The Digital Age

Embedded Scribd iPaper - Requires Javascript and Flash Player
WWW.THEPOST.OHIOU.EDU
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011
5
PM
OU’S TIME ONLINE
1985, Alden Computer
The first computer, an IBM XT, comes to Alden Library.
DIGITAL AGE
MICHAEL THRASHER FOR THE POST | MT360370@OHIOU.EDU
The
THE RESEARCHER
Alden Library had three computers — two for online searching and one for administrative use — when reference librarian and web developer Timothy Smith had his first day in 1985. Faculty and students couldn’t just walk into the library and sit down at one of the two computers, Smith said. The library was charged based on time spent utilizing the early online service, so library reference staff was trained to navigate the online content with students and faculty as quickly as possible. “Online searching then was a whole different critter than what it is now,” Smith said. There was no such thing as the commercial Web browsers most are familiar with today, which didn’t start until Mosaic launched in 1993. In 1996, the library launched its own Web page for the first time. Smith has been a contributor to the pages over the years and is now working on the early stages of a new design projected to be finished in 2012, which he said he hopes will be more user-friendly. “Folks want as much as possible to be online,” Smith said. Students and faculty utilize library computers to check email and work on homework, but the library is still primarily a research destination. Smith said modern research is not limited to search engines, with digital archives such as JSTOR and EBSCOhost offering alternatives. “You can’t do it all with Google. There’s a vast amount of stuff that Google just doesn’t see, that Google just doesn’t have access to,” Smith said.
1985, World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.
1993, Mosaic
Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina launch Mosaic v 1.0. The Web browser popularizes public use of the Internet and is the first step toward the modern Internet.
This year’s freshman class is the first to have lived its entire life since the first commercial Web browser, Mosaic, launched in 1993. As computers have become ubiquitous throughout culture, their potential uses have shifted from the purely professional to objects that nearly every member of the millennial generation identifies with. Ohio University and other colleges have utilized the Internet and networking technologies to aid their educational mission, as students use the tools for purposes as varied as communicating with each other and turning in homework. Ohio University employees and students have watched as computers and the Internet have evolved into integral parts of higher education.
1993, Alden Email Service
Alden launches an email reference service that individuals can use to ask librarians questions.
THE TECH GUY
Information and Telecommunications Systems (ITS) professor Philip Campbell arrived at Ohio University in 1996. That year he received the class list for his ITS 101 course on printed paper, but didn’t get the list as a digital spreadsheet until he asked for it. “That’s an example of how things have changed. Now, everything is done electronically,” Campbell said. Campbell’s ITS class that year had a Web page but it wasn’t on Blackboard or the department website. Any course website that existed was an HTML page hand-coded by the professor. Today, the ITS department uses electronic request and authorization forms instead of traditional pink slips. Campbell only uses written documents to change a student’s grade after a course closes at the conclusion of the quarter. “In short, every place that people communicate in their lives has changed. We still do face-to-face conversations, but everything else has changed,” Campbell said. “All business processes, not just at the university but in the corporate world, are now done electronically.” According to a previous Post article, the new PeopleSoft Student Information System delayed financial aid to about 1,500 students earlier this school year. Despite this misstep, Campbell said he believes the program will be an improvement for students and faculty. “That is a major undertaking for any enterprise and I think it has the prospect of being severely nicer than the old system was and some of that is in ways that are invisible to students,” Campbell said. One advantage to the new system is the accessibility of students’ academic information. Campbell can now view information on the students in his entire program and not just those currently enrolled in his courses. The development is quite an improvement over the simple class list he received in 1996. There has been talk about the development of university mobile applications, which Campbell is in full support of. “The major thrust isn’t the revenue as much as developing the ability to make these apps, in which case we get the apps and if the developers are students, they learn those skills,” Campbell said. “There’s no loss there, there are multiple wins.”
1994, OAK Email
The OAK email system is launched. Within three years it reached more than 22,000 users.
1996, OU Homepage
The first official Ohio University Web page is launched.
THE FRESHMAN
Bryan Lorence is one of the thousands of freshmen who arrived at Ohio University this fall and was assigned an OU email address. His use of the Internet, though, extends far past email. Lorence first became interested in computers when he started playing Internet games in seventh grade. A few years later, Lorence’s dad helped him build his own computer and he participated in a two-year computer program in high school. His interest in computers hasn’t waned and Lorence began studying information and telecommunications systems (ITS) at OU this fall. To Lorence, the Internet’s strongest value lies in the abundance of information available at one’s fingertips. “If you need to know anything about anything, you can just type it in a search bar and have thousands of searches,” Lorence said. Lorence said he also has noticed more marketing and advertising on the Internet, noting that they seem to have become increasingly invasive and raising some privacy concerns. “If you didn’t know a person, you could pretty much figure out anything about that person through their Facebook, MySpace, Google Plus or Twitter, or anything like that,” Lorence said. Despite his misgivings, Lorence said the advent of the Internet and smartphones is allowing people to interact with their environment more. “I feel like the Internet is connecting everyone in this world to everyone and everything,” Lorence said.
1996, Alden Homepage
The first Alden Library Homepage is created.
1997, University-Wide Net
Ohio University launches its first university-wide connection.
2001, Live Chat
Alden Library introduces a live chat reference service.
2010, Text-a-Librarian
Alden Library adds Text-a-Librarian to virtual reference options.
2012, Upgrade to 300Mb
OIT plans to finish the installation of a new wireless network on campus that will support 300Mb. The guaranteed Internet speed in the coverage area right now is 11Mb.
aroundT
WN O
TONIGHT
Donkey Musician’s Open Stage: 9 p.m.; Donkey Coffee and Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St.; free OU Improv!: 9 p.m.; 124 Bentley Hall; free Comedy in the Round: 9 p.m.; Athens Pyramids, 5 Mill St.; free Joey Hebdo with Andy Shaw Trio: 10 p.m.; Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.; free The Spikedrivers: 10 p.m.; Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.; cover Gardens, Nurser, Lazer Babez, Shelby Carter: 10 p.m.;The Union, 18 W. Union St.; free The Skull Ball: 10 p.m.; Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W. Union St.; $3
FRIDAY
International Dance Night: 10 p.m.; Casa Nueva, 4 W. Washington St.; $3 The Corridor Stand-up Comedy Show: 9 p.m.; GG’s Bubble Tea, 19 S. Court St.; free Metal Night: 10 p.m.; Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W. Union St.; $3 Merengue Night: 10 p.m.; Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.; cover
SATURDAY
Phantods: 10:30 p.m.; Casa Nueva, 4 W. Washington St.; cover The First Street Heat Last Show Extravaganza: 9 p.m.; The Union, 18 W. Union St.; $5 Grace Adele and the Grand Band with Corbin Marsh Band: 10 p.m.; Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.; cover Butch Armstrong and the Bearcats: 10 p.m.; Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W Union St.; $5 Athens Open Mic: 8 p.m.; The Front Room, 1 Park Place; free