CIO

On Saturday, my class was visited by a guest speaker, Marshall Eidson via a UStream video. Mr. Eidson spoke to us about technology and the roles he played as Chief Information Officer for the UIW campus. Among the functions which Mr. Eidson mentioned were managing budgets, hiring personnel, governance, and strategic planning. For each of these areas, subcategories were distinguished by our visitor. He stated that each area consisted of other subroles to be addressed, such as requests for proposals and reevaluating contracts, committee involvement, performance appraisals, selecting appropriate projects for funding, and numerous other functions. In addition to these roles mentioned above, Mr. Eidson also listed for us the 6 main tasks for a CIO under IT. The 6 tasks included infrastructure support for the University, technical support services (such as the Help Desk), enterprise systems (specifically Bannerweb), instructional technology (classroom setups), institutional research, and the Northwest Datapoint Team (a team working primarily at the School of Optometry for UIW). All of these tasks are crucial to the continued day to day operations of the campus. Even though many students realize that a department is responsible for these actions, it isn't until someone takes you through these everyday tasks that an appreciation begins to appear.

I can honestly say that I was extremely surprised and impressed at the sheer volume of tasks and roles associated with the position of CIO. Still, perhaps the most memorable area of conversation was when Mr. Eidson recalled his educational background. Evidently, he had spent a number of years do charitable work and it affected the way in which he viewed technology. In fact, I remember him stating that technology is a tool to do what we couldn't do before and that technology is about relationships between people. Accordingly, you must possess the interpersonal skills in order to have any hope of understanding technology properly. I have to say that I had never viewed technology in that light before. Thinking back to his video, I was truly moved by his beliefs and views when it came to technology. That is why I will share the UStream link with Mr. Eidson, CIO for The University of the Incarnate Word.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15557480