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FACULTY PROFILE SOFTWARE Jane E. Prudhomme 11 Jan 1996 10:49 EST

I have found in "research administration" people mean one of two things
with the term "faculty profile software":  they either mean a simple means
of developing "profiles" of "research interests" & a convenient way to
"match" that faculty data to "funding opportunities";  or, they mean a more
detailed accounting and proposal tracking mechanism which requires a whole
ton of data elements about the faculty (ala SPAS, RAMS, etc.).

With the former definition, I totally agree that you can probably get away
more cheaply (and incorporate more flexibility) if you design it yourself.
Most database software  can be used to  develop a faculty profile for your
campus, that is, if you want to confine the data to a stand-alone PC or small
office network.  The trend for solving this information need seems to be going
toward providing the information on the Web, and that's a little more
technically complex (not much  though) and provides several advantages over
the former tradition of housing  this data  in the research office. The Web
option allows faculty to update  their own data; and the audience viewing the
 data is exponentially expanded on  the Web (thereby broadening the possible
success rate for faculty who might have external marketability).

As a rule of thumb, keep it simple if what you really want is a method of
letting the world know what your faculty strengths are, and providing a useful
 tool to match those strengths with opportunities.  One KEY element though
is to base the "research interests" on the standard NSF classifications
(i.e. use a standard thesaurus).  A Web version should be designed to point
to this thesaurus & allow faculty who don't have the time or the
inclination to look in a lot of places in order to find standardized
keywords to plug into their profiles.  This will keep the data much more
adaptible to commercially available services which match interests to
profiles (i.e. IRIS, Infoed, etc.).  I think the $6,000 for Community of
Science is overpriced, but admittedly I haven't reviewed their service in
detail.

I'm wondering if there'd be any interest in using that great NCURA page
that has been designed at Rice to provide such a function universally for
everyone?......maybe if we could all agree on a Web format, the NCURA page
could establish a "pointer" to the campuses that have established this Web info
on their own sites?  That way the initial searching could be somewhat
centralized, a little simpler for the gov. or industry trying to find
expertise.  I'm just throwing this out for discussion, haven't discussed
with anyone at NCURA.  But I'd like to know....    Is there any interest in
this out there?  Would it be useful?

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