University offers tech-savvy cost saving alternatives

The conference showcased MOSplace and MeetingPlace.

By James Hatler

Published March 5, 2009

Technological additions to the MU campus and ways the university can save money using tech-savvy solutions were on display at the Technologies for Tight Budgets Expo held Wednesday and Thursday at the Bond Life Sciences Center.

"We're just showcasing various technologies that are available to campus to potentially save money for the departments, things like various conferencing solutions and training and telephone solutions that they could save money on their monthly or annual budgets," Information Technology Manager Nathan Eatherton said.

During the summer, the UM system launched MOSpace, a digital repository for scholarly works.

"We now have several thousand pieces in there," library information specialist Adrienne Arden said.

The model for MOspace is based on DSpace, an open-source platform created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make accessing information easier.

The MOSpace collection is searchable online through the library's Web site and submissions are monitored by the library's staff. Individuals or groups who submit or publish materials retain copyright, Arden said.

Another money saving solution, MeetingPlace Conferencing, helps save time and travel costs by allowing individuals to hold meetings online.

MeetingPlace allows either phone conferencing or Web conferencing, said Brandon Rodewald, a User Support Analyst for the Division of Information Technology.

"Especially if you're meeting with people outside the city, you can use this to collaborate on documents and have a phone conference the same time," he said.

While MeetingPlace has primarily been used as a phone conferencing tool, the exposition promoted using MeetingPlace as a way to share documents and collaborate via the Web alongside audio conferencing.

While MeetingPlace offers timesaving solutions for meetings, the conference also advocated using videoconferencing to reduce travel time and costs.

"It's better than an audio conference because you get to see the people and hear the people," DoIT engineer Roger Heath said.

Heath said due to limited travel budgets, use of videoconferencing at the university has gone up and has become a more popular option.

DoIT also offers complimentary software training sessions to MU faculty and staff to gain familiarity with various Adobe and Microsoft programs.

"This will make the workers more productive," DoIT technical trainer Josh Gilzow said. "So something that would normally take them 10 minutes, we can narrow it down so that it only takes them one or two. It makes them more efficient workers."

Interested parties from MU register online for these classes and only pay if they fail to show up to the course.

Non-MU affiliated individuals may also take these courses for $89 per course.