007
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Chief Information Officer
ICT is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Chief Information Officer, Bruce Meikle, from 29 January.
Bruce has over 28 years experience in the IT industry, 25 of them in management roles. His experience includes application development, project management, strategy and senior management roles. Recently, he has been responsible for applications including Peoplesoft systems; architecture; infrastructure; risk and security; methodology; and project management services. He joins the University from AMP, and has had previous roles in other financial services organisations, as well as in retail.
The CIO will report to Mr Bob Kotic as Chief Operating Officer and DVC.
Rob Mackinnon, the previous CIO, is returning to consulting. However, he will continue his involvement with the University for several months working on a number of initiatives, but with particular emphasis on ICT shared services.
University Streaming Project
Currently ICT in collaboration with Learning and Teaching is preparing a project proposal document to introduce widespread streaming technologies for the University. The first initiative of the Learning and Teaching program for 2007 is the provision of a Streaming Server Project. This project will allow the University to realise many of its strategic goals concerned with providing an information-rich environment to its students.
Streaming is a technique for transferring data so that it can be processed as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly important because most users do not have enough Internet access to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the client browser can start displaying data before the entire file has been transmitted.
Whilst the initial driver for streaming solutions has been Learning and Teaching, there is a broader need for Research and Innovation and Community Engagement initiatives to use this technology, so the streaming solution must be flexible enough for these objectives also.
Streaming server proposals have been recommended previously by Learning and Teaching and endorsed by groups including the eLearning Governance Committee.
Student equity issues are also a key driver for this project. The implementation of a streaming server will increase accessibility benefiting all students, particularly those of non-English-speaking background, international students and students with disabilities.
Further information on the project will be presented if the proposal is approved, but in the interim information can be obtained through the project manager .