IBM announced plans on Wednesday to make its software available to colleges via a Web-based “cloud” service that the company says will make it easier for professors to incorporate technology into their classes.
But is the splashy cloud announcement corporate puff?
As IBM describes it, the company is working initially with 20 colleges to help them use software for things like analyzing data and building Web sites. By hosting it remotely in the “cloud,” IBM will allow professors the convenience of logging in online to work with the software free without having to install and maintain it themselves. The hope is that by making it easier, many more will start to use the technology.
“It’s going to be used by medical schools, it’s going to be used by business schools — all kinds of disciplines are using our software today,” says Mark Hanny, an IBM vice president.
But after perusing the IBM Web site, Edward D. Lazowska, holder of the Bill & Melinda Gates chair in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, said the announcement “looks like PR to me.”
“Every company makes software available for free for educational purposes — no news there,” he says in an e-mail message.
He adds, “My guess — although I could be wrong — is that they have taken a set of professional training materials — Microsoft’s version of this is what they used to call ‘Microsoft University’ or the Microsoft certified professional program — and made them available to schools and colleges, with the goal of producing graduates who are trained on IBM tools — WebSphere, etc.”
6 Responses to IBM Pitches New ‘Cloud’ Software to Colleges. But Some Say It’s Corporate PR.
koonoo - February 10, 2010 at 4:24 pm
“cloud” or not, it seems too much educator-centered (knowledge delivery media/medium) flowing around out there vs. some simple and effective learner/student centric knowledge tool.
emschles - February 10, 2010 at 5:01 pm
koonoo – AMEN! As usual big corporations market to faculty and staff; but, the folks with real purchasing power who are the most disenfranchised users on campus (SEE: What Students Want in this weeks issue of Campus Technology .. http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/02/01/What-Students-Want.aspx) do NOT have solutions built for them …… until NOW!http://thehigheredcloud.comwww.studentforce.com
eajmtp2 - February 11, 2010 at 8:28 am
Why is Edward D. Lazowska, holder of the Bill & Melinda Gates the only outside expert cited? And why is his unfavorable comparison of the new material to Microsoft products not considered corporate PR?
cwinton - February 11, 2010 at 10:51 am
I expect the vast majority of computer science faculty would have had a similar reaction to Mr. Lazowska’s (after many years of dealing with similar corporate software “gifts” it certainly was mine). The name on an endowed chair is very unlikely to have any bearing on the opinions expressed by the chair holder, who is an employee of the University, not the party donating the funding which underwrote the chair. IBM, in particular, has had a program in place for many years making some of its software available to faculty for use with their classes, and not all of it specific to IBM environments. This program is just an extension of that one.
jfischman - February 11, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Also, isn’t Mr. Lazowska being as critical of Microsoft as he is of IBM?
koonoo - February 13, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Been in the IT world long enough to know that, over 50% of the features/functions of any large software package (costing millions and millsions of dollars) are either never or seldom used by customers. In the meantime, such vendors would come up with upgrade or so called “streamlined” version or the like about every 6 month to a year. How ironic? Where’s the value? Who’s paying for that? Not the decision-makers who bought such packages! But ultimately the vast number of students of such institutions (via tuition or else). AMEN!koonoo = Knowledge NoteBook