ORTGE Establishes “CyberForum” on the World Wide Web

Karen A.Holbrook, Ph.D., Vice President for Research, Dean of the Graduate School

Last year I had the opportunity to talk directly with groups of faculty about timely issues in research and graduate education that were of concern nationally and, particularly, on our campus. Because these sessions were valuable for the exchange of ideas and information among faculty from all colleges with our office, we have sought a mechanism to continue them and to involve more individuals. Being the Office of Research, TECHNOLOGY and Graduate Education, we have decided to use technology to organize a “Forum in Cyberspace” using the World Wide Web as the venue.

At the beginning of each month we will pose a question(s) or identify a general topic(s) for comment from the faculty and other interested members of the University community on our website (http://web.ortge.ufl.edu/cyberforum/). We invite you to communicate your comments, ideas and suggestions on the topic(s)-of-the-month as well as to suggest other topics for the conversation. All responses will be displayed for all who sign on to read. Access to the forum website will be limited to members of the UF community. ORTGE will respond to factual points and provide answers and information as possible, but we encourage interactive discussion among participants. A summary of the comments will be prepared every two weeks and posted on the website.

A written announcement of the ORTGE-sponsored CyberForum (attached) will be sent to all faculty initially. Each month’s discussion topic will be announced in the ON-LINE FYI and FYI DIGEST, via E-mail communication, and on the new website. We will also ask the editors of all regularly published campus newsletters to publicize the monthly topic(s). We are excited about, and look forward to, this opportunity to communicate with you. I suspect many new ideas will evolve from our conversations.