The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires any school or library receiving funding from the federal E-Rate program to deploy web filtering technology to prevent users from viewing objectionable material while they are using the institution's computers. However, opponents of web filtering legislation question whether or not mandated…

Not that many years back, portals were nothing more than splash pages from which users could click on links to navigate a school's web-based resources. Today, however, they are much more: single sign-on gateways that easily enable users to do everything from pay tuition and view transcripts, to purchase parking permits, and sell used books. Still,…

When most academic technologists tackle computing, their time is occupied by laptops and servers--relatively small-scale stuff. A couple of blades here, a couple of blades there. Generally, even for network managers, the processing power rarely stacks up to anything awe-inspiring. Sometimes, however, computing can be bigger and broader than many…