- During the economic downturn, Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, has had to
postpone many purchases - but not of computer storage. To run the many web-based
applications, Mort Rahimi the vice-president for information systems and technology
says, the university has had to double its storage capacity over just the past 12 months.
He adds that it'll have to do so again within the year - (Business Week, 28 Oct 03)

- As of October 23, 2003 there were 8,150,000 "blogs" on the web. Most blogs are
about journaling the events of everyday life, including photos and videos. (See September
2003 DESIEN FOCUS article on blogs.) Academics are one group that is increasingly
getting involved with blogging. Some have started blogging in order to muse aloud about
their research. Others want to polish their opinion-writing for nonacademic audiences.
Still others have more urgent and personal reasons for using this new venue of expression.
But the foremost virtue, they claim, is "freedom of tone." For more information on
academic blogs see: http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v49/i39a01401.htm

- According to a California State University-Northridge survey, the biggest obstacles
to developing and teaching distance education courses are: 1) the time it takes to
construct the course, 2) the instability of technology and networks, 3) the time it
takes to teach the course, and 4) the expectations of an instructor's constant
availability. (Academic Leader, Oct 03)