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? ****************************************** * Jane E. Prudhomme, Director * * Research and Sponsored Programs * * University of New Orleans * * New Orleans, LA 70148 * * (504) 286-7154 * * Internet: xxxxxx@uno.edu * * Web Page: http://www.uno.edu/~orsp * ******************************************