INCITS FORMS NEW TECHNICAL COMMITTEE - The International Committee
for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) has formed a new technical committee
to support international standards for technology-based training and education. Projects
will fall into four specific areas: vocabulary, collaborative technology, learner information,
and management and delivery. The inaugural meeting will be a teleconference on Nov.
25. INCITS is based in Washington, DC and is an organization of information technology
developers, producers, and users devoted to the creation and maintenance of formal IT
standards. It is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and
operates under rules designed to ensure that voluntary standards are developed by the
consensus of directly and materially affected interests. (For more information visit: http://www.incits.org. (e-Learning Newsline, 30 Oct 02)

TECHLEARN PRESENTS AWARD TO HOME DEPOT - The Home Depot
organization was honored with the TechLearn Pioneer Award for its enterprise
wide deployment of e-Learning. The award recognizes Home Depot's cutting-edge
use of e-learning as a tool for building employee product knowledge, providing fast
and scalable training processes, helping to retain key associates, focusing on business
drivers, and providing instructional excellence to its employees. TechLearn is the
leading conference focused on educating business and government leaders engaged
in learning and training activities. (Collaborate Newsline, vol. 1 no 11, 30 Oct 02)

NEW MIT CENTER TO BRIDGE ACADEMIA AND BUSINESS - The Deshpande
Center for Technological Innovation opened this week at MIT to facilitate connections
between academic innovation and the commercial sector. Charles Cooney, a professor at
MIT, said a gap exists between nascent ideas and those which are sufficiently developed
to attract investors. The center is funded by a $20 million donation from Desh Deshpande,
cofounder of Sycamore Networks, and his wife, Jaishree. The center will award ignition
grants, for projects at the conceptual level, and innovation grants, for more mature projects
that have mapped out strategies for research and development. The center has already
awarded 9 grants, selected from 47 proposals, totaling $1.25 million. For the entire article
see: http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,55796,00.html (Wired News, 17 Oct
02 - Edupage 18 Oct 02)