The Observer, April 28, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 26
The Brief Case
Case's wiki a big success
Case's wiki, the free, user-edited encyclopedia of all things Case, has been in its test phase since June 2005, and as of March, all of the bugs have been worked out of the site. It is located at http://wiki.case.edu.
Every month, approximately 10,000 people visit the site, with numbers growing steadily.
While wikis at other colleges are not supported by their universities, Case's is. "There was a feeling in ITS that there should be a place where people could go to create their own content, and the wiki was the answer to that. Starting it became my project last summer," said Greg Szorc, a senior computer engineering major who works part-time in ITS.
The Case wiki has also drawn attention elsewhere. An article about wikis in last November's Chronicle of Higher Education called Case's "one of the most successful wikis," and in February it was named "wiki of the week" on Wiki That!, a Web site devoted to wikis.
Szorc said that ITS addresses the issue of the accuracy of information in the wiki by encouraging people who enter information to cite their sources. There is also a self-correcting mechanism. "When people see inaccurate information, they go in and change it," Szorc said.
Military scandals to be discussed at talk
Janis Karpinski, the Brigadier General and commanding officer during the eruption of Abu Ghraib prison scandal who was demoted to a United States Army Colonel in the 800th Military Police Brigade will tell her side of the story when she speaks during a free public program on Monday at 4 p.m. in Strosacker Auditorium.
Ted Gup, the Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism of the English Department, will moderate the talk, which also includes Chaplain James (Yusuf) Yee, who served as the first U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, at the U.S.-run prison camp for enemy combatants. Lee was charged with spying and aiding members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and imprisoned for those charges in September 2003. He was later cleared of all charges. He has also written about his experiences in his recent book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.
Karpinski has written a book as well: One Woman's Army, the Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story.
For information, contact Gup at theodore.gup@case.edu. A book signing will follow the talks.
$100,000 prize for entrepreneurial contest
The Weatherhead School of Management showcased innovative business concepts this month from seven teams of business students who competed for a $100,000 prize.
This competition is the first annual "$100K Innovation Challenge @Case." It is entirely run by students and is sponsored by the Weatherhead School of Management's Entrepreneurship Club and co-sponsored by The Institute for Management and Engineering (TiME) at Case.
The judging and award ceremony took place on April 20 at the George S. Dively Building but the winner has not been announced on the website yet.
Brady Mullin, president of the Entrepreneurship Club and a second-year MBA student, said the competition received more than 120 entries. "We were extremely pleased with the number and quality of the plans submitted to us," Mullin said. "Many came from students attending top entrepreneurship programs at places like MIT, Yale, Duke, Babson, Rice, and Purdue. Their desire to be part of this contest is a reflection of the quality of the entrepreneurship program at the Weatherhead School."
The initial list of 120 entries was winnowed to 20 semifinalists and then to seven finalists. Finalists in the competition are listed on the website at http://www.case.edu/The100KChallenge/index.html.
New book focuses on questions as the foundation to businesses
Frank J. Barrett and Ronald Fry state in their book, Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Building Cooperative Capacity, "The seeds of change are planted with the very first questions we ask." The authors argue that the first questions posed by businesses or people should seek out the positive instead of the negative aspects of a situation.
They cite that businesses and other endeavors are all about possibilities derived from strengths.
The two authors have worked together using AI's "4-D" approach of discovering, dreaming, designing and ending with destiny with the U.S. Navy.
"We felt there was a need for an inexpensive, practitioner-oriented introduction and summary of AI – the kind of book that could supplement a workshop or a summit," said Fry.
The AI approach to business is very flexible and is applicable to small teams as well as whole systems.
AI is now used in the practices at organizations such as Roadway Express, the United Nations Global Compact, the U.S. Navy, and Nokia.
Case partners with biomedical giant
Case recently finalized a license agreement with Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pre-seed stage company formed to commercialize innovative anti-infective compounds and technologies. Through Case's Technology Ventures fund, the school has also invested 250,000 dollars in the company.
The company originally formed from a partnership between Case and Ricerca Biosciences, a Northeast Ohio contract research organization, and now is based in Concord, Ohio. The company focuses on developing antibiotic and antifungal compounds. The license with Case will allow to the company to use research resources from Case and University Hospitals.
"This deal integrates unique assets within the northeast Ohio biomedical community," said Neil Veloso, senior licensing manager in the Case technology transfer office. "Ricerca's development expertise and Case's research know-how collectively catalyzed the creation of GL Pharmaceuticals."
