I heard a very interesting & timely piece on NPR this evening – “The Most Secure Password In The World Might Be You” I strongly encourage you to listen to it or read about it. It is a quick review of how some big tech firms are predicting that the passwords are dead and biometrics are the way to go. The proliferation of systems that requires us to authenticate and the hodgepodge of rules for strong passwords have created a nightmare. Most users have the same password for accessing everything and worse, it is also an easily guessable password. Biometrics on the other hand relies on you as a person to do something to identify yourself to the systems – either a finger swipe, or retinal scan or a voice recognition system along with a pass phrase. Just the same way the passwords has weaknesses, each of these also have weaknesses, but they certainly have clear advantages. One of them is that you don’t need to maintain multiple passwords! Each of the biometric methods exploit the fact that they are unique to the person. One of the arguments made in favor of biometrics is that stealing the info is not scalable. That is, whereas millions of passwords stored on a server can be hacked and unencrypted in hours or days, it is hard to imagine stealing fingerprints and retinas on that scale, especially anonymously! However, some form of fingerprints and retinal scans must be saved somewhere in order to verify that it is yours. It is quite possible that these can be hacked and transmitted in some fashion to fool the system. This is pure speculation on my part, of course! If you ask me, I would like to see the passwords dead in favor of a more reliable and easy to use authentication system, but I don’t think passwords will be die that soon.

Clayton Christensen reminded yet again in NY Times this past weekend about the disruptions taking place in Higher Ed – “Innovations Imperative: Change Everything“. Thunderbird School of Management merging with Laureate Education, for example. Is this just the start of something bigger to come?

We are trying very hard to be tuned into major advances and disruptions that are taking place. The Advisory Committee on Library and Technology Policies (ACLTP)  has begun an overview of Library trends in order to understand disruptions in managing Collections and understand what services we should be prepared to provide. We are excited because such collaborative planning for the future always pays hefty dividends.

Disruptions are hard. They challenge the norm, which by definition has been in play for long periods of time, accepted and well tested. Whether it is cultural, social or technological, there are some who are driving these disruptions for one reason or the other. Then there are many who voice strong opposition to them and when the acceptance crosses a threshold, it inches towards the new norm. The pace at which technology has been evolving in the past couple of decades, the disruptions themselves have become the norm. How many of us still have a DVD player and buy DVDs vs watching movies and TV shows online? How about newspapers? I don’t have to rehash what has been said about each of these, but you get the point.

Libraries have seen the effects of technology too and they are adjusting to this in a variety of ways. Circulation of books in the library is declining.  Here is one article that shows this through actual data. Our own data shows this. We see increased interest in the use of our special collections and we are excited about the momentum around the creation of a Book Studies program at Wellesley, which is being led by both faculty and LTS staff. Many libraries, including us,  are fast adopting to these changes and re-imagining the service model. Whether it is increasing access to electronic journals or ebooks, or patron driven acquisition or modifying our research support services, we are adjusting to the trends. The use of libraries and its resources is strongly coupled to the institution, the faculty and the academic disciplines. Therefore any strategy for the future needs to take these and other dimensions into consideration. We are very lucky to have an engaged Advisory Committee on Library and Technology Policies, which is very interested in the emerging trends in the libraries and help us formulate a plan for the near term.

We know that the use of electronic devices by the younger children has dramatically increased. You don’t need any detailed study to show this, because one can see this all around us. However, this recent study is pretty interesting. They found that 38% of children under 2 “use” mobile devices. I am sure you have your own favorite video of a child using an iPad, but here is one for you (I find this amazing!). These are clear disruptions. Remember the debate about whether to let the children watch TV or not. We are past all of that now. Now, the debate shifts to the merits of smartphone training for the toddler. Pretty soon, someone will start thinking about how to train a child while in the womb – how about using DNA computing for that?

Though many of the core concepts of teaching and learning has remained the same even through the technological revolution of the past few decades, we know that the current trends in disruptions began in earnest in the mid-90’s. Whether it is email for communication, learning management systems or electronic journals, things are not just the way it used to be. Though many faculty complain about how this has changed the way they teach and the students learn, many find interesting and creative ways to use technology to enhance teaching, research and learning. Well, “enhance” is a loaded word, I know.

Disruptions make many feel helpless in that they have lost control over things that they used to have control over. When a faculty member feels that there is a value to going to the library, picking up a print journal and simply browse and discover interesting & new material, suddenly faces the fact that the journal is only accessible electronically (for a variety of reasons). It is a huge shift over which he/she may not have control over – students learn differently and don’t find the time necessary to browse, the total cost of ownership of printed journal may be prohibitively costly compared to electronic version etc.

The blazing speed at which technological innovations are taking place today indicate that disruptions are going to be the norm for some time to come. This morning, on NPR I heard a story about Twitter’s initial public offering where someone said “When a company goes public, they tend to stop being a true disrupter. Instead they fear other disruptors who don’t suffer the scrutiny of public companies”.

My advice is – be agile and be willing to adopt.