BLACKBOARD/TRIVANTIS PARTNERSHIP - Blackboard Inc., an Internet infrastructure
company for education, is teaming with Trivantis Corp., a provider of e-Learning technologies
and content development services for educational institutions and corporate learning
environments, to allow Blackboard customers use of Trivantis' Lectora Publisher. The solution
is an offline authoring tool that allows users to create fully interactive courses that can be posted
to Blackboard. "Just as chalk is the perfect compliment to an instructor using a traditional
blackboard, Lectora is the perfect compliment to instructors using the modern Blackboard,"
said Tom Elmer, director of educational sales for the Cincinnati-based Trivantis. "By teaming
up with Blackboard and their industry-leading, user-friendly software platform, we are able
to help keep instructors focused on what is most important - education - not technology." For
the full article see: http://www.internetnews.com/asp-news/article.php/3411_788501

HIGHER EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT TEAM UP ON TECHNOLOGY - A
new administrative information system in North Dakota will be shared by the state's public
institutions of higher education and the state government. The system will replace aging
systems that have become expensive and time-consuming to maintain and keep compliant
with changing regulations. Government and higher education will use the system to manage
financial, human resource and student information. Officials said they already are close to
having uniform "charts of accounts," the records of information and associated codes, which
is necessary for the system to work for all participants. The South Dakota Board of Regents,
which is beginning its own migration to a central database for the campuses in its system, is
closely watching the North Dakota project as an example for some aspects of its project.
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/05/2002051401t.htm (Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 May
02)

LINUX/RED HAT OFFER FREE ACCESS TO OPEN SOURCE - Linux provider Red Hat,
Inc. launched Red Hat Network Education Channels to give students and educators access to
the Red Hat Linux 7.3 operating system via the Red Hat Network. Red Hat Linux 7.3 is a
configurable operating system designed to deliver Internet-based computing. The channels are
designed to accelerate the adoption of open source software within the education community
nationwide. The company will offer two channels: an Educational Channel for teachers and IS
administrators, as well as high school and university students; and a K-12 Linux Terminal
Server Project Channel, to enable K-12 teachers and IS administrators to set up computer
science labs with an open lab architecture. Both channels provide free Red Hat Network access
for one machine. (Syllabus News, Resources, Trends for 17 May 02)

CHIP DESIGNER FORGES TIES TO ACADEMIC COMMUNITY - The developer of
software for designing integrated circuits has launched a program enabling students to learn
how to design chips using the same products that worldwide semiconductor companies use
to produce standard cell design flows. "We believe the top designers of tomorrow will come
from those universities with best-in-class tools in their classrooms," said Dan Nenni, vice
president at Prolific about the Prolific Research and Education Program. Initial members of
the program include the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Santa
Cruz; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; University of Michigan; Tokyo University; and
University of Mannheim, Germany. "The program provides a great opportunity for the
academic community," said Prof. Richard B. Brown, interim chair of the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. "Having access
to Prolific's tools has enabled our students to develop new design flows which we believe
will help close the performance and power gap between synthesized and custom circuits."
(Syllabus News, Resources, Trends for 17 May 02)