Who You Calling A Jesse?

How to screw up the higher education system in Ontario

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:17:00 GMT

The Ontario Premier made his speech the other day that gave a big nod to the need for a stronger education system (no mention of the money to do it btw) but along with nod came some silly goals that demonstrate a clear misunderstanding with the state of higher education in Ontario. The globecampus.ca blog outlines some issues but I think it misses the point, we need revolution in education not just more bums in seats.

Here’s my view of the world (simplified/generalize for effect):

Universities are tooled to create more academics, other outcomes besides professional accreditation are unintentional.
The government has given money to build buildings over the last 10 years – not lecture halls but buildings – and no money to maintain the buildings.
Budget cuts have peeled away operating budget of departments over 10 years but the pressure to deliver more has seen staff being hired without the flexibility or ability to look at how things fit within the larger organization.
Staff are better educated than in the past and in many cases more skilled than the academics yet are seen as second class citizens within the organization.
Most academics want to teach, do research, and focus on their vocation – they do not want to recruit, do marketing or communications, manage staff outside of their research group, or be a department chair, associate dean, or dean.
Research funds rarely contribute to the well being of the institution or teaching. Heck they likely don’t pay for the power consumption of the toys they buy.
Academic time and process rewards mediocracy and we all know mediocre products are crap (I say this while looking at my UW degree).
Students are paying way too much in tuition and have earned the right to view higher education as a service not an earned place that expects, requires, and rewards hard work (not with a job but with that little warm feeling you get, currently most students think only about jobs).
Like all of the publicly funded jobs, the leaders are gone or in the process of being chased out. As we head out of the recession a new exodus of the employable from public service will most certainly occur.

To tackle these things takes breaking out of the mediocre and into some pretty crazy thinking. We need to take risks, experiment, and challenge the establishment that is almost dysfunctional outside a few pockets of brilliance. What the Ontario government is offering is more of the same—rhetoric, promises, and likely funds earmarked and the established system not a revolution.

Of course that isn’t for the government to dictate. We need to figure this out and we need the leaders within higher education that are willing to do so. I see glimpses of it but I fear we won’t really go for it as there is little appetite or motivation to break out of the crisis management culture and throw away status quo. However, if I was king of higher education this is what I would try:

Remove administrative or managerial positions that are just appointments of academics—make them apply against other professionals
Create a product management office, force them on the world with a mandate to train people to think about their products and projects.
Put post-docs in the classroom, formalize a new class of research focused academics which they are associated with and require them to ship a new product or service every 2-3 years
Create a hybrid of distance education and intense campus education along with co-op
Move staff from the silos of departments to special team pools that can charge out for services and rotate throughout campus (modern take on secretarial pools)—that way you can rally on time sensitive pushes and build expertise along with campus wide perspective
Service Level Agreements
More programs and services to students that are not related directly to academics but tied more to the local community (build more VeloCities).

Could be all crazy ideas but I would like to try at least one or two of them ;) We need to think differently about higher education and how we function institutionally. If we continue down the cut backs, hand outs, and status quo we will surely self destruct within a generation.

Disclaimer: I would say this openly on campus and I am pretty sure it may offend some but these are thoughts being thrown out there. We need to start thinking and trying things.

Observations while on vacation in Michigan

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

This week I have been spending some family time in Traverse City, Michigan. This is the second time we have been here in the last eight months and this time I have been paying a lot more attention to the local media, tv, news, etc.

You need a drug, surgery, or better—a place to put your retired parents

What I can’t believe is the amount of talk and advertisements about health treatment, post-treatment stuff, and drugs. Every second commercial is trying to sell you a treatment… it’s nuts. I could be just looking for it but honestly US folks, I don’t get how you can be against the government doing something about the big business that is doing everything it can that you are all requiring treatment all the time.

Driving across the border: “Do you have a pocket knife?”

Honestly, how theatrical is all of US border security now (its not just for planes)? They are asking about things like pocket knives when someone could buy a 50 caliber sniper rifle at a gun shop down the road. Knives? Well there are plenty of those for $10 as well. I am not sure if the questions bug me or the aggression and fear that comes across when crossing the border. It makes no sense to me that these folks at the border are a ‘first line’ of defense—there is no way you catch the real criminals by puffing up at the border, the ones smuggling large amounts of stuff aren’t just driving across… are they?

I took the above photo at a Gander Mountain outfitters. It was in the middle of a sea of guns… even pink hand guns. I am not a big supporter of gun control (I think you do need to require training, register, and don’t sell guns to criminals) but why in the world would anyone need a 50 caliber sniper rifle? Just in case the deer goes behind a tree and you want to fast track the venison sausage making process?

Prices in Canada are close to prices in Michigan

This is probably my biggest surprise and something I didn’t notice last time i was here. Baby formula is $19 a tub, the same formula is $20 in Waterloo. Diapers are no contest, half the price here but a decent steak is $13-14 a pound—pretty close to the Bauer butcher in Waterloo. Besides cars, trucks, entertainment, gas, and clothes the prices of a lot of goods are similar.

It has been a good trip but I will rethink when we will come back. It is still easier to get here than Northern Ontario (thank you 400) and I can still fish, snowboard, etc. The infrastructure is better geared towards tourists, hotels are nicer and far less expensive, with condos that have kitchens that save loads of $$ on meals for kids.

Next week it is back to work time, but now I will enjoy the rest of the week ;)

Can higher education produce better/faster startups?

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:31:00 GMT

Given where I work it I do spend a lot of time thinking about how I can do more to help build a culture at the University of Waterloo where trying your hand at a startup is easier, has a higher likelihood of success, and it won’t cost you your education. There are a lot of things the University does to make that goal harder to achieve:

We have a strong co-operative education system that trains students to strive for a good job in a larger company
With co-op you have to sort out your next term 3 months ahead of time in the midst of exams, assignments, etc.
Engineering is very inflexible with programming, you want to take an extra term and work on a startup? You can’t, you take a year off and fall off track with your friends.

These are a few big things that make it hard for entrepreneurs also make it great for the most number of students. U of Waterloo has a lot of other things to make things easier for entrepreneurs (ecoop, Impact, etc) as well with VeloCity being the latest and (in my opinion) greatest idea to build a culture that can offer many things but most importantly support for students from their peers. I think it important that higher education does everything it can to foster entrepreneurship with students just as it does later in an academic career for faculty, why? Some interesting posts came to my twitter stream this week:

Every time an engineer joins Google, a startup dies

Students want the job, the money, the partner, and the security now. I have experienced it as a student and have those conversations with students now. This quote comes from a US perspective but if this is a true statement of the US it is likely very true in Canada as well:

“As much as we like to think of our culture as being entrepreneurial, the reality is 99% of our top talent doesn’t seriously contemplate starting companies. Colleges crank out tons of extremely smart and well-educated kids every year. The vast majority go into “administrative” careers that don’t really produce anything – law, banking and consulting. Most of the rest join big companies.” – Chris Dixon

More needs to be done to support undergrad and graduate students. The problem is that it may compete or complicate the support that already exists for the Profs that grind the undergrads and grads. I think we need to find a way to make supporting undergrads a win win for the phds.

For jobs, look to university spin-offs

So does the traditional support of commercializing research work? According to an article in CNN this week it does:

“Here’s where higher education already has made a real difference. University-launched startups are particularly good powerhouses for value creation; Brent Goldfarb and Magnus Henreksen found in 2003 that at least 8 percent of university spin-offs in the United States become public companies, more than 100 times the average of new companies.” – from CNN

Again this is the US but I would bet a similar ratio exists or could exist in Canada. If you could get a similar ratio from companies started by students with the skills that aren’t research focused? Maybe not public companies but profitable employers that train the future CEOs of public companies.

Accelerating the process of innovation. Changing the future of learning: Startl

Is innovation required outside of the walls of academia because there is a better way?

“Accelerator is a three month residency and immersion into design methods and business practices for early stage learning enterprises.” – Startl

As best I can tell that isn’t happening in an higher education environment. Why not? I am part of something similar here with our Bootcamp program where we are trying out mixing higher education experience with the local early stage entrepreneurs. So far I think VeloCity has seen a little success with at least three companies at a stage where they are launching products and hiring co-op students working out of offices in Waterloo and Toronto. With two of them they have faced the strain of balancing their academic carrier with their startup. Until we can alleviate that strain in some way I don’t think VeloCity will be a great success. One thing that is happening is that we are learning and adapting quickly…

I am not sure I support the idea that Y Combinator (and programs like it) is the new Graduate School. In order to train entrepreneurs you need successful entrepreneurs to train them but the million dollar question in my mind: are academic institutions capable of allowing non-academics to play a role? I think they are. The important bit is that Higher Education offers some credibility to the lessons learned that is transferable outside a particular sphere of influence. I think that is important for the student.

Building a bridge

I am optimistic that we can build a model here at U of Waterloo that could be duplicated in other schools. I believe that higher education must do more to foster entrepreneurs as well as focus on the normal process of fostering academic growth and development. That bridge between academic study and real experience is something Waterloo built a long time ago with Co-op, the difference is with entrepreneurship is that your work experience is a lot more self directed and requires more flexibility.

Children hold your calendar hostage during cold and flu season

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:41:00 GMT

This past week I have had my calendar and task list hijacked by a cold virus that hasn’t even found its way to make me ill but it has decided to drive up the internal temperatures of the two little things in the house. The upside to this is that I have an excuse to hang out with them during the week, the downside is that this unplanned vacation is anything but and I am sinking into declaring inbox and task list bankruptcy.

How do you balance kids with work?

Honestly, how do you? You don’t, kids win every time. However, how do you deal with coworkers that find your unplanned absence annoying? The situation for my wife and I is extra fun as she just recently returned to work from maternity leave and they are already down one staff member in their group, I am working on a startup when I am not working my more than full time job at VeloCity, and I still have responsibilities as Past President of the UW Staff Association. Thankfully we both have understanding coworkers but not everyone does.

I don’t have an answer for those that don’t have a supportive work environment but here is my two point strategy for not letting the big things slip (and it may help contribute to having understanding coworkers):

Work with your partner—even though you both won’t be sleeping and probably have short fuses
Prioritize the big things and find an hour in the day to triage (see it as being forced to focus on value, not volume – that might help)

Then repeat the following every time you think you are about to drive yourself crazy with thinking about the things you should be doing:

Nobody on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.” – Paul Tsongas

When you are busy second guessing your decisions about going to the doctor or not going given temperature, time, colour of the boogers/poo, should they go to daycare, or damn daycare for the bug sharing, etc you find work is a pleasant distraction but don’t let it guide your decisions. Once in a while I find myself heading that way and I have to keep coming back to what is most important and it isn’t work.

The iPad won't suck...

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:52:00 GMT

…but it will burn many hours of your work day talking about this enlarged iPod/iPhone. Everywhere I turn people are either making fun of it, dismissing it (passionately), or ready to pull out the credit card and buy one. What really gets me are this new group (to me) of people that think you need a half inch, desktop powerful, physical keyboard using device or it just isn’t good enough.

Here’s my position on the iPad the day after:

It is a consumption device.
It won’t burn your bits when you try and watch a movie on it.
I sat in the coffee shop with morning with email, a web browser, and tweet deck open for 3 hrs—didn’t need my laptop for that.
It isn’t expensive for the early adopters that will buy version 1
It is a product release that had features dropped that didn’t meet the quality control requirements (think iPhone before the 3G)
Developing apps for it will likely be awesome
If I were a student, I would be beyond excited to have all my text books on that (hey higher ed, how many will be offering this to first years loaded with all their text books, notes, slides, podcasts, etc?)

I will admit my bias and say that a big iPod touch that can tether with my iPhone is all I really wanted. A full OS would have been nice but I am really excited to see how developers take advantage of the HTML 5 stuff that Safari supports.

Will it be for everyone? No. But I would bet their $50 billion company is safe for now.

All events have their audience but...

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:39:00 GMT

When TEDxWaterloo was first mentioned I was beyond excited (it was around the same time IgniteWaterloo was being planned which is also awesome). The focus and quality of the independently organized TED event is something I think the local community could really benefit from. As much as I love the whole unconference thing I know it doesn’t work for everyone and it can be really strange to people that haven’t attended. However, I am disappointed in the rationale behind applying to attend that TED itself promotes. I do appreciate the views on it by organizing folks but…

I am concerned about it being exclusive

I had a big long rant written about this but instead I will keep it simple: applying to attend something in a community this small that is dominated by Higher Education, think tanks, and RIM-jobs driving BMW’s implies exclusivity. Maybe being exclusive to a certain type of person is exactly what TED is trying to do to ensure there is quality conversation. However, the community is full of interesting and colourful personalities… you can’t just exclude them because, well because is hard to say as they haven’t really listed any measurable criteria.

As one of the commenters on Renjie’s blog post there is a fine line between elitist and open that TEDx seems to just barely stay on the positive side of but I think the problem the registration is intended to fix doesn’t actually exist. Not in Waterloo anyway.

What am I going to do about it? Nothing. I am not going to apply to attend, not going to talk about it anymore (I will try), and look forward to the next Ignite Waterloo or BarCampWaterloo or StartupCampWaterloo or Web Design meetup or startup drinks or any other event that is open to everyone.

A Startup Week at VeloCity: stop talking, just do something

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:55:00 GMT

Over the past week we tried something different at VeloCity – we opened up the term not with speakers but instead engaged the students in a serious of brainstorming evenings followed by a weekend focused on starting their startup. Amongst the group discussions, team formation, development, and business planning have been a number of local entrepreneurs that have wandered around the residence talking to students and offering some insights—at least one mentor really enjoyed the experience.

The goal for the week evolved a bit but what I wanted to do is give all 65 students at the residence an opportunity to participate early on by challenging them to have a pitch and a demo by Sunday night. Keeping in mind that most (if not all) of the students here have never had an opportunity to work towards building a business with their peers.

The result? About 50 of the 65 students at VeloCity participated this weekend in fleshing out some ideas and most of the teams actually built a usable application. One of them, the room booking application, will be used at VeloCity starting this week!

At the moment I am a bit tired from the 80+ hour work week to write a big post but I can confidently say that we have exceeded out goals for this week and moved VeloCity clearly away from simply a space for innovation to a community that is actually doing something.

Looking at a decade and what I learned

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:01:00 GMT

At the end of 2009 it is worth a look back at a decade that just happens to be the first 10 years since I was a full-time student. I entered the naughties in a job based out of Thesselon Ontario working for the Community Development Corporation trying to get small business on the web and into our crazy new web site (which was updated only recently to a much better site). Now I am part of a small team of folks trying to get students at the University of Waterloo connected to people that will help build something awesome at VeloCity.

I would have never guessed the decade would close the way it has and I have to say I feel extremely lucky. While all the madness of the world was going on I met my wife, bought a house, experienced a part-time grad program, I have kids, and lots of other fun stuff.

What have I learned?

I knew nothing in my 20s
- …and spent way too much time worrying about things
- …and I let that worry guide too many decisions
experience is important, embrace every experience good or bad but don’t let experience limit you
always take calculated risks and be ready for Plan B (because you are wrong about plan A most of the time)
how not to take things personally instead of just saying that I don’t

I hope that the next 10 years are just as fun as the last 10. Just like in 1999 when I thought I would be old in 2009, I think I will really be old in 2019… hopefully wiser ;)

My Ignite Waterloo presentation: unconferences

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:33:00 GMT

Ignite Waterloo was a couple weeks ago and by all accounts it was a huge success. The eclectic mix of brilliant presentations and a great crowd made for a very fun evening. I had the opportunity to present as a fill in for Mark Kuznicki who was going to talk about Changecamp and the power of community. It was fun trying to pull together my thoughts into a 5 min presentation. Have a look!

Jesse Rogers: The unconference for fun and the goodness of community from Ignite Waterloo on Vimeo.

I find it very strange to watch myself present—makes me cringe at times. Who likes the sound of their own voice? Honestly ;)

Have a look at the other presenters in the Ignite Vimeo channel and you get an idea of how great the event was. My favorite is probably Dave Estill on Solar Energy followed a close second with Simon Clark talking about Hacking the hood.

Presenting Baby steps in an Agile world at WatITis2009

jrrodgers@gmail.com (Jesse Rodgers) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:39:00 GMT

As December sets in on campus the IT staff get a chance to huddle around Ron Coutts Hall (RCH) and get together to swap some stories along with learn new things at the WatITis conference. I have blogged loads about this in the past as I have enjoyed every single one since they started. It is a great way to find out what the heck is going on this large campus and put some faces to email addresses (not many on twitter, yet).

This year I am presenting on baby steps in an agile world (slides below). It is a slimmed down, more focused version of a presentation I did at Higher Education Web Conference in Milwaukee this past October. I took the feedback (thanks for the feedback folks) and slimed it down, focused on real practical tips for agile techniques, and I think I have a good 30 min presentation. Which leaves 15 minutes for discussion—something requested by the organizing committee.

Since no one will probably do it at the keynote I will set the hashtag now as the obvious #watitis09 (watitis without the 09 is a pretty funny hashtag to follow) and keep the realistic expectation that there will be a hand full of people tweeting ;) Looking forward to the day.

Baby steps in an agile world

View more presentations from Jesse Rodgers.