ADIE Planning Meeting Minutes

January 31, 1996

I. Introduction: Robert Atkinson, EPC

The meeting began with Robert Atkinson, Executive Director of the Economic Policy Council. He gave the group a brief account of his professional history followed by his assessment of where he sees RI and the EPC in terms of technology. All of his comments were off the record and were his opinion only, not the opinion of the EPC.

Vision for Rhode Island
As he sees it , the state is poised to go forward in a new way. The economy has to go through a restructuring process relatively quickly, and that restructuring must be based on technological innovation. He noted that the centers are only one piece, and that we need to think about economic reform in a larger contect.
Exploring Centers of Excellence in Small States
Mr. Atkinson illustrated the key factors that play into developing "Centers of Excellence" in a small state like Rhode Island. For example, about half the members of the Council have proposals for a Center. He sees nothing wrong with this, but it does raise several issues, namely competition on a variety of levels. One such problem includes the limited number of companies within the state. Although he sees it as acceptable for a center to have narrow relations to one or two companies, the proposed Center must be open to other companies that want to participate. There will be limitations, such as policies laying out what is proprietary and what is shared domain. The EPC will also be looking to see that the partners in this venture are within the state-- RI wants to invest its money in RI State partnernships.
Studies from Other States' Centers
Most states are moving towards industry with their centers. They advise to start by researching industries' requests and needs, and then building the Center's research capacities around those needs. Mr. Atkinson emphasized this as an absolute must; there is not enough money available, so the money allocated to the Center has to have a commercial impact, it has to foster real commercialization in the state of RI.
Governor/Legislative Support Issues
The governor is committed to the Centers, he's sold on the idea, but Mr. Atkinson does not know about the opinion of the General Assembly. He believes that there needs to be an alliance between university, industry, and companies to push it forward.
Plans for Funding
Mr. Atkinson was careful to note that awards can be given only after it is passed in the legislature. The money is coming out of the "general fund." He suggested finding a way to raise money for one year. The EPC will be looking for: longevity, permanence of the center, what kind of sharing will be involved, what kind of match is the Center requiring,...etc. Some kind of a match is a must. The plan can be liberal now but it has got to decline so that, as time goes on, there will be more corporation money.
Structure of Center
Prompted by a question from Peter Bono, Lou Mazzucchelli gave a brief explanation of the strawman that had been presented at the previous ADIE meeting (January 17, 1996). His presenation focused on the "three organizational boxes": Educational Initiatives, Small Business Opportunities, and Virtual Rhode Island.
Educational Initiatives
The discussion eventually centered around the "Education Box." The idea of focusing the Center's energies on the Digital Portfolio (described in detail later) and its commercial possibilities was supported by Mr. Atkinson. Lou Mazzuccheli emphasized the role that the Coalition of Essential Schools might (needs to) play in the marketing of such a tool. He even provided the group with a vision of an "industrial park, with Ted Sizer on a billboard." Lou Reynolds supported the idea, clarifying that this is a very low-end project, and is very "doable."
Concern with "Small Business and Virtual RI Boxes"
While expressing interest in the educational ideas, Allen Renear questioned why private industry would not fill the economic gaps that the "economic boxes" attempt to fill. He saw this as a weakness in ADIE's original proposal. Brook Conner followed Allen's question with a focusing question of his own: What is the mission of the Center? Technology transfer? Elli Mylonas and Brook both agreed that it is not "prosletizing the web." This is already being done within RI anyway.
Research Center vs. Technology Center
A heated debate developed around whether or not ADIE should be a technology transfer center or a world class research center. Some saw the two ideas at odds with each other, some saw the two as very compatible. Brook Conner cautioned the group to neither undershoot nor to overshoot technologically, thereby missing the commercial opportunities. He believed that the idea to focus on technology that is not widely used is a good idea--he supports pursuing the development of digital portfolios.
Atkinson's Response to the Debate
Mr. Atkinson called this debate "like a Miller Lite commercial." He sees that we have two initiatives: business and education. Off the record he said: 1) Virtual RI is a great idea that needs to happen, 2) the Center will not be getting a million dollars, 3) the assumptions about business are not correct--the outside technological review committee will not care about the two "business boxes" from the business plan. He sees us running the risk of getting no funding if we focus too heavily on this part of the business plan. ADIE should explore other funding for these projects. Mr. Atkinson reccommended two ideas:
  1. ADIE needs to show that they are building on technical expertise from within the state
  2. Show that the educational initiatives piece is about building jobs, stress the "industrial park with Ted Sizer" idea
Commerical Viability of Eductational Technology
Brook Conner suggested that the digital portfolio on its own might not be very economically viable, but if ADIE was able to take existing technology and use it in creative ways (i.e. not just educational portfolios but professional portfolios, resumes, etc.) it could work. Lou Reynolds summarized the discussion that followed into a description of ADIE's database architecture:
  1. An application concept which ADIE can leverage (digital portfolios, utilizing the aid and status of Ted Sizer and David Niguidula) and achieve some level of instanciation, and
  2. Taking technology that is generally available and getting it into schools across the state.
    3. Lou Mazzucchelli added that if RI becomes a networked state we could be come a magnet for content developers looking for a large, totally networked testbed.

II. David Niguidula, Digital Portfolio Demonstration

David Niguidula, the Manager of Technology Applications for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Coalition of Essential Schools, is a pioneer in the field of digital portfolios. He gave the ADIE planning group a walk-through of what a digital portfolio presentation might look like. The "mock-up" dealt with a student's study of the relocation of Route I-195. The various exhibitions in the portfolio would have utilized one or more of the following technological tools that ADIE would have supplied and organized for the student's use:

The discussion that this presentation spurred hit upon several big ideas. Lou Reynolds expressed the need to be explicit about assumptions that would be needed for something like this to be in place in the school system. David Niguidula suggested that a high end pentium machine with a highband link behind it would be all that was necessary to access all of the tools listed. Julie Gainsburg suggested moving away from the exclusive emphasis on the digital portfolio and marketing out services to the teachers--create a teacher-friendly way to create classroom texts/a course/an interdisciplinary project that took advantage of what ADIE has to offer.

The discussion then began to circle back to what the mission of ADIE should be. Allen Renear suggested using the digintal portfolio as an instrument for us to provide a prototype as well as creating a priviledged domain. This would help to create the technological identity of our Center. Lou Reynolds added that the Personal Hypermedia Database is bigand it's evolving. After excited discussion about the need and import for such a mission both Brook Conner and Gary McCullom suggested that ADIE create some kind of a scenario of what students should be able to do, what they can't do today, and what students could do with the help of ADIE. Julie Gainsburg, David Niguidula, Steve Andrade and Helena Miller are all currently working on such a project and plan on presenting a mocked up digital portfolio that will do just that.

Ten Minute Break for "Off-Line" Discussion

After the break David walked the group through what a digital portfolio might look like and how it would showcase the technical tools brought to education. The Portfolio would include the following:

Julie Gainsburg emphasized that the end product was not the end, but that it could all be continued, carried further, etc. David explained that once the student is able to read, the interface can remain standard for all ages, just the level of sophistication and difficulty can change with time.

Technological Requirements for A School-Site With Digital Portfolio Capabilities

Hardware Software

Contributions/Resources from Participating ADIE Organizations

It was decided that each participating organization needed to state what they would be willing and able to contribute to ADIE. They said the following:

Brown Computer Graphics Lab (Brook Conner)
His organization is now doing: web work, JAVA, research experience (over application experience), research prototypes of simulation tools, (and collaborative tools, VR simulators, hypermedia databases, etc.). He can volunteer: disk space and people time.
Scholarly Technologies Group (Allen Renear, Elli Mylonas)
STG develops structured content for educational use and they have their own equipment. They could provide: SGML and HTML content for educational uses, an environment for testing and developing information, and an environment in 7 states and 2 territories with an infrastructure for distributing what we produce,testing, and advertising. STG would have to recover the costs of its services, but Allen said he could get funding from external sources.
Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics (Peter Bono)
The Fraunhofer Center could contribute some research and development for visualization, collaboration, and VR tools. They would have to be paid as they go. By 1996-97 they will have free ATM bandwidth between Providence and Germany (Deutch-Telecom/Sprint), so they could develop applications with an international component. They also have specific results in V.S. (CSCW tools, CSVR tools)-bottom line labor on specifics would be based on additional money and bandwidth.
Cox Communications (Gary McCullom)
Cox currently has bandwidth linking RI Project with W. Bay Pro-Jo, Tolgate, Gordon,...high speed pike for distance, 10 MB, T1 Facilities. They have residential connections at greater than 10 meg. speed, although it is still geographically limited because they are in the building process. Cox is committed to eductaion. If ADIE met with their longterm strategic position they could talk about providing funding in the future. Cox is also in San Francisco and Arizona and has partnered with Sprint.
Electronic Book Technologies (Lou Reynolds)
They provide educational access programming. If businesses eventually spin out of the Center, they could be a reseller of technology. They are a window into what is coming technologically. They have skill in SGML and application of technology. Within certain boundaries they could offer services for free, but they would eventually need to charge for services. ADIE would be getting a lot of smart people and a great testbed environment.
Providence Journal-Bulletin (John Granatino)
They could provide content back to 1982, although it is unstructured as of yet. The content would need to be secured, but it would be available for free. They have marketing muscle. They would try to invest cash in efforts that were consistent with their business goals. They would also assist in arranging meetings with the "right people." businesses
Annenberg Institute for School Reform (Steve Andrade, Julie Gainsburg, David Niguidula)
AISR could provide a testbed with students and teachers. The Met center will have ethernet and internal LAN capabilities They would make a concerted development effort to continue to write grants for education/technology funders.
NYNEX (Pam Drainville)
NYNEX would provide free ISDN and are willing to look at providing billing service initiatives. They are "willing to entertain anything."

III. Wrap-up

The group decided it was time to create a plan for prototype development and general action to complete the final plan. The next meeting was set for Wednesday, February 7, at the Scholarly Technology Group offices, from 9-11am. An action plan with tasks and deadlines will be created then.