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Our school has currently provided wireless internet, course management software (Blackboard), personal web space for students, the ability to register classes online, and some more tech features.

It sounds like you are looking for the next big thing. Don't. Instead encourage the university to improve existing systems and processes. For example, consider how students use the online system to register for classes.

At my own university, we have many problems with the registration process. First, virtually every aspect of the process is treated as an independent system. You can not add classes from the same interface that lists descriptions of the classes. You can't view the number of open seats in a class from the signup page. Course descriptions are notoriously vague and inaccurate. This is all just the tip of the ice berg. I don't know if your registration process is as bad as ours, but I would guess there are plenty of technology systems at your university that could similarly stand for improvement.

Part of the fundamental problem in identifying systems that need improvement is that no one ever solicits student (or even faculty/staff) feedback. Sometimes it may be common knowledge that the registration system sucks, but no one ever tells the people responsible for it why it sucks, or how it can be improved. The end result is that people in university offices spend all their time working on the needs of others in nearby offices (the people who express their needs most readily) regardless of whether or not that fits the mandate. Where I work we literally spend weeks preparing an anual report that has little benefit to 99% of the people we serve.

If you did want to create a next-big-thing kind of university initiative, consider partnering with your communications/web standards department to add some kind of interactive feedback mechanism to all online systems. For an idea of how this might work, consider opine-it. Basically, imagine a system where every page or system has a corresponding message board that can be accessed directly from a "comment on this page" link.

Totally Agree. The nations that signed this are ultimately going to be the losers here.

Do you opine?

www.opine-it.com

A big portion of what pulled the UL project apart was SCO's lawsuit right at the beginning of it. They then pulled out, leaving on SuSE, Turbolinux, and Connectiva. Not exactly a star studded cast :)

Do you Opine?
http://www.opine-it.com

Well, this is something pretty common it seems like with GPL code. Look at how many spinoff's of WINE there are right now.
Or just about any other popular GPL package. Cdrecord anyone?


http://www.opine-it.com

Somehow I just don't think the world needs another Linux distro...
Maybe when we can get 1 that works good, and becomes a standard then we'll see desktop linux take off.

Do you opine?

http://www.opine-it.com

Hey, for all of us who have seen the "6th day", you know that this type of security can be easily breached.

Route 1. Blow off the fingers of the person you wish to impersonate, and take their fingers with you.

Route 2. Create a clone of the person you wish to impersonate, and take that person with you. :)

http://www.opine-it.com Do you Opine?

Gotta love it, hopefully my extension wont be broken on this new release :)

http://www.opine-it.com

HURD! Uggg... Linux is bad enough, get a real OS, like FreeBSD for server's, otherwise its back to Windows for a desktop :)

Let the OS wars begin!

Be Heard, Opine-it!

Hey, if its popular today, its cool with Kerry, if its unpopular tomorrow, its unpopular with Kerry... I get confused watching this man, seriously, he is like the Uber Politician, always changing to support whatever is trendy at the time, reguardless of right or wrong... Opine-It!