Uncommon Thinking…
Posted in Headline, IT Architecture, JimPhelps, Work on 17 December 2008

 
I was chatting with a colleague about the new EDUCAUSE slogan, “Uncommon Thinking for the Common Good” when I realized that the saying encapsulates one way to think of my work as an I.T. Architect.  “Uncommon Thinking for the Common Good” is what I try to foster in the teams that I work with.  [...]

Riding East with Cranes
Posted in Featured, Headline, JimPhelps, Life in Madison on 7 October 2008

I was riding on a late Summer evening in September and this is a meditation upon a few minutes in that ride.
If you are not familiar with the hills and valleys of Southwestern Wisconsin, let me describe them.  These are old mountains, the Driftless, worn down over the aeons by rain and snow. [...]

Digital Neighborhoods - Guiding design
Posted in Enterprise Architecture, Featured, Headline, IT Architecture, ITANA, JimPhelps, Work, software on 18 April 2008

Digital neighborhoods seem like a powerful tool for discussing technology and its impact on users (students, staff, researchers, etc) and the concept adds interesting new requirements to projects. Getting a good understanding of your users’ digital neighborhoods can guide design and deployment of new technologies and help predict impacts on the users themselves. [...]

Eat your vegis or Have A Little Green Tree - getting EA into the Enterprise
Posted in Enterprise Architecture, Featured, Headline, IT Architecture, ITANA, JimPhelps, Work on 17 April 2008

I was thinking about how, when I try to get buy-in for doing Enterprise Architecture as a holistic thing, I tend not get very far with the campus. But, when I parse out little EA bits, they catch on. I was thinking about this in terms of the metaphor: Getting Kids To Eat [...]