SyracuS e u niverS ity Summer 2010 l VOl. 12, nO. 1 School of Information Studies The Original i nfO rmaT i O n SchOOl from the classroom to the boardroom: Student entrepreneurS hatch buSineSS conceptS with the Support of Su and the iSchool Kimberly montenyohl, accelerating the engine cOnTribuTing wriTer of entrepreneurShip merica is experiencing a profound At the forefront of SU’s campaign to support business transformation. These entrepreneurship is the Student Start-Up troubled times are forcing compa- Accelerator (http://accelerate.syr.edu/). This nies to re-think the status quo. project is a collaboration between Syracuse Conventional business approaches University and the Technology Garden, a state- Adon’t work anymore. The rules have changed, of-the-art facility located in downtown Syracuse and succeeding in this new environment requires that provides the environment and resources thinking outside of the box. necessary to launch new companies. This shift in business was reflected in a recent survey conducted by IBM. The company’s Institute for Business Value asked 1,500 chief executives to identify the most important leader- ship quality that will define successful future enterprises. Their answer? Creativity. This is a dramatic change from the past, when creativity was viewed as one of many ingredients required for research and product development. Now, it is seen as the ultimate leadership competency that can make or break success. Syracuse University and the iSchool have created several initiatives to nurture students’ creativity and business skills. Thanks to these new projects and partnerships, SU has become a hub of entrepreneurship with students collaborating on exciting ventures that will someday change how we work, play, communicate, and live. JamLynx is one of several SU student start-up companies working in the Tech Garden in TweeT s T o FeaT s : Syracuse this summer. The project consists of three main pieces: exploring the Impact 1 A curriculum of three SU courses (What’s the Big Idea, Idea 2 Startup, and Big Idea 2 Startup) designed to help students create of social Media business ideas and develop business plans Kate holloway, cOnTribuTing wriTer Competitive natures kicked into high 2 The Student Sandbox, a space within the gear. These were students individually Technology Garden for student entrepre- 36 students, 36 Hours. early mornings and late chosen by the deans of their schools — the neurs to launch their new business under the nights. Coffee, Red Bull and a lot of snacks. all for iSchool, College of Visual and Performing guidance of experienced professionals the purpose of exploring the future of social media. Arts, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public 3 Incubation support provided by resources – @shaycolson, syracuse ischool graduate student Communications, the Whitman School of like iVenture Upstate and the Orange Tree Management, the School of Education, and Fund. iVenture Upstate is a student-run ne rainy Friday night in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public organization that matches the needs of the April, 36 Syracuse University Affairs. It showed in the names they chose: local business community with the skills of students with different inter- The Toppest Notch, Knows Goes, Beast.ly, the student body. The Orange Tree Fund, ests, majors, backgrounds and Digital Blender, Juncture, and Techno Color supported by alumni and friends of the education levels converged Yawn. University, provides seed funding for SU Oon the top of the circular Renaissance Hotel Ranging in level from first-year under- student entrepreneurs. in Syracuse for dinner. Randomly placed graduates to doctoral candidates, the students The Student Start-Up Accelerator is a cycle. into tables, these strangers were lulled into a participated in the three-day Social Media First, students enroll in the interdisciplinary false sense of relaxation through their meal Futures Charrette, an intense interdisciplinary course What’s the Big Idea. In fall 2009, roughly before Chris McCray and Shoham Arad brainstorming and idea-generation process 100 SU students took the course, which is of Collaboration Laboratory (COLAB) that explored how to advance social media’s designed to teach aspiring entrepreneurs how announced that each table had 30 seconds to impact in business and maximize its potential. to develop and grow ideas to create a successful brainstorm both a team name and a cheer to product, service, or business. announce to the rest of the groups. continued on page 8 continued on page 10 summer 2010 SyracuSe univerSity | School of InformatI on StudI e S 2 inside this issue Feature Articles From classroom to Boardroom 1 tweets to Feats 1 tnM receives itera Graduate Program of excellence award 7 iSchool and its community members Digital icreation students help local non-profits through innovate their way to success their course projects 14 s you can see by the stories in degree programs, all of whom were now Students travel to SXSW and this issue of Home Page, lots entrepreneurs, leading their own companies. interop conferences 15 of exciting things are happen- now, while this may not be expected of more Girls are i.t. 16 ing in the iSchool at Syracuse. traditional iSchools, i am actually not surprised! Wit partners with non-profit 16 D e A N ’ s Aand actually way more than we have space to Probably partially because i, too, am an alum, Su launches new caS in cultural share with you here! So, the same as everyone and have been an entrepreneur as well. the Heritage Preservation 17 else is doing, we encourage you to follow us stories i heard of how they got to where they researchers share scholarly work on our web site, our information Space blog, are now were fascinating. Furthermore, none of at 2010 iconference 18 Facebook, Linked in, and twitter. (See graphic the grads found it surprising to end up as entre- icaucus awards first raymond below.) We’ve become quite well-known dur- preneurs, because being in the information field, von Dran award to toni carbo ing the past year for our expertise in social they are, of course, the ones to seek out, track, at 2010 iconference 18 media — both for our leadership on campus, and optimize on the latest information there is Dean elizabeth D. Liddy named and through our road Show events that many — and that is what successful entrepreneurship new chair-elect of icaucus 19 of you folks have attended in D.c., chicago, depends on — picking up on, tracking, following iSchool celebrates 2010 convocation 19 atlanta, Philadelphia, Palo alto, new york city, through on what we sense in the environment iSchool hosts ciO conference 24 San Francisco, or Boca raton. So the iSchool’s as people’s needs and solutions. While these reputation continues to grow. may not all seem at first to be information- school News along with these events, goes the opportu- based needs and solutions, many, many times Dean’s column 2 c o L u m N nity to interact with more and more of you — that’s what they turn out to be. Faculty column 3 and to gain an increased understanding of how So, for all of the equally entrepreneurial Faculty news 3 our alums are using and building on the knowl- among you, you’re likely not surprised to note Faculty news Briefs 4 edge, skills, and attitudes they learned while at in the stories here of the more deliberate focus School news Briefs 7 school with us. and this is truly exciting! i was we’ve taken in our curriculum on innovation Student news Briefs 14 with a table of alums at a recent lunch in new and the resulting successes that our courses, york city, and on each side of me and across our extra-curricular events, and our students Alumni News from me were alums from our various are having! and while many of the students From the Director 20 are exercising their talents in smaller start-ups class notes 20 through the What’s the Big idea and From idea alumni Profiles i s chooL e veryW here to Start-up courses and in the Student Start-up Pinak Lonkar G’09 21 Sandbox, the same information-centric innova- Facebook: Gail Steinhart G’05 23 tive abilities are what they are bringing to their www.facebook.com/su.ischool Development Forum 22 projects, internships, and jobs in the larger com- Linkedin: panies such as Ge, JPMorgan chase, or ernst & www.linkedin.com/ young. these and the other companies who s yrA cuse uNiversity groups?gid=74275 regularly hire our students are equally eager to encourage and build on the exciting think- twitter: PaGe ing and strong follow-through that all our truly twitter.com/syracuseischool innovative students have to offer. School of Information Studies The Original i nfO rmaT i O n SchOOl youtube: So stay tuned, the rate of exciting opportu- www.youtube.com/user/ nities and successes continues to accelerate — Home Page is published twice a year SyracuseiSchool and do keep us posted of your ventures as well. by the School of information Studies, Hinds Hall, Syracuse university, Blog: Syracuse ny 13244, 315-443-2911; information space ischool.syr.edu; [email protected] ischool.syr.edu/blog elizabeth D. Liddy, Dean For more: elizabeth D. Liddy ischool.syr.edu/ilife Dean executive editor: Barbara Settel G’73, G’76 [email protected] editor: exPLoriNg coNNectioNs With sAuDi ArABiA Margaret D. Spillett, [email protected] yracuse university sent a four-person the exhibition’s objective was to continue the contributing Writers: team that included iSchool assistant Dean improvement of higher education in Saudi arabia Minhee cho ’10 s for enrollment Management and Special by establishing relationships between regional and Heather Drost ’11 academic Program initiatives Sue corieri to international colleges, universities, and educational Kathleen Haley ’92 the first ever international exhibition for Higher organizations.