Keynote at DrupalCamp PA

@raysaltini@ffwdev

www.tiny.cc/raymanwww.ffwagency.com

Ray SaltiniDirector, FFW Center of Excellence

KEYNOTE

Bridging Higher Education and Industry

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JeanLukeAmy

I’m going to tell you a story about three friends

…and their journey toward radical digital transformation.

This is a story about building bridges to radical digital transformation.

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Pittsburgh knows bridges.Industries

medicinehigher educationtourism bankingcorporate headquartershigh tech

many national non profits

steel

Higher Education

Beaver Community CollegeBethany CollegeBidwell Training CenterButler Community CollegeByzantine Catholic SeminaryCalifornia University of PennsylvaniaCarlow UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityChatham UniversityCommunity College of Allegheny CountyDuquesne UniversityEastern Gateway Community CollegeFranciscan UniversityGeneva CollegeIndiana University of PennsylvaniaIUP (Northpointe)LaRoche CollegeLECOM at Seton HillPittsburgh Institute of AeronauticsPittsburgh Theological Seminary

Point Park UniversityPSU AlleghenyPSU BeaverPSU FayettePSU New KensingtonReformed Presbyterian SeminaryRobert Morris UniversitySeton Hill UniversitySlippery Rock UniversitySt. Vincent CollegeTrinity School for MinistryUniversity of PittsburghUniversity of Pittsburgh at GreensburgUPMC Shadyside School of NursingWashington & Jefferson CollegeWaynesburg University (Southpointe)West Penn Hospital School of NursingWestminster CollegeWestmoreland Community College

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• A bridge is a system of conveyance over an obstacle that gets people, things, or ideas from one point to another more quickly.

• Sometimes a bridge is not a bridge. When a bridge goes under an obstacle it’s called a tunnel. Sometimes a bridge is just a vehicle or metaphor.

• Sometimes, you don’t want to go there.• When that happens, you need a new bridge.

What is a Bridge?

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• Terrain• Distance• Time• Age• Goals• Culture• Resources• Territory• Ownership

• Education• Gender• Experience• Governance• Conflict• Perception• What else…

What obstacles?

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To share or exchange

• goods & services• information & experience• ideas & practices• people

o teachers & studentso executives & staff

• opportunities• what else?

Why?

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Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. “But which is the stone that supports the bridge?” Kublai Khan asks. “The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,” Marco answers, “but by the line of the arch that they form.” Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.” Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.”

– Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

The Parable of the Bridge

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There are all kinds of stones.

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Pittsburgh’s Next New Bridge?Made with a lot of different stones.

Lots of really great arches.

RC1 this month.Yes.

Really.

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What are the stones this new bridge is made from?

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Do you know where you want to go?

but wait…wha wha wha

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How do we get people to cross the bridge with you?

but wait…wha wha wha

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• Terrain• Distance• Time• Age• Goals• Culture• Resources• Territory• Ownership

• Education• Gender• Experience• Governance• Conflict• Perception• What else…

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They won’t.You can’t.

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

co-workers ->

^status - quo

bosses(prisoners too)

^proprietary

softwarefire

jean->

luke->

< - amy

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BUT HOW?

• stop talking about Drupal to other people, talk about it only amongst yourselves

• start talking about solutions, start asking questions about solutions, ask really good questions that can only be answered thoughtfully

• volunteer, work for free, be a target• keep asking, be Socratic

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Remember

• the problem is not technology• the problem is not people• the problem is systems• the solution is people• the solution is the solution

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Almost true story endings.

• Jean met a guy who built a transformative open source LMS perfect not only for higher- ed but for every kind of industry currently found in Pittsburgh. Completely true, except for the part about Jean.

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• Luke locked all his stakeholders in a room with a really good consultant until they all agreed to go to Drupalcon together. Maybe not actually locked.

Ross Nunamaker, Olympus of America

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• Amy met a Roman centurion and together they created an adoption plan for their entire school. Okay, half true.

Catherine Cuff, Director of IT, Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University

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Parting thoughts, Live long and Drupal• the force is with you, be the stone, be the arch• ignore the prime directive, be disruptive, make it so• time can be rewritten, damn the paradoxes, run, run as fast as

you can toward digital transformation before you become extinct like Kodak

• go over, go under, build new systems• focus on the solutions• free the prisoners, get there together• Keep calm, don’t talk about Drupal.• Make people think. Stop telling them the answers. Ask them

for critical solutions.

Keynote at DrupalCamp PA

Travel

new bridge

vincent college trinity

radical digital transformation

marco polo

marco answers

polo answers

kublai khan

kinds of stones